{"id":191647,"date":"2019-07-17T06:47:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T06:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=191647"},"modified":"2019-07-21T07:49:46","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T07:49:46","slug":"sweden-is-at-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=191647","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSweden is at War&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Judith Bergman \u2013 Gatestone Institute July 13, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_157342\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Shootings-skyrocket-in-Sweden.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-157342\" class=\"size-full wp-image-157342\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Shootings-skyrocket-in-Sweden.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-157342\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">More people are killed by firearms in Sweden now than Mexico.<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In 2017, a Swedish police report, &#8220;Utsatta omr\u00e5den 2017&#8221; (&#8220;Vulnerable Areas 2017&#8221;) showed that there are 61 such areas &#8212; also known as no-go zones &#8212; in Sweden. They encompass 200 criminal networks, consisting of an estimated 5,000 criminals. Most of the inhabitants are non-Western immigrants and their descendants.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In March, the Swedish National Forensic Centre estimated that since 2012, the number of shootings classified as murder or attempted murder had increased by almost 100 percent.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;Sweden is at war and it is the politicians who are responsible. Five nights in a row, cars have been set on fire in the university town of Lund. Such insane acts have occurred on hundreds of occasions in various places in Sweden over the past fifteen years. From 1955 to 1985, not a single car was ignited in Malm\u00f6, Gothenburg, Stockholm or Lund&#8230;. None of these criminals is starving or lacking in access to clean water. They have a roof over their heads and they have been offered free schooling&#8230;. They do not live in dilapidated houses&#8230;. It is called upbringing and this is missing for thousands of girls and boys in Swedish homes today.&#8221; \u2014 Bj\u00f6rn Ranelid, Swedish author, <em>Expressen<\/em>, July 5, 2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;Very few things were better in Sweden [before]&#8230;. We have built a strong country, where we take care of each other. Where society takes responsibility and no man is left alone&#8221;. \u2014 Swedish Prime Minister Stefan L\u00f6fven.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Sadly, many Swedes probably feel terribly left alone in a country that increasingly resembles a war zone.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In 2018, Sweden experienced a <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.metro.se\/artikel\/nya-siffror-rekordm%C3%A5nga-d%C3%B6da-i-skjutningar-under-2018\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>record number of lethal shootings<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, 306 in all. Forty-five people were killed and 135 injured nationwide, most deaths occurring in Region South, where Malm\u00f6 is located. In March, the Swedish National Forensic Centre <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svt.se\/nyheter\/lokalt\/ost\/antalet-vapen-och-skjutningar-okar-i-sverige\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>estimated<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that since 2012, the number of shootings classified as murder or attempted murder has increased by almost 100 percent. The Centre also found that the <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svt.se\/nyheter\/lokalt\/ost\/antalet-vapen-och-skjutningar-okar-i-sverige\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>most popular weapon used<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in the shootings is the Kalashnikov assault rifle. &#8220;It is one of the world&#8217;s most manufactured weapons and used in many wars,&#8221; <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svt.se\/nyheter\/lokalt\/ost\/antalet-vapen-och-skjutningar-okar-i-sverige\">said<\/a> the Centre&#8217;s team manager, Mikael H\u00f6gfors. &#8220;When they are no longer needed&#8230; they are smuggled into Sweden&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In the first six months of 2018, according to the police, almost <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.metro.se\/artikel\/polisen-varannan-skjutning-sker-i-utsatta-omr%C3%A5den\">every other shooting took place<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in a &#8220;vulnerable area&#8221;, also known as no-go zones. In 2017, a Swedish police report, &#8220;<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/polisen.se\/siteassets\/dokument\/ovriga_rapporter\/utsatta-omraden-social-ordning-kriminell-struktur-och-utmaningar-for-polisen-2017.pdf\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Utsatta omr\u00e5den 2017<\/strong><\/span><\/a>&#8221; (&#8220;Vulnerable Areas 2017&#8221;) disclosed that there are 61 such areas in Sweden. They encompass 200 criminal networks, consisting of an estimated 5,000 criminals. Most of the inhabitants are non-Western immigrants and their descendants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The police<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> <a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/polisen.se\/siteassets\/dokument\/ovriga_rapporter\/utsatta-omraden-social-ordning-kriminell-struktur-och-utmaningar-for-polisen-2017.pdf\">wrote in the 2017 report<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that global ethnic conflicts are replicated in the vulnerable areas:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;&#8230; the [Swedish] judiciary and the rest of [Swedish] society do not understand these conflicts or have answers to how they can be solved. The police therefore need to have a better knowledge of the world and understanding of events in order to interpret what is happening in the areas. The presence of returnees, sympathizers for terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, al