As the level of violence in organised crime in Sweden increases, leader of the Sweden Democrats Jimmie Åkesson has vowed to “declare war” on organised criminal gangs and allow the Swedish military to support police efforts.
The populist Sweden Democrats (SD) leader make his case in the first leader’s debate of the year in the Swedish parliament. Åkesson, along with Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson, all spoke on the dire need to stop escalating violence including a rise in fatal shootings and hand grenade attacks, Expressen reports.
“I declare war on organised crime. The police, as it looks, cannot maintain public order. It should not all depend on individual police officers because of a lack of political will and incompetent police leadership,” Åkesson said.
“We see a situation where criminal gangs take over entire neighbourhoods and limit the everyday lives of completely ordinary people. We must take this on with the resources that are available today,” he said and added: “We should look at Denmark, allowing police to get help from military personnel.”
His comments came just hours before an explosives attack against a Swedish police station in Malmo garnered worldwide attention.
Last year, members of the Moderate Party made a similar proposal, calling on the government to allow the deployment of the armed forces in no-go zones where police have largely lost the ability to enforce the law.
Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson highlighted the growing number of shootings and hand grenade attacks that have occurred within the last few years, one of the most recent being directed at a police vehicle in Uppsala in November.
“This is not a script for a dystopian crime story. This is Sweden in 2018,” Kristersson said.
Annie Marie Therése Lööf, leader of the Centre Party, chose to highlight the lack of integration in troubled migrant-populated suburbs saying: “In Stefan Löfven’s Sweden, integration is failing.” She also addressed the rise in violence involving hand grenades, which a former criminal recently said can be had for as little as £91 ($123).
Liberal Party leader Jan Björklund chose to be even more specific saying that girls living in the suburbs were “harassed by Muslim morals”.
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