Above: an armed police officer stands guard after an object exploded next to a police station in Rosengard in Malmo, Sweden, Jan 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen, like me, you have the opportunity to see cases at the individual level, you see that virtually everyone who shoots or is shot in gang conflicts originates from the Balkans, the Middle East, North or East Africa\u201d<\/p>\n
In the wake of a government commissioned report which noted that Sweden is the only country in Europe where fatal shootings are increasing, Gothenburg\u2019s police chief has publicly recognized that there is in fact a clear link between the surge of fatal shootings and mass migration.<\/p>\n
Erik Nord, the police commissioner of the Greater Gothenburg region, commented on a recent report<\/a> published by the Crime Prevention Council (Br\u00e5), saying that the shocking increase of lethal firearm violence and gang-related crime in Sweden is connected to mass migration.<\/p>\n In an opinion editorial<\/a> penned for Goteborgs Posten, Commissioner Nord wrote: “It is no longer a secret today that much of the problem of gang and network crime with the shootings and explosions is linked to migration to Sweden in recent decades.”<\/p>\n \u201cWhen, like me, you have the opportunity to see cases at the individual level, you see that virtually everyone who shoots or is shot in gang conflicts originates from the Balkans, the Middle East, North or East Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n Alongside mass immigration, Nord points out that there are several factors which have likely contributed to the dramatic increase in shootings, including individual characteristics, disparate cultural values, and dysfunctional family environments.<\/p>\n Additionally, Nord believes that gun violence is more prevalent in Sweden than it is in Germany \u2014 a country with a similar socioeconomic profile which, like Sweden, has seen a large influx of migrants in the past several years \u2014 partly because Sweden has a significantly smaller amount of police officers per capita.<\/p>\n \u201cIt may be that part of the explanation for the bleak development in Sweden stems from a too small-sized police force that for many years has built up a debt that is now manifesting itself in the form of deadly gun violence,\u201d Nord said.<\/p>\n The police chief\u2019s commentary comes less than a year after left-wing politicians and members of Sweden\u2019s liberal press accused him of being a \u201cracist\u201d for saying that foreign criminals do not belong in the country.<\/p>\n Nord is not the only prominent official in Gothenburg raising concerns. Just last week, a city councilor from the Moderates party\u00a0requested<\/a> that the military be sent into the city to take on criminal gangs due to spiraling violence.<\/p>\n In 2020, Sweden saw more lethal violence \u2014 attempted murders, murders, and fatal beatings \u2014 than any year since 2002, when the country first began keeping track of such statistics. The sheer number of killings prompted Sweden\u2019s Deputy National Police Chief Mats L\u00f6fving to announce that at least 40 migrant gangs<\/a> are currently operating throughout the country. According to L\u00f6fving, these gangs are responsible for the surge of deadly violence.<\/p>\n \u201cThese clans have come to Sweden solely to organize crime.\u00a0They work to create power, they have a great capacity for violence, and they want to make money.\u00a0And they do that through drug crimes, violent crimes, and extortion,” L\u00f6fving said during an interview with Swedish media last year.<\/p>\n Past reports have also underlined the fact the most convicted rapists in Sweden have been born abroad. In the fall of 2018, Swedish public broadcaster SVT released<\/a> data which revealed that nearly 60 percent of men convicted of rape or attempted rape over the past five years were foreign-born.<\/p>\nDeadly gun violence plagues Sweden<\/h2>\n
Violence across Sweden tied to rising migration<\/h2>\n