So what's going down in Sweden exactly? My perception is that they used to enjoy a high standard/quality of life with progressive policies, then somewhere around pandemic time it went downhill: rise in xenophobia, hate, crime, strains on their social systems, rise of right wing populism (I guess this is global). Is there a comprehensive analysis somewhere I can read about this?
this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
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Some context not in the article
Some 280 girls aged between 15 and 17 were charged with murder, manslaughter or other violent crimes last year
That "other violent crimes" appears to do some very heavy lifting. There are about 40 deaths a year in total in the criminal mileu. Unless I'm interpreting the data wrong
[Gangs] are even reported to have infiltrated Sweden's welfare sector, local politics, legal and education systems, and juvenile detention care.
Yes, because liberals and conservatives sold everything. They sold it to friends, family, donors, who in turn sell it to gangs.
The Swedish government has proposed new legislation that would allow police to wiretap children under the age of 15 in an attempt to curb the violence
Not only that, children will also now be going to prison in Sweden.
[...] on encrypted messaging sites.
Ah, yes. The head of the Swedish police said in an interview the other day that Signal have no other use than recruiting for assassinations. If you see someone using it, you should call the police.
Also:
She was arrested with a 17-year-old male accomplice, who pulled the trigger
The big example they have and the girl wasn't even the one who did it.
That's because it's just more right wing propaganda to keep turning Sweden increasingly fascist.
And they've been working hard to import that shit to Finland. Fuck Sweden.
Glad I'm American, we don't need to worry about the possibility of fascism, it's already here.
And certainly not gang or gun violence! Who could imagine such a thing.
If you see someone using it, you should call the police.
Please do. And stress that you are concerned because politicians told you so
As an American, it amazes me what a stereotypical group of police officers look like in Sweden (this preview image) compared to what American police officers look like.
As a swede, what about the picture is different to what you are used to in America?
- The level of armament
- I don't think I could outrun these guys
You can see their faces, they are clearly identified as police and they are not armed to the teeth.
I think this is a pretty good depiction of an everyday cop. Some have the utility belt, some have the full on vest, but not terribly different from what's shown in the Swedish picture.
That's riot response, not really a good representation.
Also none of those guys are obese.
I mean technically they are probably 30-40lbs overweight. None of those guys look like they weigh a healthy 180 lbs for a six foot tall man.
They were just karma farming by posting whatever would get the drive by up-buttons.
That said: I don't know if these are special Swedish cops or normal Swedish cops, but the gear is more or less the same as our "normal" patrol cops. Bullet/stab resistant vest, pistol, and quasi-military uniform. Ours tend to only wear the high visibility vests when they are newbies disrupting all traffic because they want to play traffic cop rather than just control the lights at an intersection.
Again, I don't know what the baseline in Sweden is, but most civilized countries tend to have a distinction between patrol cops and the ones that have special training to handle armed suspects and the like. Ours... we theoretically have that but also basically every patrol car has an AR-15 and a shotgun in it and our cops love to grab those any time they can even half attempt to justify it.
That said, I assume your special response cops more or less look the same (full tactical gear). You just tend to not see those unless there is an actual meaningful threat.
Because they aren't beating up protesters?
The sad thing is 20+ years ago, our cops looked more like this and less militarized.
It must be from playing all those violent video games like Angry Birds and Wolfenstein 3D
I know a guy who is into blonde teen girls
It's called violence-as-a-service and is becoming more common in all parts of the world, especially western countries.