What’s the Matter With Sweden?
... I read, in the London Times, “Sweden’s slide from peaceful welfare state to Europe’s gun-killings capital.”
Today, Sweden is Europe’s capital of gun homicide. Last year, according to the Swedish national council for crime prevention, 63 people were shot and killed: more than double the European average and, per capita, multitudes higher than London or Paris.
… The effect on Swedish society has been striking. As well as the lives lost, the violence has brought down a government, changed laws and policies, and become the biggest talking point in a country that once prided itself on its reputation as a peaceful welfare state...
... to be fair, Sweden’s homicide rate is considerably lower than ours. But it is now significantly higher than homicide rates in quite a few other European countries, including Norway. Why is that?...
The overwhelming majority of the people involved in gang crime are young Swedish men who were born abroad or whose parents or grandparents emigrated to the country.
So Sweden’s crime problem isn’t really about the Swedes....
... voters foolishly believe that being tough on crime will lead to less crime.
Western Europe’s crime problem is largely a consequence of those countries’ immigration policies...