As I have blogged before with the story about French ghettos of immigrants & their children who feel marginalized, & are ready to follow anyone who make them feel like family & falsely promise a future, for committing violence, in return. Sweden is also going through the similar problem.
Primary problem is once again marginalization of immigrant youths from the mainstream society. Be it North American or Western Europe or Northern Europe countries, immigrants are welcome with both arms, but they are made to feel second class citizens. Older immigrants accept their fate. But the young ones, who are growing up with their mainstream / indigenous friends start to see the discrimination when they see their friends moving onwards & upwards, & those kids of immigrant backgrounds feel left behind.
The main reason is that they were always come to expect that their new homes are in fair & just societies. But then the ugly head of discrimination rears up, which is very much rampant in these societies. They see the garbage hiding under the nice carpet. Some immigrant youths drink the Kool-Aid & will vehemently oppose any such idea that there is any discrimination in their new homes, but most don't.
Those youths then either suffer silently & become mentally & physically ill, or they hit back. Violence is never the answer to resolve these problems, but then problems cannot be solved from merely saying nice words to immigrants, either.
These problems, which will only going to get worse, since more & more immigrants are flowing in North American & European countries, can only be solved in 2 ways:
1. North American & European countries completely ban the sale of any & all arms & weapons sales to corrupt, authoritarian, & developing countries in Africa & Asia. A blanket ban on all such sales, no ifs & buts.
The immigrant wave will start to abate by itself, since their corrupt governments don't have weapons to kill innocent civilians.
2. Whatever immigrant populations are already in their countries, help them integrating through objective, merit-based qualification process; be it for education or jobs etc. Abolish the practice of networking. That will in itself help diversify the talent pool & the economy will improve. Immigrant youths will see a bright future that if they work hard, they will achieve something in the mainstream society, instead of working hard & achieving something in a gang or radical religious group.
These suggestions are simple & will only help the North American & European societies. The question is are the leaders willing to take such steps, since arms sales increase GDP & exports of the country, & immigrant populations create a silent 2nd class of people who will do the dirty jobs, while nice cushy jobs to the indigenous population.
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As drinkers watched the final minutes of the Barcelona versus Manchester City football match in the Vår bar in Gothenburg on Wednesday night, all hell broke loose. Two masked men opened fire with automatic weapons, killing 2 & injuring a dozen more.
Petar Petrovic, 20, a Swede of Serbian origin, died in the storm of bullets. A DJ at the bar, he was due to start university in London this year.
The other dead man, aged 25, was a leading figure in a local gang, the Vårvädersligan, named after the square where the shootings took place. With a string of convictions, including drug offences, he had only recently left jail, according to press reports.
Sweden has been shocked by the barbarity & indiscriminate nature of the Gothenburg shootings. Gang violence has featured occasionally in local news, but this was the first time an innocent bystander had been killed. Regional police chief Klas Friberg called it a “heartless attack with no human feeling”.
The tragedy has also shone a spotlight on a hidden aspect of Swedish society that reads like the sub-plot of a Stieg Larsson novel, in which poverty, racism & segregation are driving young men from immigrant backgrounds into gangs & gun crime.
A few days before the shooting, police had arrested another member of the gang after he was observed in a railway station handing over a shoebox stuffed with 500,000 krona (£39,000). A third figure in the gang had left the Vår bar shortly before the shooting took place.
The killings broke a 9-month period of relative calm in Gothenburg. After a double murder in early 2013, police poured resources into Biskopsgården, the deprived borough where Wednesday’s killings took place, which has high levels of recent immigration & overcrowding. Entitled operation Safe Gothenburg, the police targeted 9 gangs across the city involved in turf wars over drugs, weapons & contraband.
... After 57 shooting incidents & 8 fatalities in 2013, there were 4 deaths last year, while arrests led to the jailing of key gang leaders. The trend seemed to be clear.
In December, a dozen members of the Bergsjö gang were jailed & only last month, the leader of Bulls motorcycle gang started a 10-year sentence for violence. He had an earlier conviction for “crucifying” a man by strapping his wrists to a plank & leaving him hanging.
