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It was a huge shock: A twelve-year-old boy was killed in a hail of bullets in August in front of a McDonalds in the Stockholm suburb of Botkyrka.
She was an uninvolved victim of a longstanding conflict in which 50 gangs with 1,500 members are involved in the Stockholm metropolitan area alone. While gangs competing for drug markets used to intimidate their rivals with stab wounds, targeted killings are now taking place.
At least 15 random victims
Automatic firearms are often used. At least 15 passersby have been killed by stray bullets or bomb attacks in Sweden since 2010.
In 2018, a study compared 13 European countries and concluded that nowhere else are there as many shootings between 15-29 year olds as in Sweden. Narrow apartment blocks in the suburbs, integration problems in neighborhoods with a high proportion of immigrants and the fourth highest youth unemployment in the EU after Greece, Spain and Italy are possible explanations.
Not only are attacks on other gangs increasing, but also explosive shelling: anyone who can blow up cars or even buildings gives a clear warning to rivals. Last year there were 257 demolition attempts in Sweden, more than double the number in 2018.
Eight-year-olds are already violent
Both the perpetrators and the victims are getting younger and younger. Swedish Police Chief Anders Thornberg said police increasingly encounter young people between the ages of 8 and 14 who are willing to use violence and have guns and drugs with them.
The gang problem now also threatens the green left government, as the situation has improved little despite a wide catalog of measures. Swedish national right-wing democrats are calling for immigration to be restricted.
Other voices demand an immediate increase in the police force. Police Chief Anders Thornberg has no quick fix: the situation could get worse before “development can be reversed.” The gang problem had grown for decades, and the solution also took time.
