“This is my son, Marley, when he was 19 years old,” Maritha Ogilvie told AFP, holding up a portrait of a smiling young man, one of several that adorn her apartment. Stockholm. “She was shot in the head when she was in a vehicle with a friend,” added the 51-year-old woman.
The massacre that occurred on March 24, 2015 in Varbygardan impoverished concrete suburb in southwestern Stockholm, was never cleared up and the case was closed 10 months later.
Murders like this are usually settling of scores between rival gangs often controlled by clans of migrants, according to the police, and increasingly occur in broad daylight. The violence is often attributed to battles for drug market and weapons, and personal sales.
It escalated to such a point that Sweden, one of the richest and most equal countries in the world, now tops the European ranking of fatal shootings.
Sweden, at the head of the increase in violence in Europe
According to a report published last year by the National Crime Prevention Councilamong 22 countries with comparable data only Croatia had more fatal shootings, and none recorded a stronger increase than Sweden in the last decade.
Despite various measures taken by the Social Democratic government to contain the gangs, including harsh jail sentences Y increased resources for the policethe number of dead and wounded continues to rise.
Since January 1, 48 people have been killed by firearms in Sweden, three more than in all of 2021. bombing of houses and cars, and grenade attacks.
expansive violence
For the first time, crime displaced other issues related to wellnessfor instance Health Y educationas the main concern of the Swedes in Sunday’s elections.
The violence was previously contained in places frequented by criminals, but now it spread to Public spacesraising concern among ordinary Swedes accustomed to a safe and peaceful country.
On August 19, a 31-year-old man identified as a gang leader in Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city, was shot dead in the Emporia shopping center months after his brother’s death. A 15-year-old boy was arrested for the murder.
A week later, a young woman and her son were injured by stray bullets while playing in the park in Eskilstunaa quiet town of 67,000 inhabitants west of Stockholm.
The right-wing opposition, led by the conservative party moderate and the Democrats of Sweden, from the extreme right, promise to restore “law and order” if they come to power.
For her part, Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson promised a “national offensive” against the scourge that poses “a threat to the whole of Sweden”.
According to Andersson, the escalation in the numbers of criminality are due to the emergence of “parallel societies” due to “a lot of immigration and very little integration“.
“Another Sweden”
Jacob Fraiman, a former gang member who is now helping others leave that life, says he is shocked by the level of violence. “I’m from another generation, obviously we had guns too, but it wasn’t often that someone was shot,” he told AFP in Sodertalje, an industrial town south of Stockholm. “You used to shoot someone in the legs. Now they tell them to shoot in the head,” she said.
At the police station Rinkeby, an impoverished suburb of Stockholm, police officer Michael Cojocaru, 26, says he and his colleagues regularly face brutal violence and seize assault weapons, grenades and explosives. “It’s like a totally different societyanother type of Sweden”, commented.
Experts attribute the violent escalation to factors such as the segregation and the economic difficulties of migrants, as well as a large black market for weapons.
Maritha Ogilvie tries to understand why her son was killed. “He was just a normal guy,” she assured. “I don’t know how they lost control of certain areas (of society), but they did,” she laments. “And he keeps getting worse.”
Source: Ambito
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