“I had a case involving a 15-year-old girl recruited to shoot someone in the head,” Stockholm prosecutor Ida Arnell told AFP. “She was able to choose the type of mission she wanted, in other words, to aim at the guy’s door or his head. She chose the head.”
What I wrote in the cross post:
Some context not in the article
Some 280 girls aged between 15 and 17 were charged with murder, manslaughter or other violent crimes last year
That “other violent crimes” appears to do some very heavy lifting. There are about 40 deaths a year in total in the criminal mileu. Unless I’m interpreting the data wrong
bra.se/…/2024_6_Doldigt-vald-i-Sverige-sedan-1990…
[Gangs] are even reported to have infiltrated Sweden’s welfare sector, local politics, legal and education systems, and juvenile detention care.
Yes, because liberals and conservatives sold everything. They sold it to friends, family, donors, who in turn sell it to gangs.
The Swedish government has proposed new legislation that would allow police to wiretap children under the age of 15 in an attempt to curb the violence
Not only that, children will also now be going to prison in Sweden.
[…] on encrypted messaging sites.
Ah, yes. The head of the Swedish police said in an interview the other day that Signal have no other use than recruiting for assassinations. If you see someone using it, you should call the police.
ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
This article is fucking crazy, what the hell is wrong with Sweden now?
Since when are there Swede rappers? That is weird enough in itself.
I get that drugs are largely the issue, but these people live in a country with a laundry list of social welfare programs that most people could only dream of. Free healthcare, free education at all levels, and a boatload of economic support initiatives for people in poverty. They literally are living life on easy mode compared to the rest of the poor people in the world for the most part. Why do they turn to drugs in the first place? It clearly shouldnt be out of hopelessness for their situation…
Skua@kbin.earth 3 weeks ago
Unless something drastic has happened in just 2025 that isn't reflected in the data yet, the actual murder rate in Sweden hasn't really changed much in the past 30 years. It's high by Nordic standards, middle of the road for European standards, and low by global standards. Sweden is still just a normal country with normal human problems, even if it is very prosperous and has a lot of sensible government policies
That there are Swedish rappers definitely isn't that weird either. I don't even enjoy rap and I've heard of a Greenlandic rapper. I've got a Togolese metal band on my main playlist. There was a Black American blues singer who went to Tuva in Russia to learn throat singing and got nicknamed "Earthquake" becauseof how low his voice was. People like music from all over
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 3 weeks ago
Yeah, the normal population can still live a normal life. But the murder rate of the 20-24 y.o. where both parents have an immigration background is 10 times higher than the normal pop. (176 p. 100k to 16 p. 100k), which is pretty fucking high.
sprack@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sweden took in more refugees than it had infrastructure to help integrate with. Swedes are culturally insular so when there were friction points the Swedish reaction is pull back. This leads to isolation. That lead to ghettos and a perfect breading ground for crime and gangs. It’s mainly Kurds and Somalis pushing cocaine that fueling a turf war. Because of Swedens laws protecting minors the gangs have figured out that paying them for hits on rivals and their families had little penalty. This started in Denmark as their testing ground. Sweden is trying to pass laws which would effectively expel the minor and their families for these kinds of crimes, but it’s a reactionary policy which won’t solve the underlying problems. There’s no simple quick fix here.
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
To be clear, this was a choice. The amount of disinvestment since the 80s in social housing, schooling and other social programs has been truly remarkable.
This is largely bullshit in my experience - people use it as a convenient explanation for what can adequately be explained by other forces
There’s no intentional isolation on the part of immigrants as much as there’s a diminishing social housing stock/social housing being sold out to slumlords.
People don’t intentionally select high crime areas to live in - they are not given the option to live somewhere else.
Using kids for gang hits is common in other places as well, because kids get more lenient sentences in other places too. See the U.S for an example on this trend being present earlier in history.
princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
I think the Nordic countries get held up as these utopias when that’s actually far from the truth. I have a Swedish friend on a disability pension, and I’m also on the same sort of pension here in Australia. She gets a bit less than half of what I do a month. It’s not like she has other social programs that make up for it really either. We both have access to similar healthcare, I think I’m paying less for meds, I have much better disability insurance covering other things like support work and mobility aids.
I think some people just have this false impression of places like Sweden. I guess they look pretty great if you’re from the US but yeah…
hector@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Plus they have basically taxed alcohol out of use. Gotten rid of paper money, there is a lot to be desired.
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 3 weeks ago
as hard as it is to accept, a lot of the issues were imported by immigration and a failure to make sure that the immigrants get integrated into society. from what i know, there's a pretty deep divide there, with immigrants being disadvantaged in society and the swedes themselves feeling overwhelmed by a flood of immigrants. Sadly that's a good substrate for gang violence and yeah, like you said, it's stupid.
princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
>account less than a day old
>it’s immigrants fault
yeah, alright bestie
Thordros@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
I knew it! It’s the sinister musliamics doing all the murders! Pure as white snow Swedish sweet baby girls could never do a crime.
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
What are you even trying to imply here? Rap has been a thing in Sweden for decades, what’s weird about it?
We’ve been dealing with rising inequality in Sweden for the last ~50 years. We’ve also had large amounts of immigration, with these immigrants in many ways having become second class citizens, getting concentrated into the diminishing stock of social housing/slum lord-controlled areas. We also have an unusually restrictive policy against drugs, the sales of which then becoming one of the few lucrative options for someone growing up in a poor area.
It’s similar motivations to what happens in the U.S - if you’re poor, some of the only realistic options for making it big from your perspective is either a career in professional sports (see Zlatan Ibrahimovic) or drugs (see various gang bosses)
It’s not necessarily that they pursue these “careers” out of a need to fuel a drug addiction, although that may certainly become a motivation for maintaining it - along with the threat of violence if leaving.
Some of the largest consumers of drugs in Sweden are the richest people, having lots of money to spend on cocaine. Again, a similar situation to the U.S in many ways here.
stink@lemmygrad.ml 3 weeks ago
I will not tolerate this Yung Lean slander!
witty_username@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
I expect that this might me due to functional police and criminal investigation systems. Less functional countries, which are in the majority, will likely fail to find the right perpetrator, fail to report on it, blame the crime on the wrong person, ignore the crime, etc.
hector@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Those suburban kids emulate street gangs while the leaders of those street gangs emulate the fathers of those suburban kids in the corporate structure.