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As early as 2012, Rinkeby’s social manager raised the alarm that the situation was unsustainable.
It turned out to be bad political news and Sakir Demirel cleaned up with a bag of money and retired early.
– I was very disappointed, he says eight years later, sunk in a sofa on the floor of Kungsholmen, 112 square meters of former tenancy that was converted into a condominium in a time that according to the ideological point of view can be described as golden as scandalous.
– These young people who are now murdering and being murdered … many of them have passed our child psychiatry and social services. We have known them for a long time.
Photo: MAGNUS WENNMAN
After raising the alarm about the situation in Rinkeby, social director Sakir Demirel was reassigned. He then chose to retire early.
The report you wrote The Council of Social Citizens was recorded for safety only after a while, even though it was leaked to the press by cursed employees and still made public.
Back then, as now, there were early efforts to help young children to a better future than serious crime can offer only marginally sexier to an average person in power than, say, the EU’s multifaceted regulation on how the eggs should be handled.
Elections are to be won and if the focus is on Stockholm City Hall or Rosenbad, proposals for life imprisonment or anonymous witnesses are more interesting than proposals for preventive measures, which will however be dismissed with disdain as another round of talk. naive about leisure centers.
But let me take it from the beginning.
Sakir Demirel was born in Turkey, but love took him to Sweden in 1979. He remembers that he tried to learn Swedish by turning on the TV and listening to the ruling verbiage of the prime minister with whom the monarchy agreed at that time, Thorbjörn Fälldin, something that should have required so much patience. like coming from Somalia to Borlänge. and try to become a skilled bandy player.
He settled in Rinkeby and after some 30 years serving the city of Stockholm, his career was crowned with becoming a social administrator for the district.
Moderate Anna König Jerlmyr was a citizen social counselor at the time. Demirel remembers her as modern and progressive and interested in new solutions.
Photo: MAGNUS SANDBERG
Anna König Jerlmyr (M), former Stockholm Council of Social Citizens.
– The Social Welfare Board constantly received leaked reports on the situation. There were no traps, no manipulations, but nuances were lacking. A politician who doesn’t live or work in a suburb like Rinkeby didn’t really understand what it was like.
We are sitting in the living room. Coffees and cakes have been featured. In one corner there is a black clock with hands that do not move.
I will think of the wise words of the philosopher Bertrand Russell: just hold on to your opinions and you will be right twice in your life.
– I was asked to write based on my own experiences about how I saw the situation in Rinkeby.
Photo: Carolina Byrmo
Rinkeby Square. Stock Photography.
He found the assignment honorable. I spent a few weeks on it. I heard what the employees had to say. There were a few hundred years of total professional experience in the end result.
– Our focus was bigger than these guys now shooting each other. We saw large groups who did not pass school, who lived in poor conditions at home, who had no faith in the future.
The report was sent. After a while, a reaction arose from some head of the social administration. The investigation was written on the paper of the administration. It was not good. Worse still was that it garnered attention in the newspapers.
– There were no objections to the merits of the matter. But they offered me a new job, some useless paperwork.
Sakir Demirel, 63, accepted a rather favorable proposal for early retirement.
His story is a party submission. There is certainly another version. But when shit hit the fan and reporters wanted to talk to the city council, the subversives were sent to the front and ruined their eternal “no comments.”
What can we do then draw conclusions from this sad story?
For people on the left, it is possible that moderates ignored the alarm in the suburbs.
If he had belonged to the right, he probably would have had a contract with the police in Gothenburg in the early 2000s. He was so concerned about development that he mapped youth at risk and warned that a new generation of serious criminals was about to. to grow.
But the fools in local power were more interested in continuing to celebrate that ten years earlier they had managed to persuade Volvo to pay for a new opera than in listening to what the police had to say.
I could go on forever, but I’ll be content to recall the findings of a government investigation ten years ago. 5,000 young people in Sweden were considered to be at risk of being drawn into criminal networks. Measures were proposed. But not many of them turned.
However, my purpose is not to pursue political parties. My point is to calmly note that the political interest in improving the life chances of young people in vulnerable areas appears to be as modest today as it was ten years ago.
And few seem eager to learn from yesterday’s mistakes.
All the public The conversation turns to new and stricter laws, what are we going to do with tougher grips since killers are rarely caught?
Shouldn’t at least one or two changes be aimed at trying to stop the new recruitment into the gangs?
If past efforts are mentioned, it is a peculiar police-style move in being able to lead children to serious crimes. As if the police didn’t have enough to do already. As if the police had the skills to make those kinds of complex decisions.
– I do not know how many documents I have signed on cooperation between social services, the school, the provincial council and the police over the years. But they are only cosmetic, says Sakir Demirel.
Photo: MAGNUS WENNMAN
“We need a more nuanced debate. Politicians are just barking and barking,” says former social director Sakir Demirel.
He speaks of “target groups” in a way that is reminiscent of an accountant lecturing potential investors about future business opportunities.
– If the social services operations were a private company, it would have declared bankruptcy long ago. Too many are concerned with too much administration. Instead of going out in real life and meeting people.
Sakir Demirel cut down Quickly, Thoughts go in different directions, he has turned 70, but the embers have not died down.
– We must remember that many of these children are the children of parents who come from countries without democratic traditions, without social assistance and who distrust the authorities. They are not easy to reach, but we must not give up.
– I highlighted in my report that the relevant authorities did not have sufficiently developed forms of cooperation. New methods were needed. That is still the case.
– And we need a more nuanced debate. The ministers are barking and barking. That was not the case.
Close your eyes for a moment, before continuing.
– I don’t think politicians understand how bad it is in some areas.
Photo: MAGNUS WENNMAN
“I don’t think politicians understand how bad it is in some areas,” Sakir Demirel said.
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