Published time: May 23, 2013 13:17
Youth gang riots have rocked the Swedish capital Stockholm for four straight nights. Hundreds of mostly immigrant teenagers tore through the suburbs, smashing windows and burning cars in the country’s worst outbreak of violence in years.
On the fourth night of violence, youths torched over 30 cars
along with a restaurant in Skogas, south of Stockholm. Three law
enforcement officers were injured, police spokesperson Kjell
Lindgren reported.
Stockholm firefighters were busy throughout the night, saying
they had “never before seen so many fires raging at the same
time.” Still, the fourth night of violence was relatively quiet
compared to the previous three, RT’s Peter Oliver reported from
Stockholm.
Leaders of immigrant communities were out on the streets in a
bid to stop young people from rioting. Despite their efforts, as
soon as the night fell, groups of arsonists took to the streets to
set cars on fire. RT’s Peter Oliver witnessed rioters throwing
stones at police and journalists alike.
Civil disorder in Stockholm started on Sunday, when police shot
and killed a 69-old-man in his apartment after he confronted
officers with a machete; the unrest has since continued throughout
week.
Community leaders insist that a main reason for the violence is
the high rate of unemployment in immigrant communities,
particularly in the suburb of Husby near central Stockholm, one of
the worst affected by the nighttime violence, Peter Oliver
reported.
Although Sweden’s unemployment rate is below the EU average,
joblessness among those under 25 has reached nearly 25 percent. The
RT crew in Stockholm noted that a majority of those taking part in
the violence are young.
Parents of the rampaging teenagers and community religious
leaders are now spending sleepless nights on the street in an
effort to prevent their children from wreaking havoc.
For years, Sweden — one of Europe’s most tranquil countries,
famous for its attractive immigration policies and generous welfare
system — has been accepting an influx of immigrants. These migrants
have failed to integrate into Swedish society, and are only in the
country to enjoy the country’s social benefits system, Swedish
journalist Ingrid Carlqvist told RT.
“The problem is not from the Swedish government or from the
Swedish people,” the editor in chief of Dispatch International
said. “The last 20 years or so, we have seen so many immigrants
coming to Sweden that really don’t like Sweden. They do not want to
integrate, they do not want to live in [Swedish] society: Working,
paying taxes and so on.”
“The people come here now because they know that Sweden will
give them money for nothing. They don’t have to work, they don’t
have to pay taxes — they can just stay here and get a lot of money.
That is really a problem,” Carlqvist added.
“The police could do so much, [instead] they have told the
public that they mean to do as little as possible. But they could
go there and use water cannons, they could not let people out onto
the streets at night. There are so many things they could do within
the law — but they don’t do it,” she said.
Young Muslims who enjoy tolerance, social institutions and
welfare while living in Sweden nevertheless refuse to integrate
into the West, Gerolf Annemans told RT. Annemans is the
parliamentary leader of Vlaams Belang (‘Flemish Interest’), a
Belgian far-right nationalist political party.
“They [Muslim youths] have always sought excuse to show that
they are not agreeing with the basic values of Western
society,” Annemans said, pointing to the recent cases of the
Boston Marathon bombing in the US and yesterday’s beheading of a
British soldier in the UK.
“It’s always the same problem. There is a massive refusal by
Muslim youngsters of the basics of Western society… and
they take any excuse whatsoever to show that with violence — that
is where the problem is,” he said.
This article originally appeared on : RT