Stockholm riots spread as PM slams 'hooliganism'

[MrBlueSky]

Stockholm riots spread as PM slams 'hooliganism'

(AFP) – 5 hours ago

Firemen extinguish a burning car in the Kista district of Stockholm on May 21, 2013 after youths rioted (AFP, Jonathan Nackstrand)

STOCKHOLM — Rioting spread across Stockholm's suburbs early Wednesday in the third night of unrest to hit the Swedish capital, as Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt blamed the violence on "hooliganism" and appealed for calm.

"In the past 24 hours, around 30 cars have been set on fire... in the greater Stockholm area," said Kjell Lindgren, a spokesman for the Stockholm police. A school and a nursery in two of Stockholm's most deprived areas had been torched, and rocks were thrown at firefighters, police officers and their vehicles, he said.

The unrest is believed to have been sparked the deadly police shooting last week of an elderly man. In Husby, the suburb where the violence first broke out late Sunday, one man was arrested on suspicion of setting fire to an arts-and-crafts centre. Reinfeldt on Wednesday said "everyone has to take responsibility for restoring calm."

"It's important to remember that burning your neighbour's car is not an example of freedom of speech, it's hooliganism," he told news agency TT. Lindgren said that the latest riots had spread from northwestern to southern Stockholm.

On Tuesday, the prime minister waded into Sweden's heated debate on immigration by attributing some of the problems in Stockholm's low-income suburbs to failed integration. "Sweden is a country that receives large groups from other countries. I'm proud of that," he said.

But he added that "there is often a transition period between different cultures" that the government had sought to facilitate by improving Swedish language education. The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats on Wednesday pounced on the issue, saying the riots were the result of an "irresponsible" immigration policy.

"Never before has so much money been spent on immigrant-heavy suburbs as today," party leader Jimmie Aakesson and spokesman Richard Jomshof said in the daily Svenska Dagbladet.

"In Husby the teacher-to-student ratio is extremely high, there are newly built libraries, and the youth centres have generous opening hours," they wrote.

 

[MrBlueSky]

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​

 

[kongsimi]

islam is the problem!

they dun integrate!!

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

"The Religion Of Peace" is also making headlines in Woolwich, South East London.
I'm sure you'll be reading and hearing all about it later today.

 

[MrBlueSky]

Sweden riots continue after police shooting

Windows smashed, cars and several containers set on fire, and seven police officers injured in Stockholm suburb.

Last Modified: 22 May 2013 16:03

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Around 200 people hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze in a Stockholm suburb during a third night of rioting, which residents said was triggered by the fatal police shooting of a man wielding a knife.

Dozens of windows were smashed, 10 cars and several containers were set on fire, and seven police officers were injured on Tuesday.

Police said five people were being held over the rioting, and six others had been released after questioning.

Cars and containers were also set ablaze in Fittja, another Stockholm suburb, although police said it was not clear whether the two events were linked.

The unrest began on Sunday night. A May 13 incident in which police killed a 69-year-old man who had locked himself in an apartment in Husby, west of Stockholm, has been cited by some residents as the trigger of the riots, but bigger frustration among youth has also been cited as the reason.

Around 80 percent of the roughly 11,000 residents of the suburbs are first- or second-generation immigrants.

Police have refused to give the nationality of the victim of the shooting.

Many local residents see the shooting as an example of police brutality, and the violence has stirred debate in Sweden.

Tense atmosphere

The country, known for its strong welfare state and egalitarian society, has had the biggest surge in inequality of any Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country over the past 25 years, according to a recent publication by the global economic watchdog.

Commenting on the violence, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said: "This is not OK. We will not give in to violence.

"We must all help out to regain calm. The residents of Husby need to get their neighbourhood back."

Reinfeldt added that Husby has been going in the right direction during his seven-year tenure, with employment increasing and crime falling.

Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from Husby, said that local authorities are doing their best to assimilate new immigrant arrivals.

"Husby is not some slum that the state has abandoned," he said.

The atmosphere was tense on Tuesday, with residents expressing both anger at police and sadness about the destruction. City workers were seen clearing the debris of a burnt-out container and documenting fire damage.

Reza Al Bazi, 14, and his friend Sebastian Horniak, 15, said they witnessed the violence throughout the night.

Horniak claimed he saw police firing warning shots in the air and calling a woman a "monkey."

"I got upset yesterday because I saw police attack innocent people, they beat a woman with a baton," he said.

Horniak's claims of racist remarks were backed up by the organisation Megafonen, which represents citizens in Stockholm's suburbs.

Prosecutors have launched an internal probe into the shooting. Police say they shot the man in self-defence because he attacked them with a knife when they broke down the door to an apartment where he had locked himself up with a woman.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies