Sweden in flames: Gangs of migrants riot for five nights running

Sweden in flames: As gangs of migrants riot for five nights running... the Utopian boats of a multicultural success story turn to ashes
Fifth night of violent riots in Stockholm saw schools destroyed
Over 70 incidents reported overnight including a torched police station
Turmoil began Sunday night after police shot a man in Husby suburb
Incidents in other parts of Sweden spark fear riots are spreading



It is supposed to be the model multicultural state. But Sweden is facing problems of its own after gangs of immigrants spent a fifth consecutive night rioting in Stockholm.
Officers are battling to keep the capital under control after hundreds of cars were torched, a police station set alight and fire services kept from a major blaze by a stone-throwing mob of youths.
To make matters worse, rioting has now spread to Sweden’s two other major cities, Gothenburg and Malmo.

The disturbances, which have lasted longer than the riots in England in the summer of 2011, started last week after police shot dead a foreign-born pensioner who threatened to attack them with a machete.

Left-wing activists came forward to accuse police of racism – a charge strongly denied by the Stockholm force.
Growing unrest turned to violence last Sunday in a north-western suburb called Husby – where more than 80 per cent of the residents are from overseas, mostly Turkey, Somalia and the Middle East.
Trouble then spread to some of the city’s most deprived areas, shattering the country’s proud claim that it is a template for a successful and ethnically diverse society.

On Thursday night there were 90 separate blazes in the capital. Thirty cars were torched and there were eight arrests – mostly of people in their early 20s.
In earlier attacks, groups of up to 100 rioters targeted schools, nurseries and shops – breaking windows and setting buildings ablaze.
In Skogas, south of Stockholm, emergency services were kept from a fire in a restaurant when a gang of youths pelted fire engines with rocks.
And in nearby Ragsved a violent mob set fire to a police station – the second to come under attack in two days.

Lars Bystrom, a Stockholm police spokesman, said: ‘Such fires are mainly lit to lure the police to the scene, who are then attacked.’
He admitted officers have been forced to change their tactics, saying: ‘Now if there is a small fire that is not likely to spread, and there is no risk to life, we will send out a patrol and keep an eye on it from a distance.
‘But we are not going to bring in the fire brigade unless it’s really dangerous.’
The attacks on emergency service workers have led to private security companies telling employees to stay at home, as mobs have started attacking anyone wearing a uniform.
Several public transport routes have also been cancelled after rioters started hurling petrol bombs at buses.

The Foreign Office and the US embassy have warned visitors to stay away from certain suburbs.
Government leaders have been stunned by the ferocity of the violence in a country which has long been touted as a paragon of social justice.
For decades, supporters of multiculturalism have pointed to Sweden as a classic example of a society which allows immigrants to continue practising their own culture while living peacefully alongside their host communities.
Around 15 per cent of Sweden’s 9.5million inhabitants were born outside the country.
The second largest group of immigrants, after the Finns, are Iraqis – numbering more than 125,000. Former Yugoslavs total over 160,000 and Iranians almost 65,000.

While Sweden is still relatively affluent, with living standards among the highest in Europe, tension has grown in recent years as the country struggles to cope with rising youth unemployment and an ever-growing influx of foreigners.
Unemployment for people born in Sweden is only 6 per cent, but unemployment among those born outside Sweden currently stands at 16 per cent.
The country’s long-standing ‘open arms’ policy for asylum seekers has brought it to a position where it has one of the world’s highest proportions of asylum seekers relative to its population.
Among 44 industrialised countries, Sweden ranked fourth in the total number of asylum seekers and second in the number of asylum seekers relative to its population, according to figures from the United Nations.

Government leaders have struggled to explain or control the outbreak of violence, but the anti-immigrant, nationalist Sweden Democrats have soared to third place in the polls.
The party’s rise reflects the concerns of many native-born Swedes that their country is rapidly changing for the worse.
Sweden was ruled for decades by the Left-wing Social Democratic Party which has been committed to the creation of an egalitarian society since it was founded in the late 19th century.
It was ousted from power by the current ruling centre-Right coalition, which has failed to make major changes in the country once dubbed ‘the most successful society the world has ever known’.

Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt stressed that everybody needed to take responsibility for their actions if calm was to be restored.
He added: ‘It’s important to remember that burning your neighbour’s car is not an example of freedom of speech, it’s hooliganism.
‘We have groups of young men who believe that you can and should use violence to change society. Let us be clear. This is not okay. We cannot be governed by violence.’

<iframe frameborder="0" width="698" height="573" scrolling="no" id="molvideoplayer" title="MailOnline Embed Player" src="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1009195.html"></iframe>

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...l-success-story-turn-ashes.html#ixzz3nqhev0rm

--------------------

I cannot say that I'm surprised. Ms. Merkel is acting highly irresponsibly - we will be facing similar issues in Germany in the near future.

 

I haven't experienced racism in Sweden just because I have dark hair and look different. malakas/OHMSS/KillBillPana is talking out of his ass, as usual. Sweden is a very liberal society.

As to New Yorker's claims that this is not happening and that the Daily Mail made it all up , I have seen similar things happening in Malmö and to some extent Copenhagen as far back as 15 years ago.

Strangely, I can also not find very current articles other than the Daily Mail one, but that doesn't mean that this stuff has not been happening - at the most, they regurgitated some months old news.

Here is an article from some months ago:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/07/uk-sweden-riots-idUKKBN0JL0A820141207

Firebombs thrown at police in Stockholm riot

Police were attacked with firebombs and rocks in a poor suburb in Sweden's capital late on Saturday, leading to the arrest of eleven young people for rioting and arson.

The events in Ragsved in southern Stockholm came after week-long riots in Husby on the other side of the capital in May last year when hundreds of cars were burnt as police battled immigrant youths after a Portuguese man was shot dead by police.

A police spokesman said it was too early to say who the perpetrators were this time, but that four of the eleven arrested were younger than 18.

"What is quite unusual here is that this was seemingly somewhat planned ahead," police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said.

He said firebombs and piles of paving stones were already prepared when police arrived and the approximate 30 people behind the riot were reported to have been masked.

No people were harmed but around 10 cars were set on fire. Police cars were damaged and a Ragsved police office also saw some damage.

Like Husby, Ragsved has a large immigrant population, and further violence in immigrant suburbs could help boost the far-right anti-immigration Sweden Democrats in snap elections in March next year.

The Sweden Democrats effectively brought the centre-left government down after just two months in office by breaking with common practice and voting for the centre-right opposition budget, thereby getting it passed.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on Wednesday he would call for the country's first snap elections in over 50 years, to be held March 22 next year.

The Sweden Democrats made significant gains in the regular election in September, doubling their vote to become the third largest party.