No, Fox News & Trump Aren’t Lying About Sweden
Aftonbladet is probably the biggest newspaper in Sweden. When Donald Trump mentioned what happened “last night in Sweden” they were quick to mock him, and soon followed up with a serious article attempting to debunk Ami Horowitz documentary Stockholm Syndrome.
It’s just a shame it’s full of fallacies.
Let’s begin.
Claim: “Weapons crime and rapes have risen since Sweden opened its borders.”
Aftonbladets reply: In 2015 there were 5 290 reported rapes, a 12 percent decrease compared to 2014.
As you can clearly see in their own linked source, sex crimes have doubled since 2012. They decreased a little in 2014, only to rise again in 2015. So the way they selectively pick and choose here is devious. I’d also like to mention that women’s comfortability with reporting crime has actually gone down.
They go on to say: According to the authorities 13 percent of the Swedish population was subject to a criminal act in 2015. In comparison with 2014 that’s an increase, but approximately the same as 2005. According to a report from Brå 2015, leathal violence has decreased in Sweden the past years.
The amount of people dying from violence has gone down over the years, but attempted murder has gone up since the 80’s. All this means is that emergency medical services have gotten better at saving people. When the media happily reports about drops in violence it’s referring to limited periods of time, where it does indeed drop.
When it comes to lethal violence it has increased with 29% since 2014. What we can see is that since the 90’s there’s less violence towards children, especially within the family, and that accounts for half the decrease. But there’s an increase of lethal violence from criminals who seek retribution over beef.
The number of crimes with illegal guns have increased and square-offs have moved out into the streets. It’s now more common that perpetrator and victim don’t know each other. In 9 years, gun violence has increased by 84%.
One example of this is the guy who, during a conflict with another criminal, fired a submachine gun in front of a school. Children were running away scared. This isn’t exactly the typical thing you’d see in Sweden 20 years ago.
Also, do note the following statistics from the correctional facility, during 1997-2009, page 28: 47% of prisoners serving long-time sentences were born in Sweden and still Swedish citizens. 13,1% came from a different country but became citizens, and the remainder aren’t Swedish citizens. In other words, 53% of prisoners serving long-time sentences have a foreign background.
In short: The increasing violence poses the biggest threat towards other immigrants living in these rough neighborhoods. Not upper-middle class Swedes.
Claim: “Refugees are behind the rise of crime, but authorities are not disclosing theses facts.”
Aftonbladets reply: There are no statistics to support this statement. When it comes to people being convicted for crimes, Brå does not regularly investigate their ethnicity.
Of course there’s no statistics to support this statement, when the government stopped carrying statistics in 2005! Probably because they didn’t like the results that were showing. Heck, the police even got a special code in 2015 to keep all crimes pertaining to migrants secret.
The latest report (from 2005) hinted at severe overrepresentation, immigrants were 5.5 times more likely to be registered as suspects of rape. When the overrepresentation is that high, rapes will increase by a lot as that part of the population grows as well.
Most immigrants don’t rape. But with an overrepresentation like that, they don’t have to in order for a lot of rapes to occur.
Norway and Denmark found similar numbers, and a police report in 2016 showed 80% of sex attacks in bathing houses were by newly arrived migrants.
Aftonbladet goes on to say: On the other hand, there is a report from 2005 that shows that people born outside of Sweden are more likely to be suspects in crimes compared to people being born in Sweden. According to the liberal web site Migrationsinfo.se, it has to do with conditions related to their home country, standard of living in Sweden and discrimination within the court system.
That’s nonsense. BRÅ themselves literally stated on page 21 in their report that after checking for socioeconomical factors the overrepresentation largely remained, meaning that you can’t use segregation or low social status as an excuse anymore.
On page 23 it says that it’s reasonable to assume discrimination might exist, but if so it only accounts for a minor part of the equation. And page 9 explains that registered criminality varies between ethnic groups. Americans, Western Europeans and South-East Asians have the lowest registered crime, while those from the MENA-region have the highest.
