Sweden riots spread beyond Stockholm despite extra police
here has been a sixth night of rioting in Sweden's capital, Stockholm, despite police reinforcements being deployed.
Cars
were set alight in poor suburbs inhabited largely by immigrants,
although the unrest was reportedly not as serious as on previous nights.
The
rioting also spread outside the capital for the first time on Friday,
with youths torching vehicles and buildings in two towns.
The US and UK meanwhile warned their citizens to avoid affected areas.
The
UK Foreign Office advised people to stay away from large gatherings in
the Stockholm suburbs of Husby, Hagsatra, Ragsved, Skogas, and to take
care and monitor local reports.
The riots began on Sunday in Husby, a deprived, predominantly immigrant area in the north-west of the capital.
It
is believed they were sparked by the death of an elderly man nearly a
week before, who was shot by police after he allegedly threatened to
kill them with a machete.
Rising inequality
On
Friday, Stockholm's police force was reinforced by specially trained
officers from the cities of Gothenburg and Malmo, both of which have
seen rioting in recent years.
Parents
and community leaders also toured the streets to reason with
trouble-makers, and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt held an emergency
meeting.
However, the moves failed to prevent fresh disturbances overnight in four areas.
The
BBC's Steve Evans in Stockholm says the disturbances were nevertheless
not as serious as those seen previously. According to the fire brigade,
there were 70 fires, compared with 90 on Thursday.
Outside the capital, the violence spread to previously unaffected towns, he adds.
In
the central town of Orebro, about 25 masked youths set fire to three
cars and a school, while in Sodertalje, just outside the capital, an
empty building was torched, police said. Suspected arson attacks were
reported in Linkoping, south of Orebro, as well.
Police in Orebro were pelted with stones and at least one officer was slightly hurt by broken glass, Swedish media reported.
Our correspondent says there is now a debate in Sweden about immigration.
In
the affected areas themselves, some people say the riots are a response
to discrimination and relatively high unemployment. Sweden, once a
by-word for equality, has seen a widening gap between rich and poor, our
correspondent says.
Others
argue that the unrest is a simple matter of criminality, where parents
failed to exert enough influence on their offspring, he adds.
Gulan
Avci, a Swedish MP of Kurdish origin who represents the Stockholm
suburb of Bredang, said the rioting was down to a mixture of criminality
and disillusioned young people in areas of high unemployment and poor
school results.
She told BBC radio that the country's integration policies had not been successful.
"But
you can never ever accept violence as a way to show your disappointment
with society. These teenagers don't understand they're destroying for
themselves their own future, for other people that live in these areas."
"In
the short run, the acute thing is to ensure that these neighbourhoods
get back to normal everyday life," Integration Minister Erik Ullenhag
told the Reuters news agency. "In the long run we need to create
positive spirals in these neighbourhoods."
Are you in Sweden? Are you affected by the issues in this story? Send us your experiences using the form below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22656657
Stockholm riots: Community leaders call for calm
Cars burnt out in the rioting. Picture: Getty
COMMUNITY patrols and a beefed-up police presence helped to calm violence around Stockholm yesterday but 20 to 30 cars were still torched in poor immigrant suburbs and serious incidents were reported outside the capital for the first time.
The rioting in Stockholm abated after a week of masked youths vandalising schools and police stations, setting cars alight and hurling stones at firefighters, police said.
“It was much calmer – rocks weren’t being thrown at police or firefighters – and that’s a sign that it’s calmer. We haven’t had any riots or anything similar,” said police spokesman Kjell Lindgren.
Community leaders were taking to the streets to appeal for calm.
“We have been present in many places, we’ve been talking to people, and many residents have been out in the city, keeping their eyes open, being engaged,” Lindgren said.
But serious incidents were reported outside the Stockholm area for the first time.
In Orebro, a town in central Sweden, some 25 masked youths set fire to three cars and a school and tried to torch a police station.
Some 200km to the south-west in Linkoping, several vehicles were set on fire and youths tried to torch a school and a nursery.
The rioting was sparked by the police shooting on 13 May of a 69-year-old man, who was reportedly killed when police stormed his apartment because they feared he was threatening his wife with a knife. Reports said he was a Portuguese immigrant, which police would not confirm.
In a country famed for its model welfare state, the rioting has exposed a faultline between a well-off majority and a minority – often young people with immigrant backgrounds – who are poorly educated, cannot find work and feel pushed to the edge of society.
Underscoring Sweden’s ambivalence towards its open immigration policies, an anti-immigrant party has risen to third place in polls this year and some analysts say the riots could swell its ranks.
