Guest post by Peter Imanuelsen, more commonly known as PeterSweden
The image of Sweden as a peaceful country is quickly being eroded as serious crime is continuing to increase in the small country that is often praised by the left as a “liberal utopia”.
Latest statistics released by the Swedish police shows that there was a record number of fatal shootings in 2018. In total there was 306 shootings, which resulted in 45 people being killed.
“We have a very serious situation in Sweden and it is completely unacceptable that this continues” says Mats Löfving, chief of the National Operative Department of the Swedish police.
According to the police, a large number of the shootings are related to conflicts between criminals and occur in “vulnerable areas”. Vulnerable areas is the term used in Sweden for problem areas and no-go zones such as Rinkeby and various suburbs of Malmö that have problems with criminal gangs. A recent report showed that 85.3% of street gang members in Sweden are migrants.
“Many European countries have vulnerable areas with low socio-economic status and widespread sale of narcotics. Despite this Sweden stands out in comparison with other countries when it comes to deadly violence with a firearm. We are now starting work in trying to find out the reason why there are so many shootings here so that we can take appropriate action” says Linda H Staff, chief of the intelligence department at the police National Operative Department.
Last year a report showed that it is ten times more common for a young male in Sweden aged 15-29 to be killed in a shooting compared with similar countries in Europe like Germany.