Claim: “160 000 refugees arrived in Sweden 2016.”
Aftonbladet themselves point out that in 2016, 30’000 people applied for refugee status, but in 2015 163’000 applied. Getting numbers mixed up is human, but an error is an error, so I’ll give you that.
Claim: “Of the refuges that arrived in Sweden 2016, only 500 are working.”
Aftonbladet admit to this being true, adding: “It depended – among other things – on the fact that the authorities didn’t prioritize employment when the wave of immigrants was at its peak.”
And: “In addition to residence and education, the asylum seekers are receiving one of the state’s most generous financial allowances.”
I have no idea why they are boasting about this. Our generous welfare is the reason migrants kept traveling to Sweden even after they had arrived in Denmark for safety, and when interviewed by the media they blatantly say it’s because of bigger welfare checks. Does that sound like an asylum seeker, or a luxury seeker?
Claim: “There are no-go zones in vulnerable suburbs where the police don’t want to enter because it’s “too dangerous”.”
Aftonbladet write: In February 2016, the police released a report listing the most vulnerable suburbs in Sweden. That was the beginning of the term “no go-zones” being used. But it wasn’t used in the report, and it’s not true the police are too afraid to enter these areas.
Ok, so this is a pretty funny one. State media SVT recently interviewed a cop who said that there is no such thing as no-go zones; since certain areas are so problematic that the police is needed there constantly. ….Does that sound like safe areas to you?
The interview is in English – since Swedish journalists are now working hard to change the image of Sweden abroad – and they even admit to there being over 50 areas where the police and ambulances get attacked by residents when they travel inside, where many people don’t dare become witnesses for the police, and where there are parallell structures in place that replace society’s legal structures – all of these things are true.
But they still don’t wanna call it a “no go zone”, because technically they still travel inside. If you ask me, this is just an annoying game of semantics.
With “no go zones” you’re not trying to say that some places are impossible to visit for everyone at all times. It’s enough that there’s neighborhoods under such high control by criminals that ambulances and firetrucks can’t enter without police escort. The ambulance union demanded riot gear to be able to do their job, for christ sake.
In Seved the post office refuses to hand out packages due to safety reasons. In Tensta they haven’t had a meter maid for 8 months, because they’re afraid to go there. The same thing with journalists visiting Bäckby, Husby, Rinkeby, etc, they get attacked for holding up cameras.
The point isn’t that these neighborhoods are impossible to enter. The point is that non-locals percieved as “intruders” get attacked, and these areas are highly problematic to the point where you start wondering who’s in charge: the cops or the criminals?
Not to mention that there are certainly areas where the cops don’t even travel inside. Jacob Ekström is a police officer who works in the notorious ghettos Rinkeby and Kista, and when interviewed by F&F he literally says: “If we hunt a car it can drive to certain adresses in Tensta where a lone cop car can’t pursuit – because it will result in stone throwing or riots. Those are no-go areas. We can’t reach those.”
The area Koppargården in Landskrona once had a single officer surrounded by 50-70 people who acted very threatening. He pulled his gun to defend himself and the tension got real ugly. They spat him in the face and cussed him out while he called for backup, and when 10 police patrols arrived they didn’t even drive into the area. They stuck around outside of Koppargården, because they were afraid to start a riot. A single cop had to go inside and the two mutually calmed down the masses so they could escape.
Now tell me: How would you describe an area like this?
It is intellectually dishonest to act like Sweden doesn’t have messed up ghettos. The police report in it’s entirety can be read here. They describe how there’s areas where criminal gangs exercise a large amount of influence over the neighborhood, and how it makes life miserable for all the residents there – who are mainly immigrants. These people aren’t helped by Swedish journalists trying to downplay the issue.
I’m certainly not a fanboy of Trump, there are lots of things I don’t agree with him on politically. But I’m not a fan of our mainstream-media either. This is the type of lazy agenda-driven reporting that makes them lose trust with the people.
I hope you enjoyed this read.
Sincerely,
Angry Foreigner