Qaeda and al-Shabaab, and representatives of Salafist-oriented mosques, contribute to tensions between these groups and other residents in the vulnerable areas. Since the summer of 2014, when a Caliphate was proclaimed in Syria and Iraq, sectarian contradictions have increased, especially between Sunnis, Shiites, Levantine Christians, and nationalists of Kurdish origin&#8221;. (p 13)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">On June 3, the police <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/nyheter\/over-100-skjutningar-i-sverige-i-ar-20-doda\/\">released<\/a><\/strong><\/span> a new list revealing that there are now 60 such areas, instead of the previous 61. That does not mean, however, that much has improved. On the contrary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In 2019, <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/kvallsposten\/efter-valdet-malmo-kraver-att-personalen-ar-ute-mindre\/?fbclid=IwAR1y_R3XnbLd-PBN65aBmmkT3cHK1_WaD6A1J-DK0oVE1ZImGPaPqkLUff4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>shootings still continue<\/strong><\/span><\/a> apace. In Malm\u00f6 &#8212; a city of <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/malmo.se\/Service\/Om-Malmo-stad\/Demokrati-beslut-och-paverkan\/Fakta-och-statistik\/Befolkning\/Befolkningsprognos.html\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>more than 300,000 inhabitants<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, one third of whom were &#8220;born abroad&#8221;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> <a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/malmo.se\/Service\/Om-Malmo-stad\/Demokrati-beslut-och-paverkan\/Fakta-och-statistik\/Befolkning\/Befolkningsursprung.html\">according<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>to the city&#8217;s statistics &#8212; a 25-year-old man was shot dead outside a social services office on June 10, while on the same day, at Malm\u00f6 Central Station, police shot a man who said he had a bomb in his bag and was alleged to have behaved in a threatening way. That evening, two men were shot in the Lorensborg area of Malm\u00f6. Later that night, two explosions shook the city.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Because of the increased number of shootings, city employees are now apparently so uncomfortable about working in the city that the Malm\u00f6 municipality has released guidelines on how municipal workers &#8212; especially those who work in home care, rehabilitation and short-term housing &#8212; can remain safe in the city as they go about their jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Under the heading, &#8220;Personal safety &#8211; tips and advice on how to avoid getting into unwanted situations&#8221;, the municipality <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/kvallsposten\/efter-valdet-malmo-kraver-att-personalen-ar-ute-mindre\/?fbclid=IwAR1y_R3XnbLd-PBN65aBmmkT3cHK1_WaD6A1J-DK0oVE1ZImGPaPqkLUff4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>advises its employees<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to &#8220;Plan your itinerary &#8211; know your area&#8230;try to minimize the time from when you park your bike \/ car until you enter [the destination]&#8221;. Also, &#8220;Before leaving a building, look out first and make an assessment of the surroundings to avoid getting into an unwanted situation&#8230; keep away from people who are considered potentially threatening or dangerous and increase the distance if there are no other people nearby&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">One city employee, who received the guidelines, <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/kvallsposten\/efter-valdet-malmo-kraver-att-personalen-ar-ute-mindre\/?fbclid=IwAR1y_R3XnbLd-PBN65aBmmkT3cHK1_WaD6A1J-DK0oVE1ZImGPaPqkLUff4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>accused<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the municipality of hypocrisy: &#8220;To the media, the municipality says that everything is fine, even though it is not. Then they send this type of mail to their employees&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The municipal government&#8217;s guidelines on safety seem appropriate for a civil war zone, such as Beirut once was, rather than for the once-peaceful city of Malm\u00f6.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_159665\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Helsingborg-police-station-Sweden.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-159665\" class=\"wp-image-159665\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Helsingborg-police-station-Sweden.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"270\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-159665\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Helsingborg police station, Sweden, after a recent bomb blast. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Beirut also comes to mind in the Swedish city of Link\u00f6ping, where in early June an <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thelocal.se\/20190608\/absolutely-incredible-no-one-was-seriously-injured-in-linkping-explosion-police\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>explosion blasted through a residential building<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, until it looked as if it had been pounded in a war. Miraculously, no one was killed in the blast, but 20 people were injured. The police <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/nyheter\/sparen-efter-sprangdadet-flera-intressenter-i-huset\/\">suspect<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that the incident was gang-related. A few weeks later, <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/nyheter\/krim\/tva-personer-skjutna-i-linkoping\/\">two men were shot<\/a> in the Link\u00f6ping district of Sk\u00e4ggetorp &#8212;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> <a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/nyheter\/krim\/tva-personer-skjutna-i-linkoping\/\">on the police list<\/a><\/strong><\/span> of &#8220;vulnerable areas&#8221; or &#8220;no-go zones&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">After that, on June 30, in more gang related