Sweden

The police chief's call to the Swedes: Form the citizens' guard
Published at 8:15 AM

Police chief Carin Götblad is again in trouble after a serious sawing of his own authority's and society's largely "naive" approach to how to deal with immigrant gang crime. Her call to the Swedes is now to form the citizens' guard: "Turn off the TV and take care of things".

Gang crime is not something that the police or the politicians will be able to stop. This is confirmed by the profiled police chief Carin Götblad in an interview with Dagens Nyheter.

- We have a naive society and naive legislation, she says.

According to Götblad, it is instead time for the, hopefully less naive, ordinary Swede to take matters into his own hands, get up from the TV sofa and "take hold of things".

As a police officer, Götblad has been involved in gang crime for decades, above all in trying to put a stop to the constant recruitment and replenishment of younger and younger talents out in the immigrant suburbs or "vulnerable exclusion areas" as they are usually called in politically correct Swedish. She has governments' official assignments in the area.

Now she is more disillusioned and sees no realistic possibility for the police, politicians and others in positions of official responsibility to sort out the mess. It must instead become a task for the Swedish people, she says.

Already 20 years ago, the problem of crime and gross anti-sociality in the wake of mass immigration had assumed uncontrollable proportions with drug dealing, gang wars, robberies, gang rapes, stolen cars and schools, throwing stones at the police and, as a result, a destroyed sense of security for the common man in the public space, not least for children, young people and women.

Since then, it has only gotten worse, year after year, despite repeated promises to "crack the gangs". But very little of what has been said has been implemented to stop the development. Otherwise, Carin Götblad dismisses it as "naive". Treating the worst gang criminals to pizza and appealing to them to "stop shooting" is an example of a project that has received a lot of criticism.

Now the police chief has no illusions left that the public will overcome the serious immigrant gang crime. We have completed the investigation, says Götblad and critically calls Sweden the record holder in investigations.

Breaking the gangs must instead become a task for the Swedish people, she believes. According to Götblad, each of us must now go out into the streets and stop the gangs. This in the absence of the "strong authorities and capable politicians" that would be needed.

The time to "paw around the problems" is over, says Götblad. It's time for everyone out in the cabins to spit in their fists and make an effort. The solution to the problem must "come from below", she says, guided by a feeling on the part of everyone that "now it will be enough".