Sweden is an interesting country right now and I have the privilege and misfortune of being a Swede living in Sweden. Everyone has talked about my country recently, from Trump to Molyneux so why not join the chorus? Instead of doing some long-winded summary of the path that led us here, the details of which I don’t know enough about anyway, I will just describe what is happening right now mixed with some personal experiences, I will reuse some of the articles I mentioned in my previous post.
The major issue plaguing Sweden is the breakdown of law and order, violent crimes are on an increasing trajectory and our society is simply not prepared for it. Here is a handful of the more alarming news from the last few weeks (all articles are in Swedish but can be fairly well comprehended if put through google translate).
The police have lost control over certain suburbs and are reduced to begging the local immigrant clan leaders to do something about the violence. The article describes how the police kindly ask the clan leader for help and the leader replies he will “talk to the family”, it is like something straight out of the Godfather. (Aftonbladet)
There are now so many murders and attempted murders that the police has to put aside the ever-increasing number of rape investigations in order to prioritize the murders. Given that child rapists only get a few months prison sentence, perhaps it is best not to bother investigating rape in the first place? (Expressen, Aftonbladet)
A family living in Malmö, the city that is furthest in its decay, are the victims of an attempted home invasion. When the father asks the police officer what he can do to be safe and protect his family the officer replies (powerlessly) that he should move to another city because the increase in crime is beyond their ability to contain. (SvD)
In one part of Sweden, one single police patrol car is available in an area roughly the size of a quarter of Florida. (SVT)
That is in no way a complete coverage of the news, it is just the articles I have reluctantly read to stay on top of what is happening. Sometimes being an ostrich is more comforting.
In the first article, a police officer clearly states.
One has to realize that in these neighborhoods the police does not have a monopoly on violence. People that fail to understand this has blinds over their eyes. We have to adapt to reality and work according to it. People that don’t understand this lives in a political dream world. Says Walter Holm.
The authorities have given up and individual police officers are trying to sound the alarm, it might seem odd to cry about that on an anarchist site but we are in the unfortunate situation where self-defense, or acting to defend others, is punished severely at the same time as the state no longer even keeps up the appearance of maintaining order. Just look at these cases.
Man sentenced for manslaughter after shooting in self-defense (Aftonbladet)
Man sentenced to one year in prison after interrupting an attack (Aftonbladet)
Man hit a burglar with one blow too much, sentenced to five years in prison (Dagens Juridik)
In Sweden, if you need to defend yourself you have to stay utterly calm and not use one iota more violence than what is “necessary”. If you do use “too much” violence your sentence will often be harsher than the sentence given to the person who attacked you. Despite our stringent weapon laws, even pepper spray is illegal, it is technically allowed to own a gun for self-defense, or hunting and sports. However the cops are responsible for granting gun licenses and they are open about the fact that they don’t care about the law, they will do whatever they can to prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their legal right to own firearms. (Cornucopia)
So how do we Swedes react to this? By and large not at all as far as I can tell. Even with articles like the ones I link to above, where the police openly admit to the biggest newspaper in Sweden that they lost control, we still act like nothing is wrong. It is happening too quickly to really grasp. I hear no talk about it at work, no serious debate among friends, no heated discussion in the cafeterias. Up until very recently this development was hidden away and only written about in “alternative media”, back then it was easy for everyone to say that it is just racist delusions and conspiracy theories. The racist accusations are of course still thrown around on anyone that wants to discuss the situation soberly, but the accusations are getting more and more hollow. Everyone is still cautious about being branded as a racist though and most just keep quiet. Since the middle class isn’t for the most part personally affected yet it is still easy to believe it isn’t so bad after all.
Some people, like Tino Sanandaji, are relentlessly pushing out the news and the statistics, making it impossible for those of us that follow him to stick our head in the sand. He shows that rape, murder, shootings, robbery, pretty much all violent crimes are on an exponential trajectory and no one can dismiss his numbers. My own personal experience with any crime is limited, just petty crimes like bike thefts and break-ins and vandalism in a cottage I own, so despite reading the statistics, I can still believe it isn’t so bad.
I do have some limited experience with a no-go zone. Someone in my family used to live close to one of the worst ghettos in Gothenburg, I lived there as well for a year in 2003. Back then it was not exactly the most pleasant place in the world, but neither was I afraid to walk around at night. After I moved away from the area a kiosk next to the tram stop got robbed multiple times, in one of those robberies the owner got murdered. When I visited Gothenburg this summer I could read in the news that cars on the parking next to where I used lived was set on fire. That area certainly got worse and I am very relieved that no one I know lives there anymore.
I would lie if I didn’t say the trends here isn’t seriously making me consider leaving the country. Perhaps the issues will mostly be contained to the no-go zones, or perhaps they won’t. I wouldn’t know where to move though, I love Sweden. I love the nature, I love the endless forests, the million tiny lakes and the peaceful and majestic mountains. Most of all I love to live in a society where people trust each other on a very fundamental, perhaps naive, level. Swedes have always managed with few cops and a subpar legal system, to say the least, while maintaining a low crime rate because we form a high trust society. How long can that trust survive in the present conditions though? If we lose that trust how long will it take to rebuild? Will it ever be rebuilt?
The people that believe Sweden is rich and prosperous due to social democracy have no clue, Sweden is prosperous because Swedes are the way we are, as Nima Sanadaji nicely explores in his book Debunking Utopia: Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism
This isn’t a post about solutions or a deep analysis of the problem, just a snapshot of the current situation from my view. Iceland feels like an ever more appealing country to move to.
Source: In the Madhou.se – The decay of law and order in Sweden