incidents, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/nyheter\/just-nu-skottlossning-man-skjuten-i-huvudet\/?fbclid=IwAR0ku8lCUNSE6iBM1LIlY9FpPZbc9rmpBor1U9bjbkvn8dKMkSvYhPmdXcc\">three shootings<\/a><\/strong><\/span> took place in three different suburbs in Stockholm. Two people, one of whom had been shot in the head, died. One of the murdered men, a rapper named Rozh Shamal, had earlier been <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/nyheter\/krim\/rappare-mordad-gripen-kopplas-till-dodspatrullen\/\">convicted<\/a><\/strong><\/span> of assault, robbery and drug offenses, among other things. This year, just in Stockholm, eleven people have <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/nyheter\/polisen-jagar-mordarna-efter-kaoset-i-natt\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>already been shot<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to death &#8212; the same number as for all of 2018. This year in Sweden, <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/nyheter\/just-nu-skottlossning-man-skjuten-i-huvudet\/?fbclid=IwAR0ku8lCUNSE6iBM1LIlY9FpPZbc9rmpBor1U9bjbkvn8dKMkSvYhPmdXcc\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>more than twenty people<\/strong><\/span><\/a> have so far been shot to death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;The development is unacceptable,&#8221; <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svt.se\/nyheter\/lokalt\/stockholm\/reaktioner-efter-sondagens-skjutningar\">said<\/a><\/strong><\/span> the head of the police&#8217;s national operational department (<em>Noa<\/em>), Mats L\u00f6fving. &#8220;In many cases, military automatic weapons are used. We see a reduction in the number of those injured in firearm violence, but the number of killings does not go down&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">On July 1, National Police Chief Anders Thornberg <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svt.se\/nyheter\/lokalt\/stockholm\/reaktioner-efter-sondagens-skjutningar\">said<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that the situation is &#8220;extraordinarily serious&#8221;. He claimed , however, that the police have not lost control of the gangs and that the main task is to stop the growth in the number of young criminals. &#8220;For every young man who gets shot, there are 10-15 new ones ready to step in,&#8221; he <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svt.se\/nyheter\/lokalt\/stockholm\/reaktioner-efter-sondagens-skjutningar\">said<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Only a few days later, however, he added that Swedes will have to get used to the shootings for the foreseeable future:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;We think this [the shootings and the extreme violence] might continue for five to ten years in the particularly vulnerable areas,&#8221; Thornberg <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.berlingske.dk\/europa\/svensk-politichef-med-dyster-udmelding-vi-kan-lige-saa-godt-vaenne-os-til\">said<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. &#8220;It is also about drugs. Drugs are established in society, and ordinary people buy them. There is a market that the gangs will continue to fight over&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The leader of the opposition party <em>Moderaterna<\/em>, Ulf Kristersson, <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svt.se\/nyheter\/lokalt\/stockholm\/reaktioner-efter-sondagens-skjutningar\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>called<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the situation, &#8220;extreme for a country that is not at war&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_174868\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/sweden-riot-car-fire-2018.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-174868\" class=\"wp-image-174868\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/sweden-riot-car-fire-2018.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-174868\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Bombed buildings and shootings are not all that is plaguing Sweden. In addition, cars are regularly set on fire. The small picturesque university town of Lund, close to Malm\u00f6, has recently been suffering <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/kvallsposten\/forskaren-darfor-brinner-sa-manga-bilar-i-lund\/\">from extensive car fires<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. The police have not yet identified the suspects. &#8220;We see an increase in car fires right now, it is clearly worrying&#8221;, <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/kvallsposten\/forskaren-darfor-brinner-sa-manga-bilar-i-lund\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>said<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Patrik Isacsson, local police area manager in Lund. He noted that car fires usually increase during the summer months, but have also been increasing over the years. &#8220;We do not know yet who the perpetrators are, so I can only speculate, but this type of arson is usually set by young people. That it happens during summertime can be because young people are unemployed and out there a lot&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;I definitely think that these are young people who have not found their place in society, who know they are not accepted,&#8221; <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/kvallsposten\/forskaren-darfor-brinner-sa-manga-bilar-i-lund\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>commented<\/strong><\/span><\/a> a sociologist of law at Malm\u00f6 University, Ingela Kolfjord, &#8220;that the climate has hardened and that they are constantly seen as &#8216;the other&#8217;. Car fires are not just a way of showing their displeasure but a way of showing that they are frustrated, desperate and angry.