The Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, is seeking support from the military in order to tackle gang crime in the country where gun crime has tripled over a decade.
This comes after three people were killed in less than 24 hours in three separate gang related incidents this week.
In an address delivered on Thursday, Kristersson said that he had summoned the head of the national police and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces in hopes that they can “help the police in their work against the criminal gangs,”
However Minister for Defence Pål Jonson said that the government is seeking to strengthen ‘security police and the police’s endurance in the event of crisis and war’ and that he feels this cannot be applied to gang crime.
“This is a difficult time for Sweden,” he said adding, “A 25-year-old woman went to bed last night on a completely ordinary evening but never got to wake up,”
The prime minister blamed Sweden’s immigration policy and poor integration saying that penalties for weapon related crimes would be tripled in efforts to curtail the levels of violence.
He outlined a series of recent murders including that of a blind 70-year-old man who “went to a bar in Sandviken to hang out with his friends” and “was shot to death” extending his sympathies to the victims family.
Kristensen also lamented the murder of a young man in Uppsala “who was murdered one early morning in a stairwell two weeks ago, on his way to his job in home care,”
Mentioning the case of three children – 13, 14 and 14 years old – who he said were found “executed” in forest areas outside Stockholm he said their parents had been “forced to experience every parent’s worst nightmare,”
Blaming irresponsible immigration policies he said that Swedish passport holders involved in violent crime would be imprisoned “for a long time” and that those who do not have citizenship would be “deported” extending the threat of deportation to non citizens arrested in relation to gang crime even before conviction is reached.
“Swedish legislation is not designed for gang wars and child soldiers. But we are now changing that,” he said.
“It is political naivety and cluelessness that has brought us here. It is an irresponsible immigration policy and a failed integration that has brought us here,” he said.
Blaming the lack of integration of migrants he said it was this “outside world and the parallel societies” which “feed the criminal gangs” adding, “There they can ruthlessly recruit children and train future killers,”
11 people have lost their lives to violent crime in Sweden this month alone making September the worst month for loss of life since records began in 2016.
The number of homicides in Sweden has risen by almost 80% in the last 10 years with 68 reported homicides in 2012, a number which peaked in 2021 when 124 homicides reported while the number of homicides for 2022 was 116.
In reaction to the levels of violence the leader of the opposition Social Democrat Party, Magdalena Andersson, said “This is not Sweden, this is not how Sweden is supposed to be,”
The national police commissioner and former Director-General and Head of the Swedish Security Service (Säpo), Anders Thornberg said “The criminal conflicts in Sweden are a serious threat to the safety and security of the country,”
“Innocents are murdered and injured. We are doing everything we can within the police and togetherwith others to stop the development,” he said.