Dozens of far-right activists were seen driving around southern suburbs of Stockholm on Friday, closely watched by police.
The violence has echoes of rioting in recent years in Paris and London but has been relatively mild in comparison.
There has been no looting, hardly any injuries and few
arrests. Much of the capital has gone about its business
as normal and even affected suburbs look normal by day.
Still, it has shocked a nation that has long taken pride in its generous social safety net, though some seven years of centre-right rule have chipped away at benefits.
One recent government study showed that up to a third of people aged 16 to 29 in some of the most deprived areas of Sweden’s big cities neither study nor have a job.
Youth unemployment is especially high in neighbourhoods such as the ones where the riots have taken place, home to asylum-seekers from around the world.
The gap between rich and poor in Sweden is growing faster than in any other major nation, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
SEE ALSO:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/international/stockholm-riots-community-leaders-call-for-calm-1-2944825
Unrest in Stockholm
Parent patrols help quell Stockholm riots
Parents and volunteers have been patrolling the streets of Stockholm's immigrant-heavy suburbs to help quell riots that have raged for almost a week, serving as a successful deterrent to troublemakers and winning praise from police.
- Stockholm riots spread west on sixth night (25 May 13)
- Swedish riot police to call in reinforcements (24 May 13)
- Stockholm riots: causes and consequences (24 May 13)
"They have helped a lot in reducing the unrest," Stockholm police spokeswoman Karin Solberg told Swedish news agency TT.
Sweden has since the 1980s had a network of volunteers called "Nightwalkers", usually made up of parents who walk the streets of their own suburbs in groups on weekend nights, talking to youngsters and simply making their presence known.
With their distinctive neon yellow windbreakers, their presence is aimed at deterring neighbourhood kids from getting into trouble.
They have no special authority to intervene if trouble arises, are armed only with flashlights and wear no uniform other than their colourful jackets.
In the six nights of riots that have left cars and buildings torched in Stockholm's immigrant-dominated suburbs, the volunteers' mission has been to protect schools, libraries and youth centres.
"We have changed our strategy. In the beginning, we would walk around in the neighbourhood. Now we stay put," explained Aleks Sakala, a 44-year-old IT consultant from Kista who was on Nightwalker duty on Friday night.
Kista is a mixed suburb, known as Stockholm's Silicon Valley for its high-tech industry, where telecoms giant Ericsson has its headquarters. But it is also home to a large low-income immigrant population.
It also borders Husby, where the riots broke out on May 19th, triggered by the fatal police shooting of a 69-year-old resident after the man wielded a machete in public.
Local activists said the shooting sparked anger among youths who claim to have suffered from police brutality and racism.
Sakala spent the night between Friday and Saturday outdoors in the courtyard of a Kista nursery school, keeping an eye out for troublemakers under the moonlight.
The nursery school is "an ideal target", he said.
"There are bushes around where you can hide, places where you can't be seen from any dwelling, and wood in the structure that will burn easily," he said.
About 100 Nightwalkers were out in Kista, easily visible in the dark with their neon jackets.
Meanwhile no police officers were to be seen, despite an announcement of police reinforcements brought in from other parts of the country. Police have from the beginning tried to avoid confrontation and clashes with the rioters.
Shortly after midnight, a police patrol car pulled into the Kista nursery school parking lot, leaving again shortly afterwards.
David, a 46-year-old Nightwalker, said residents needed to take responsibility for their neighbourhoods.
"Police are not here to guard buildings. They don't have the means, and it's not their role," he said.
"I'd rather live in a society where citizens protect themselves, rather than in a society that needs police for everything. That is democracy and freedom," added Sakala.
The Nightwalkers are not always successful. On Thursday night, rioters torched a nursery school in Kista where Sakala's son is enrolled. The damage was extensive.
A group of four young women patrolling Kista on Friday night told Sakala that "everything's calm." He reminded them that "just before the nursery fire everything was perfectly calm too."
Sweden has since the 1980s had a network of volunteers called "Nightwalkers", usually made up of parents who walk the streets of their own suburbs in groups on weekend nights, talking to youngsters and simply making their presence known.
With their distinctive neon yellow windbreakers, their presence is aimed at deterring neighbourhood kids from getting into trouble.
They have no special authority to intervene if trouble arises, are armed only with flashlights and wear no uniform other than their colourful jackets.
In the six nights of riots that have left cars and buildings torched in Stockholm's immigrant-dominated suburbs, the volunteers' mission has been to protect schools, libraries and youth centres.
"We have changed our strategy. In the beginning, we would walk around in the neighbourhood. Now we stay put," explained Aleks Sakala, a 44-year-old IT consultant from Kista who was on Nightwalker duty on Friday night.