However, fears of a flare-up of gang crime lingered when the leader of the Bandidos gang was released from jail last summer after a 7-year sentence for a bomb attack.
“We have groups that are really marginalised, cut off from mainstream society, dropouts with no work,” says Sven-Åke Lindgren, professor of sociology at Gothenburg university who last year authored a report on gang crime. He sees Wednesday’s attack as a show of power in a battle for supremacy between gangs.
“These are ‘radical losers’, more desperate, more angry & frustrated, who are prepared to use weapons & violence that is really shocking to Swedish society, to compensate for their loss of status,” Prof Lindgren said.
Gang crime is not confined to Gothenburg – 22 Swedish cities are affected, said Magnus Lindgren of the Safer Sweden Foundation. This is a “new Sweden”, he said, which means new methods of crime fighting are needed.
I love this area, but we have a problem with young people feeling they can’t share the aspirations of the majority.
“The main problem is the Swedish model of crime prevention which dates from the 1960s, trying to build a good society with good education & child care. That’s all very well, but we are fighting the crimes of yesterday, not necessarily the crimes of today or tomorrow.”
Friberg, the police chief, said police were working “to do as much harm to the individual criminals as we can” while trying to halt the trade in illegal weapons. Interior minister Anders Ygeman called for a doubling of sentences for gun crime.
... There was also a sense of fear – the library was quiet because parents had kept their children at home, locals said.
“This is a ghetto,” said Nora, 25, who was born of Saudi parents who moved to Biskopsgården when she was just a few months old. “There is racism & young people can’t get jobs; they feel they have no future in Swedish society.”
Now studying to be a nurse, she is worried what may happen to her brother, aged 10, when he gets a little older. “The gangs make boys feel like family, they look after them,” she said. She wants her brother to go to a school outside the borough where there is no drug dealing.
Katarina Despotovic, a researcher who has chronicled what she calls the neglect of boroughs such as Biskopsgården, said Gothenburg was concentrating resources in the city centre, creating suburban satellites “that no one cares about”.
“I love this area & its people, but we have a problem with young people feeling they can’t share the dreams & aspirations of the majority,” said Ulrika Stöök, 45, who works for the local council in Biskopsgården.
“We need to give young people hope. We can do a few things locally but now we need help.”
Primary problem is once again marginalization of immigrant youths from the mainstream society. Be it North American or Western Europe or Northern Europe countries, immigrants are welcome with both arms, but they are made to feel second class citizens. Older immigrants accept their fate. But the young ones, who are growing up with their mainstream / indigenous friends start to see the discrimination when they see their friends moving onwards & upwards, & those kids of immigrant backgrounds feel left behind.
The main reason is that they were always come to expect that their new homes are in fair & just societies. But then the ugly head of discrimination rears up, which is very much rampant in these societies. They see the garbage hiding under the nice carpet. Some immigrant youths drink the Kool-Aid & will vehemently oppose any such idea that there is any discrimination in their new homes, but most don't.
Those youths then either suffer silently & become mentally & physically ill, or they hit back. Violence is never the answer to resolve these problems, but then problems cannot be solved from merely saying nice words to immigrants, either.
These problems, which will only going to get worse, since more & more immigrants are flowing in North American & European countries, can only be solved in 2 ways:
1. North American & European countries completely ban the sale of any & all arms & weapons sales to corrupt, authoritarian, & developing countries in Africa & Asia. A blanket ban on all such sales, no ifs & buts.
The immigrant wave will start to abate by itself, since their corrupt governments don't have weapons to kill innocent civilians.
2. Whatever immigrant populations are already in their countries, help them integrating through objective, merit-based qualification process; be it for education or jobs etc. Abolish the practice of networking. That will in itself help diversify the talent pool & the economy will improve. Immigrant youths will see a bright future that if they work hard, they will achieve something in the mainstream society, instead of working hard & achieving something in a gang or radical religious group.
These suggestions are simple & will only help the North American & European societies. The question is are the leaders willing to take such steps, since arms sales increase GDP & exports of the country, & immigrant populations create a silent 2nd class of people who will do the dirty jobs, while nice cushy jobs to the indigenous population.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As drinkers watched the final minutes of the Barcelona versus Manchester City football match in the Vår bar in Gothenburg on Wednesday night, all hell broke loose. Two masked men opened fire with automatic weapons, killing 2 & injuring a dozen more.
