Comment by BugBrother | Hacker News Reader

Comment by BugBrother | Hacker News Reader

I got a surreal feeling when reading about the police reaction. When I lived in Stockholm a decade ago, I called in a few times.

The worst case was in the subway, when a big black guy talked incoherently in bad Swedish and started to beat on the windows with a crowbar.

I shrugged, walked to the next wagon and called the police. I gave up when I realised they weren't interested in hearing which subway line I was on and what time, so they could meet up with it.

At least they answered that time...

The point is, not long after some crazy person killed a few people with a baseball bat or something outside a subway station. I always wondered if it was the same person. (I didn't see any pictures in the newspapers, which implies an immigrant, like the crowbar guy.)

It doesn't matter if it was the same person, a bunch of violent crazy and/or drugged people will destroy others' lives as long as they are outside.

(As I understand, the Finnish police otoh is well respected and trusted. I don't really know about Denmark/Finland.)

Yeah that's Sweden for you.

Actually recently the cops have been told not to engage when a crime is occurring, and instead just to take notes. They don't want riots.

A week ago a riot occurred in Rinkeby (islamic enclave) when a cop stopped a speeding car.

No, they just can't be arsed to work, that's all.

Not sure how serious you are, but this was a directive that came from the top.

They take shit from thugs AND from politician trying to score easy points painting the cops as the bad guys.

I don't understand how it's still possible to score points that way if things described by grangrandparents are true.

Public should have switched to "cops are bad guys unless there is an immigrant involved" long ago.

It should be noted that this is (obviously) not a general directive in Sweden but rather about certain types of crimes in certain poor, problematic areas where distrust of police (and other government agencies) is very high.

Anyway this isn't a solution to anything. What do they want, create their own Gaza out of those problematic areas?

Ready and waiting to hear your solution.

guard-of-terra for Mayor!

Strict immigration quality laws (as in, three strikes and you pay for your one way ticket home). Fix police funding and then demand performance from them. If there's a problematic area, put enough cops there so they pluck everybody undesirable one by one until the rest is benign and/or got the hint. Control unemployment (we don't just want low numbers, rather evenly distributed), discourage walled settlements, try to mix people together. Instead of providing welfare checks, make policemen/teacher jobs. Still can't find work? Try hard or get booted (if you're some kind of immigrant, of course).

The main take off is - it works until you break it. If you have a broken socity, stop complaining and fix it, it's absolutely doable.

The real problem is that this is how criminals can create a "no go" area for the police.

That is the first step to ghettos controlled by criminals. So Sweden seems to go the way of Brazil's favelas. Note that Brazil is going the other way, finally. :-(

wow really? Strange that there has been no reporting of this "riot" from last week. Islamic enclave? are you actually being serious? there are people from many backgrounds there, yes a large portion seem to be Muslim but calling it an Islamic enclave is preposterous and just gives away your real motivation

>>Strange that there has been no reporting of this "riot" from last week

Literally 10 seconds with Google:

http://www.dn.se/sthlm/200-i-rinkebyupplopp-polis-skadad-av-...

(The publication date is "2014-07-24 08:31". ~ A week ago.)

>> I shrugged, walked to the next wagon and called the police. I gave up when I realised they weren't interested in hearing which subway line I was on and what time, so they could meet up with it.

Your other option is the police in the USA - <insert overreacting in some way while investigating the alleged criminal>

Your other option is: you press a button in a wagon, ask to call the cops to the wagon with problematic passenger, and on the next station cop patrol is already there on the platform waiting eagerly. And the issue pretty much dies right there. Come on, it's totally doable, isn't it?

P. S. I understand that usage of the word "wagon" makes native english speakers' heads explode.

The term is "Swenglish". I am losing control. My Swedish use as much US/English idioms as my English use Swedish idioms. :-(

tunnelbana == tunnel + path/track

tunnelbanevagn == subway car.

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