Kista is a mixed suburb, known as Stockholm's Silicon Valley for its high-tech industry, where telecoms giant Ericsson has its headquarters. But it is also home to a large low-income immigrant population.
It also borders Husby, where the riots broke out on May 19th, triggered by the fatal police shooting of a 69-year-old resident after the man wielded a machete in public.
Local activists said the shooting sparked anger among youths who claim to have suffered from police brutality and racism.
Sakala spent the night between Friday and Saturday outdoors in the courtyard of a Kista nursery school, keeping an eye out for troublemakers under the moonlight.
The nursery school is "an ideal target", he said.
"There are bushes around where you can hide, places where you can't be seen from any dwelling, and wood in the structure that will burn easily," he said.
About 100 Nightwalkers were out in Kista, easily visible in the dark with their neon jackets.
Meanwhile no police officers were to be seen, despite an announcement of police reinforcements brought in from other parts of the country. Police have from the beginning tried to avoid confrontation and clashes with the rioters.
Shortly after midnight, a police patrol car pulled into the Kista nursery school parking lot, leaving again shortly afterwards.
David, a 46-year-old Nightwalker, said residents needed to take responsibility for their neighbourhoods.
"Police are not here to guard buildings. They don't have the means, and it's not their role," he said.
"I'd rather live in a society where citizens protect themselves, rather than in a society that needs police for everything. That is democracy and freedom," added Sakala.
The Nightwalkers are not always successful. On Thursday night, rioters torched a nursery school in Kista where Sakala's son is enrolled. The damage was extensive.
A group of four young women patrolling Kista on Friday night told Sakala that "everything's calm." He reminded them that "just before the nursery fire everything was perfectly calm too."
Ver minutos 00.49.00 y 1.05.00
¿Por qué nos caemos?
Para aprender a levantarnos.
……..
Soy un Zombie, un Holandés Errante, un hombre muerto, diez
años, muerto.
………
¿Sabes quien soy despojo?
Soy la peor pesadilla que has tenido jamás, de las que te
hacen llamar a gritos a tu madre, tienes madre ¿verdad?, hasta los despojos
tienen madre.
…….
No lo entiendes chico, esto no es un lodazal, es un
quirófano...
...Y yo soy el cirujano.
……….
Fue a ti a quien usaron en nuestra contra Bruce.
Eras tú quien jugaba duro, cuando empezó el barullo con la
asociación de padres americanos, y el subcomité nos llamó para que
compareciéramos.
Tú fuiste el que rió... ...
Con esa risa que asusta,
"Claro que somos criminales" dijiste,
"Siempre hemos sido criminales",
"Tenemos que serlo"
……….
Esta cosa torpe, ruidosa, estúpida.
Esta es el arma del enemigo.
No la necesitamos, no la usaremos.
Nuestras armas son calladas, precisas, con el tiempo os
adiestraré en ellas.
Esta noche deben confiar en sus puños y sus cerebros.
Esta noche, somos la ley.
Esta Noche, Yo soy la Ley.
……..
Todavía hablas... sigue hablando, Clark... siempre has
sabido decir Sí, tú siempre dices sí a las placas o a las banderas.
Mal hecho, ya es hora de que aprendas que significa ser un
hombre.
……………
Nos vendiste Clark.
Les diste el poder que debía ser nuestro.
Como te enseñaron tus padres.
Mis padres me enseñaron algo muy distinto.
Tirados en el suelo, temblando, agonizando.
Muriéndose sin razón.
Me enseñaron que el mundo sólo tiene sentido si le fuerzas a
hacerlo.
……….
Empiezas a entenderlo Clark.
Esto es el fin... para los dos.
Pudimos haber cambiado el mundo.
Ahora míranos.
Yo soy un peligro político y tú eres una broma.
…………..
Quiero que recuerdes Clark, en años futuros, en tus momentos
más íntimos....
Quiero que recuerdes mi mano en la garganta.
Quiero que recuerdes al único hombre que te venció.
…………
Tenemos años, tantos como nos hagan falta.
Años de entrenamiento, estudio, y de planes.
Aquí en la cueva interminable, mucho más allá de los restos
de un luchador contra el crimen cuya época ya pasó.
Empieza aquí, con un ejército para traer sensatez a un mundo
plagado por cosas mucho peores que los ladrones y asesinos.
Ésta será una buena vida.
Bastante buena.
Escrita e ilustrada por Frank Miller, entintada por Klaus Janson y coloreada por Lynn Varley; Junio y Julio de 1986.