Petar Petrovic, 20, a Swede of Serbian origin, died in the storm of bullets. A DJ at the bar, he was due to start university in London this year.
The other dead man, aged 25, was a leading figure in a local gang, the Vårvädersligan, named after the square where the shootings took place. With a string of convictions, including drug offences, he had only recently left jail, according to press reports.
Sweden has been shocked by the barbarity & indiscriminate nature of the Gothenburg shootings. Gang violence has featured occasionally in local news, but this was the first time an innocent bystander had been killed. Regional police chief Klas Friberg called it a “heartless attack with no human feeling”.
The tragedy has also shone a spotlight on a hidden aspect of Swedish society that reads like the sub-plot of a Stieg Larsson novel, in which poverty, racism & segregation are driving young men from immigrant backgrounds into gangs & gun crime.
A few days before the shooting, police had arrested another member of the gang after he was observed in a railway station handing over a shoebox stuffed with 500,000 krona (£39,000). A third figure in the gang had left the Vår bar shortly before the shooting took place.
The killings broke a 9-month period of relative calm in Gothenburg. After a double murder in early 2013, police poured resources into Biskopsgården, the deprived borough where Wednesday’s killings took place, which has high levels of recent immigration & overcrowding. Entitled operation Safe Gothenburg, the police targeted 9 gangs across the city involved in turf wars over drugs, weapons & contraband.
... After 57 shooting incidents & 8 fatalities in 2013, there were 4 deaths last year, while arrests led to the jailing of key gang leaders. The trend seemed to be clear.
In December, a dozen members of the Bergsjö gang were jailed & only last month, the leader of Bulls motorcycle gang started a 10-year sentence for violence. He had an earlier conviction for “crucifying” a man by strapping his wrists to a plank & leaving him hanging.
However, fears of a flare-up of gang crime lingered when the leader of the Bandidos gang was released from jail last summer after a 7-year sentence for a bomb attack.
“We have groups that are really marginalised, cut off from mainstream society, dropouts with no work,” says Sven-Åke Lindgren, professor of sociology at Gothenburg university who last year authored a report on gang crime. He sees Wednesday’s attack as a show of power in a battle for supremacy between gangs.
“These are ‘radical losers’, more desperate, more angry & frustrated, who are prepared to use weapons & violence that is really shocking to Swedish society, to compensate for their loss of status,” Prof Lindgren said.
Gang crime is not confined to Gothenburg – 22 Swedish cities are affected, said Magnus Lindgren of the Safer Sweden Foundation. This is a “new Sweden”, he said, which means new methods of crime fighting are needed.
I love this area, but we have a problem with young people feeling they can’t share the aspirations of the majority.
“The main problem is the Swedish model of crime prevention which dates from the 1960s, trying to build a good society with good education & child care. That’s all very well, but we are fighting the crimes of yesterday, not necessarily the crimes of today or tomorrow.”
Friberg, the police chief, said police were working “to do as much harm to the individual criminals as we can” while trying to halt the trade in illegal weapons. Interior minister Anders Ygeman called for a doubling of sentences for gun crime.
... There was also a sense of fear – the library was quiet because parents had kept their children at home, locals said.
“This is a ghetto,” said Nora, 25, who was born of Saudi parents who moved to Biskopsgården when she was just a few months old. “There is racism & young people can’t get jobs; they feel they have no future in Swedish society.”
Now studying to be a nurse, she is worried what may happen to her brother, aged 10, when he gets a little older. “The gangs make boys feel like family, they look after them,” she said. She wants her brother to go to a school outside the borough where there is no drug dealing.
Katarina Despotovic, a researcher who has chronicled what she calls the neglect of boroughs such as Biskopsgården, said Gothenburg was concentrating resources in the city centre, creating suburban satellites “that no one cares about”.
“I love this area & its people, but we have a problem with young people feeling they can’t share the dreams & aspirations of the majority,” said Ulrika Stöök, 45, who works for the local council in Biskopsgården.
“We need to give young people hope. We can do a few things locally but now we need help.”
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