Sweden's leader turns to the military for help as gang violence escalates
apnews.com
Sweden’s prime minister has summoned the head of the military to discuss how the armed forces can help police deal with an unprecedented crime wave that has shocked the country with almost daily shootings and bombings.

Three people were killed overnight in separate incidents in Sweden as deadly violence linked to a feud between criminal gangs escalated.

Late Wednesday, an 18-year-old man was shot dead in a Stockholm suburb. Hours later, one man was killed and another was wounded in a shooting in Jordbro, south of the Swedish capital.

Early Thursday a woman in her 20s died in an explosion in Uppsala, west of Stockholm. The blast, which damaged five houses, is being treated by the police as a murder. Swedish media said the woman who died was likely not the intended victim and that the target was the house next door.

Swedish broadcaster SVT noted that the two fatal shootings bring the death toll from gun violence in September to 11, making it the deadliest month for shootings since police started keeping statistics in 2016.

  • SpziEnglish
    3•1 year ago

    Thanks for putting things into perspective. However, I’m unsure how much sense it makes to compare a country with a city. I guess social dynamics change a bit when population density rises. It’s easier to find groups for fringe activities in cities.

    • @ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.comEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      Sure, the Stockholm Region had 38 murders last year. Laredo, Texas, reportedly a rather safe, small, US town of 250,000 had 13 murders. But Region Stockholm is around 10 times that size. So 130 vs 38.

      If we instead compare to Malmö which is the second worst region but much smaller than Stockholm, roughly like Laredo it’s 13 for Laredo and 5 for Malmö.