In the luxury stores, the top echelons and gang kings crowd

The wave of violence in Sweden  

The gang is chasing the same dream as the politicians 

Andreas Cervenka 

Reporter

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

Updated 22:57 | Published 22:28  

"You have fkn missed life Man money Is the meaning of life".  

That's what a 16-year-old wrote in a group chat with three other teenagers, according to Expressen.  

They are not alone in feeling that way. 

In the latest edition of the Youth Barometer, which measures the attitudes of the country's 15-24-year-olds, 47 percent stated that "making money" was the most important thing for them right now. It is the fastest growing interest, in 2020 the figure was 36 percent.  

Things that attract less and less: friends, doing well in school and influencing society.  

The special thing about the teenagers in the chat is not their outlook on life.  

They are suspected of murdering a 21-year-old in Västerås. 

When a 16-year-old shot dead a peer in Skogås for SEK 100,000, two days later he went to NK in Stockholm and shopped for designer clothes, including a Gucci cap.  

It's no coincidence.

After the murder in Skogås, the suspected shooter bought, among other things, a Gucci cap at NK. Photo: Lisa Arfwidson/Svd  

Expressen recently reported on how luxury brands such as Gucci, Prada and Rolex in Stockholm are setting sales records despite the economic crisis. 

In the shops, the absolute top layer of society: venture capitalists, real estate moguls and welfare barons are crowded with its absolute bottom: the gross criminals.  

Both groups have grown rapidly in size in Sweden in recent years, driving sales of status objects.  

When the mobsters and the private equity guys stand shoulder to shoulder to try on a Patek Philippe, they've gotten there in very different ways. But the driving force is the same.  

Money and gold. Pictures from one of the police's investigations into the criminal network Foxtrot. Photo: The police  

National Polic Chief Anders Thornberg  recently described the fuel behind gang crime in Sweden:  

"What drives this ruthless crime is money. It sounds cold, and it is”.  

When Aftonbladet surveys the background of the now nationally known fox Rawa Majid, it is above all the businessman who comes to the fore, he who has a penchant for expensive watches, gold chains and big cars.

Bundles of banknotes that the police found at the home of a man with connections to gang leader Rawa Majid, alias "Kurdish Fox". Photo: The police 

The police's description of the drug market in Sweden almost brings to mind the quarterly reports of listed companies: there is geographic expansion, a focus on market shares and a higher level of service to attract more customers.  

In 2006, the author Jens Lapidus released the hit book "Fast cash". 

Few could have guessed then that the title would be a good summary of the Sweden of the 2020s.  

The hunt for money has become a popular sport, regardless of whether it is housing deals, stock trading, clever tax schemes or drug deals.  

Actor Joel Kinnaman (center) as JW in the movie "Fast cash". JW is from the country but pretends to be a rich brat - something he finances with crime. Photo: Nordic Film  

The trend is most clearly seen in those who rule the country.  

That one's own private finances are the guiding star of life for ex-politicians and civil servants is no claim. It is a finding.  

Border after border is crossed.  

These days, Marcus Larsson at the think tank Balans has published an examination that shows how elected politicians in Stockholm are at the same time (!) employed by lobbyist firms - whose business idea is to influence politicians. 

Society's capital mania has trickled down to the young via social media and influencers. 

 "An entire generation of young people has been shaped by gangsterism, materialistic worship and money obsession on the Internet without their parents' knowledge," writes criminal investigator and YouTuber Luay Mohageb.  

In the luxury stores, the absolute top layer of society meets its absolute bottom. Photo: Tomas Oneborg/Svd 

If someone in the Riksdag had read The Economist newspaper, they would have been able to read the headline in 2018: 

 

"The clear connection between inequality and crime". Among other things, attention is paid to a report from 2014 where two American researchers studied American states for 20 years.  

 

The conclusion: Where the visible differences in consumption of expensive clothes, cars and jewelry were greatest, violent crime was also at its highest. Think Solsidan vs Skärholmen. 

 

Now it is true that the work of academics is not valued very highly in the Riksdag, otherwise economic policy would have looked quite different, but let's play with the idea that the researchers are right.  

 

Are there any conclusions to be drawn for Sweden?  

 

According to Statistics Sweden, the income differences were the highest since the measurements began in 1975. 

 

The distribution of wealth is more unequal than in almost any comparable country in the Western world and more skewed than in El Salvador, Nigeria and Venezuela, according to Swiss bank UBS.  

 

Close - but oh so different worlds: the Stockholm suburbs of Solsidan in Saltsjöbaden (left) and Skärholmen. Photo: TT

 

Million program areas in Sweden have been sold out to financial speculators and then steadily neglected while the owners made billions in profits. 

 

According to researchers, the Swedish tax system makes it practically impossible to become wealthy from paid work, while the barriers on the housing market are almost insurmountable for those who were not born with a well-filled ISK account.  

 

Already in 2012, the police warned that overcrowding increases the risk of young people getting caught up in crime.  

 

Police officers in the center of Skogå where a teenager was shot dead in a sushi restaurant. Photo: Aftonbladet  

 

In the book ”Among brothers and enemies” written by three researchers in social work, it is described how the gang environment becomes attractive to young people who feel that all other paths to a higher economic and social status are closed.  

 

Much has been said and written about the wave of violence and many theories have been advanced. There are hardly any simple explanations.  

 

But put all this together and what happened in Sweden appears less like a shock and more like an accident just waiting to happen.  

 

There is no excuse for becoming a criminal. But there is also no excuse for accepting a society where children grow up believing that money is the very purpose of life.