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Swedish author Bj\u00f6rn Ranelid disagreed. &#8220;Sweden is at war and it is the politicians who are responsible&#8221; he <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressen.se\/kvp\/kronikorer\/bjorn-ranelid\/sverige-befinner-sig-i-krig-och-det-ar-politikerna-som-bar-ansvaret\/?fbclid=IwAR1MHeMyXaNtl_97iiEt4RBfyjUyolfHpIWYbZW3NyIn5f4-G5VABYKudPc\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>wrote<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in <em>Expressen<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;Five nights in a row, cars have been set on fire in the university town of Lund. Such insane acts have occurred on hundreds of occasions in various places in Sweden over the past fifteen years. From 1955 to 1985, not a single car was torched in Malm\u00f6, Gothenburg, Stockholm or Lund. &#8230;When a female sociologist at Malm\u00f6 University explains the crimes [as a consequence] of youths being frustrated&#8230; she speaks nonsense&#8230; She repeats things that could have been said by a parrot. None of these criminals is starving or lacking in access to clean water. They have a roof over their heads and they have been offered free schooling for nine or twelve years. They do not live in dilapidated houses. All of them&#8230; have had a higher material standard in their homes than several thousands of the children and young people who grew up at Ellstorp in Malm\u00f6 where I lived with my parents and two siblings, in 47 square meters in two small rooms and a kitchen from 1949 to 1966&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Ranelid concluded:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;It is called upbringing and this is missing for thousands of girls and boys in Swedish homes today. It&#8217;s not about money or where you happen to be born in the world. It has nothing to do with politics or ideology. It is about ethics, morality and co-existence between people&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Car fires, frequent and widespread, are just one of the new aspects of living in the formerly idyllic city of Lund. In January, a so-called unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan, Sadeq Nadir, sought to murder several people in the city by ramming into them with a stolen car. Although he claimed to have converted to Christianity, material found in his apartment showed that he wanted to wage jihad and become a martyr. He told the police that his intention had been to kill. The event was initially classified as an attempt at a terrorist crime but then changed to a charge of ten attempted murders. Although Sadeq had admitted that his intention was to kill, the Swedish district court <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/samnytt.se\/ensamkommande-forsokte-kora-ihjal-fotgangare-och-cyklister-tingsratten-mildrar-brottsrubricering-och-domer-till-vard\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>did not find<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that Sadeq could be convicted for either terrorism or attempted murder. The court argued that he had not been driving &#8220;fast enough&#8221; to cause a concrete risk of death. In the same vein, although Sadeq was found to have written texts about jihad and martyrdom and claimed to be acting for Allah, the court did not find that he had acted from any religious terrorist motives. He was convicted of merely causing danger to others and threatening them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">What is the Swedish government&#8217;s assessment of the violent and volatile situation? Swedish Prime Minister Stefan L\u00f6fven, <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aftonbladet.se\/nyheter\/samhalle\/a\/VbaXM1\/lofven-aterigen-har-valdet-visat-sitt-fula-ansikte\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>condemned<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the recent shootings:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;We have tightened several penalties considerably, including the punishment for illegally possessing weapons and explosives such as hand grenades. We have also given the police increased powers for&#8230; camera surveillance and information collection&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">On July 2, the government <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svt.se\/nyheter\/inrikes\/sa-ska-vapenvald-och-sprangningar-stoppas\">presented<\/a> proposals for combating gun violence, including harsher penalties for improper possession of explosive materials and new powers for customs officials to block packages suspected of containing weapons or explosives. According to the opposition, the proposals have come too late. &#8220;This could have been done a year ago, too. There have never been so many shootings in Sweden. I think it is obvious to most people that what the government has done is not enough&#8221;, said Johan Forssell from the opposition party, <em>Moderaterna<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">As late as June 6, on Sweden&#8217;s National Day, Prime Minister Stefan L\u00f6fven, while acknowledging that Sweden &#8220;still has serious societal problems&#8221;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> <a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.friatider.se\/l-fven-v-ldigt-f-saker-var-b-ttre-f-rr?fbclid=IwAR1m-RZfpENnbvA6x7QMGMNVcxwRe97HNKzjq62Rvi10kwgC6ijXSATh-bM\">remarked<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, &#8220;Very few things were better in Sweden&#8221; before:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;But even though we can think of old times as an idyll with red cottages and green meadows, very few things were better before. During a national day celebration, I think we should celebrate just that, how much we have achieved as a country. We have built a strong country, where we take care of each other. Where society takes responsibility and no man is left alone&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Sadly, many Swedes probably feel terribly left alone in a country that increasingly resembles a war zone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatestoneinstitute.org\/14518\/sweden-is-at-war\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sweden\u2019s political leaders may be in denial but the country increasingly resembles a low-intensity war zone <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-european-migrant-crisis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191647"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191651,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191647\/revisions\/191651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}