Impossible not to connect to terror

 

The gang violence  

 

The wanton violence makes me think of terrorism  

 

Wolfgang Hansson  

 

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.  

 

Updated 22:43 | Published 22:27  

 

Columnists  

 

The pictures from Uppsala make one wonder if the war has come to Sweden. The house could just as well have been hit by a Russian missile. 

 

But rather than war, the wave of explosions and shootings makes me think of terrorism. 

  

A Northern Ireland or the Basque Country but without the political context.  

 

Prime Minister Kristersson and Minister of Justice Strömmer have previously made the connection between gang crime and terrorism. Something that was harshly criticized for. 

 

Researchers believe that there is a risk of confusing the concepts. I agree with. But the extent of gang violence has now reached such proportions that it is impossible not to make the connection with terror.

 

What we see happening in Sweden now has a similar effect on the civilian population and social development as terrorism.  

 

The act is characterized by great brutality and total recklessness. They spread enormous fear and insecurity among ordinary people. The feeling nowadays is that violence can affect anyone, anywhere. It is no longer just about vulnerable areas.  

 

No one is safe anymore.  

 

Nevertheless, the risk of falling victim to a terrorist act is small. It's about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is exactly the same with gang violence in Sweden. But while the few terrorist acts we have seen in Sweden take place many years apart, explosions and shootings occur almost daily.  

 

Which was exactly how it looked in Northern Ireland during the period known as "The Troubles", a political conflict between Protestants and Catholics in which religion only played a supporting role. 

          Photo: Lotte Fernvall 

  

Society dissolves  

 

Catholic IRA and Protestant Unionists murdered each other on an assembly line. They placed bombs in pubs, in residential buildings and shops.  

 

At the same time, a struggle for independence was going on in the Basque Country, where innocent people were targeted in shootings and bombings.  

 

The normal definition of terrorism is that it is capable of instilling fear in the population and destabilizing democracy. In the gang conflict, the main purpose is to instill fear in the criminal competitors, but the consequence is that it psychologically affects large parts of the Swedish people.  

 

Society is exposed to a stress similar to that of terrorist acts. An extreme strain that increases the risk that society begins to dissolve at the seams. Swedes' strong trust in the state is a fundamental success factor for Sweden. If it disappears, we are out of luck.   

 

Sweden has, after a long period of slumber, slowly begun to wake up and realize how gang violence threatens Swedish society at its core. The entire legal system is structured to deal with "good" criminals who can be rehabilitated. Not a world where some choose to become lifestyle criminals in the same way that others decide on a career as a doctor.  

 

Now demands are being raised that something must be done. Pressure builds up on those responsible to show results. Actions that responsible politicians and government officials would otherwise never think about suddenly feel reasonable. Just as before in the fight against terror.

 

         

"We probably break records in Sweden by investigating the same thing over and over again and arriving at roughly the same things," says Carin Götblad. Photo: Anna Tärnhuvud  

 

Sharp proposals in the drawer  

 

Now, for a long time, Sweden has not dared to put its foot down against gang crime. Every new measure is seen by critics as an acute threat to the rule of law.  

 

In DN, Carin Götblad describes how in 2008, in her role as county police chief in Stockholm, she was tasked with presenting sharp proposals to discourage new recruitment and facilitate defection from criminal gangs. Most ended up in the drawer. New investigations are now being started. 

 

- We probably break records in Sweden by investigating the same thing over and over again and arriving at roughly the same things, says Götblad.  

 

Then fearful politicians did not dare to put their foot down and implement sweeping proposals. Until the pendulum swung completely over. The lack of preventive measures in time risks turning into desperate repression. 

 

Over the years, I have covered one or another war. Therefore, I can state with some justification that what we see taking place in Sweden today is not war. There are war-like elements with bombings and shootings that hit widely, but a war affects society in a much more pervasive way.  

 

The weapons come from war  

 

Yes, it could be much worse than what we see now. Just look at Ukraine where people are forced to run into shelters every other night. 

 

But there are points of contact between war and today's gang violence. Many of the weapons come from the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. In the future, there is a risk that weapons sent to Ukraine by the West will end up in the hands of criminal gangs in Sweden and elsewhere.  

 

The open borders in Europe are nice in many ways, but they also greatly facilitate the smuggling of weapons by organized crime.  

 

The Troubles lasted less than 30 years and are estimated to have claimed 3,200 lives. So far this year alone, over 40 people have been killed in gang-related violence in Sweden. Let's just hope we haven't reached Northern Irish proportions when we can add up the total at some point in the future.