Gang members in the Swedish city of Gothenburg were caught on video surrounding police officers and threatening to rape the officers with their own batons.
The footage, which appears to come from police bodycam video, shows the gang members threatening officers as they try to intervene in an incident in one of Gothenburg’s suburbs.
“Put away that baton or I’ll shove it up in you,” one of the men, known to local police as a gang member, said to an officer in the video.
According to a report from Nyheter Idag, the officer withdrew the baton after reinforcements arrived on the scene and the tense situation calmed down.
Gothenburg Police Chief Erik Nord commented on the situation for police in the city saying threats against officers could result in them refraining from intervening in incidents.
In the past, Police Chief Nord had claimed that criminals flee when officers arrive on the scene.
Last week, masked and armed gang members in Gothenburg set up their own roadblocks and forced local residents to remain in their homes under curfew in what Nord described as a “demonstration of power.”
The roadblocks were set up due to a rivalry between the two main criminal gangs in the city which exploded in August after as brawl at a local petrol station.
The no-go suburb of Angered was among the most affected by the roadblocks, with documents from the city management office of Gothenburg revealing that residents had been explicitly told to remain indoors by the gangs and that the gangs had largely taken control of the area.
Threats against police in no-go suburbs in Swedish cities are not a new phenomenon. Footage released in 2017 from the Stockholm suburbs of Rinkeby and Tensta showed police being harassed, insulted, and attacked by local youths.
Rinkeby, one of the most notorious no-go areas, has recently built a new police station and according to reports, officers and civilian workers will require escorts to and from work due to the danger of attacks.
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