Daytime shootings on the rise in Sweden: report
Published: 10 Sep 12 07:16 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/43118/20120910/
Criminals in Sweden are becoming more prone to firing gunshots in broad daylight, according to a new study, increasingly putting innocent passersby in harm's way.
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To an ever greater extent, Swedish criminals are opening fire in the middle of the day and in places where there is an increased risk of innocent bystanders getting caught in the crossfire.
On Sunday evening, a young woman was nearly hit by a bullet unleashed during a shooting at a grocery store in Arlöv outside of Malmö that left a 16-year-old boy injured.
More than ten people were present at the time of the shooting, and witnesses reported several shots being fired.
In the last month, more than ten outdoor shootings targeting people have taken place in Sweden in the last month, with shots being fired in residential areas or in busy pedestrian areas.
Often, there have been many bystanders in the area, creating situations in which those beside the intended target are put at risk of being hit by stray bullet.
"It's pure luck that no innocent people have been hurt. It's going to happen sooner or later," Lars Öjelind, a detective with the intelligence section of Sweden's National Bureau of Investigation (Rikskriminalpolisen) told the TT news agency.
A study by the National Crime Prevention Council (Brottsförebyggande rådet – Brå), which is based on 60 interviews with police officers in Malmö, Gothenburg, and Stockholm, supports the theory that there has been a change in criminal behaviour in Sweden.
"The impression police have is that shooting are far more reckless than previously," Danial Vesterhav, a researcher with the crime prevention council, told TT.
Most often, shootings involve criminals opening fire against other criminals.
"It often involves rather mundane things; someone feeling like they've been insulted by someone else. In order to maintain their reputation, their prestige and not lose face in front of their friends, they need to carry out a reprisal," said Vesterhav.
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It puts the spotlight on the legal system, police system and how swedes treat each other.
Well spotted chaps! Over the past 20 years, Swedish society has changed considerably. Not only concerning daylight gangland shootings. Sadly, Sweden's police and legal system have not adapted at all, or have not adapted far and fast enough. Sweden currently has a legal system written by sandal wearing liberals and built for a sedate agrarian society of people who mostly behaved in a reasonable way - with the occasional rogue. That society no longer exists, certainly in Sweden's major cities, where habitual criminals now shoot, rob, rape and beat anyone weaker than themselves, confident that the risk of first capture, secondly conviction, and thirdly lengthy imprisonment, is negligible. As a consequence, Sweden's police have become lazy and cynical.
The entire Swedish criminal law system is unfit for purpose, over the past year it has been ridiculed on an international stage in places as far away as Ecuador. There needs to be a wholesale review of criminal justice, and the law changed to suit the place that Sweden has become; not the place it once was. Those who want to behave like Balkan gangsters, have gun fights in hospitals, murder their sisters for having the wrong boyfriend, beat and/or murder their wives because they do not behave in the "traditional" way, rape and murder women because their skirts are too short, beat old men almost to death in shopping centers, or punch old ladies to death in car parks, must be made to fear the wrath of the law - not see it as a slight inconvenience.
Although I partly agree with the fact that Swedish police should modernize a bit your comments are far over the top.
There is absolutely no evidence that there is more crime in Sweden than in comparable societies. In a country like the US where you can get a life sentence for smoking a joint (so in that sense comparable to Sweden :) ) crime is definetely not lower or less violent.
Whereever you have increasing segregation between rich and poor, crime numbers will go up.
You have missed the point. The topic of debate is not if Sweden has more or less crime than any other country, it is that Sweden has more and worse crime than it did before.
That fact is undeniable, the big question is why? Avoiding it will not help anyone.
At the same time we're seriously cracking down on tax paying citizens speeding a few km/h on empty highways and put people in jail for running websites with some links. I nearly wrote writing parking tickets, but that was outsourced to rent-a-cops. It would seem like it's time to prioritise catching actual criminals again.
At this point the only thing society gets back from the Swedish police, is a place to get a new ID.
"yep swedish police needs to get tougher and the justice system needs to get some balls,"
Wishful thinking.
"Whereever you have increasing segregation between rich and poor, crime numbers will go up. "
To join the said by RobinHood. Rich in Sweden are taxed like crazy, whereas "poor" here can live in a house with a dog, with a car, with a kid, going on vacation once a year and owning iPads without much of a problem. Actually the financial inequality (GINI COEFICCIENT) puts Sweden SECOND in the world. SO what the hell are you talking about???
Also, an interesting fact is that absolute majority of people in phase 3 do not happen to shoot other people on the street somehow. However SOME unemployed khm khm, do not manage to see other entertainment activity.