A young woman has started what she calls a “Tafsvakter”, or ‘molestation guard’ at her local swimming baths to protect young bathers from unwanted amorous attention.
Siri Bernhardsson, 24 has used social media to organise patrols of her local swimming baths in Kalmar, south-east Sweden and has told local media she is delighted to hear others are following her example and setting up others in Sweden, reports 24Kalmar.
The first Tafsvakten patrol took place this Saturday, as Miss Bernhardsson and two others kept watch by the poolside. She remarked: “We keep our eyes open in the event of [something happening]. I have never felt threatened in Swimming pools, but others have. It is important to feel safe”.
“The more I read, the more angry I get. It cannot be that women and families should be intimidated from going swimming, of all places! It isn’t a dark alley, or a scary nightclub”.
The swimming pool patrol follows dozens of reports of sexual violence in public baths across Europe over the past two months by migrant males, often against under-age girls and boys. Despite staff being told to pay extra attention, there have not been enough to protect all bathers all of the time.
Breitbart London has reported on cases such as a ten year old boy being hospitalised by an Iraqi male after a brutal swimming pool rape, girls between 11 and 13 years old being “touched immorally” by an Afghan man, and girls between 14 and 17 being groped, “allegedly under their bathing suits”, “and possibly raped” by a gang of “refugees” in the past few weeks.
Despite the clear situation, Kalmar swimming pool authorities have expressed alarm over the citizen patrol in their baths. Despite admitting there was an “incident” at the facility in December, manager Susanne Gryfelt said of the Tafsvakten initiative: “We do not want an individual to come and act as a lifeguard, and have contact with our customers. It is our job”, reports Expressen.
The manager said she already had adequate staff to protect public safety, but Miss Bernhardsson told press she had already been contacted by many women who said they were presently too scared to go swimming. She had received hundreds of Kronor in donations to pay for her admission for the pool and her meals to help the patrol continue.
Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter: Follow @Oliver_Lane or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com
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