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Sweden will do whatever it takes, including sending in the army, to end a wave of violence that has seen a string of deadly shootings, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said in Wednesday.
Sweden's murder rate is relatively low in international terms, but gang violence has surged in recent years and Swedes are worried that the police are unable to cope.
In 2016, the latest year for which official statistics are available, 106 people were murdered in Sweden, a country of 10 million.
But Swedish TV reported there were over 300 shootings, mostly in turf battles between gangs over drugs, protection rackets and prostitution.
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Swedish PM Does Not Rule Out Use of Army to End Gang Violence
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Everything bows to success, even grammar.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @08:15PM (6 children)
That makes a pretty big difference on tolerance of the use of military force against the peoples involved.
If many of them are illegal immigrants then they would fall into either of the first two groups, which while still maybe frowned upon depending on laws in Sweden, probably would be endorsed by the people. The latter however should be heavily condemned by everyone, since it sets a bad precedent towards using the military against civilians in other circumstances, like protest against government overreach, or during riots when actual citizens voices are no longer being heard.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @08:48PM (3 children)
I would condemn it, unfortunately you now have criminal gangs using hand grenades [wikipedia.org] (a weapon of war). The Swedish police cannot deal with this so the government need to secure their borders* and seek international approval and oversight before deploying troops. Unfortunately, there's no way to stop the violence from escalating.
* The weapons are being imported from the Balkans but yes against more people exhibiting the same behaviour too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:14PM (2 children)
Says the cowardly Anonymous Coward racist twit, who is formenting violence as hard as he can get it.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday February 27 2018, @01:58AM (1 child)
AC calls out AC for being AC.
I re-read GP's post very carefully after your accusation. They make the point that these weapons are coming in from outside of the country (the Balkans in particular), but make no claim about the racial makeup of the gangs who are buying the weapons. Their statement about closing the borders seems, to me, to be about stopping the flow of weapons rather than people. On the face of it, there is no evidence of racism in the post (perhaps there is a bit of gang-ism).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28 2018, @10:04AM
The AC said nothing about race, just about the other AC saying the violence was inevitable, which means, oh third AC (or Mkyl), we will just have to say it is all your fault when they come and kill all the men, the women, the children, the dogs and cats, the hamsters (Remember Pebbles!! [mercurynews.com]), the goldfish, and the cockroaches with their "hyperbaric weapons systems" which they will claim are legal under the laws of war, but it will not make any difference for you, oh intervening AC! All will die! None will be Spared! Vikings do not take yougurt! [youtube.com] It's not yogurt! In the face!
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Monday February 26 2018, @09:33PM (1 child)
The Swedes are presented with a situation that they hope to be temporary, so they use a resource that's available to deal with it.
European countries don't have gun-toting cops at every street corner. They also don't have gung-ho brainwashed military nutjobs (exceptions happen) who only know their weapon as a way to handle problems.
So you put the People serving in the military, and already on the payroll, in the street to protect the People and dissuade or stop some bad guys.
That is not your "tolerance of the use of military force" threat. It's more humans on the ground assisting the cops.
In a similar vein, when some nutjob attacked a military group patrolling in a Paris airport, that was treated as a police matter, and handled by civilian procedures and justice system.
But you're apparently one of those many paranoids who will never believe that the people are not just always on the cusp of being oppressed by big bad government.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @02:49AM
So the police in the UK aren’t carrying guns now? Educate yourself.