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As the gun problem in Sweden escalates to new heights, Antoine Allen is investigating why the shootings are spiraling out of control.
“Our children are actually dying – and that’s every week. Mother after mother, mother after mother bury their children “, the heartbreaking words I heard from Marita, a mother whose son Marley was shot in the streets of Stockholm.
Marita spends her time campaigning to end gun crimes while her son’s killer is still on trial.
When I traveled to Stockholm for my Task Report, Marita would have been the first person to tell me that the main factor driving the growing arms crime in Sweden was segregation, but it would not be the last.
The headlines about serious youth violence and gang crime are reminiscent of cities like London, New York and Sao Paulo.
But few would remember or know that Stockholm, Sweden, has become one of the worst places in Europe for gun violence.
Marita talks to Antoine Allen about the death of her son Marley. Credit: On assignment, ITV News
Abba, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Ikea, Spotify and Vikings are some of the things that come to mind when people think of Sweden.
And Sweden’s most streamed artist on Spotify, the rapper, Einar, could have become the next biggest Scandinavian export, but the 19-year-old, who died after being shot in the head, became another victim of the Swedish gun violence epidemic.
In 2021, Swedish police said there were at least 342 shootings and 46 gun-related killings, an increase of 25 shootings in 2015.
Swedish police search a car for weapons. Credit: On assignment, ITV News
As I walked the cobbled streets of downtown Stockholm, past the barely guarded royal palace and parliament, the inner city looked as clean, calm, and homogeneous as I had imagined — not all blond and blue-eyed, but the vast majority white.
Still, on a short taxi ride to Rinkeby, located in the suburbs of Stockholm, I saw a population of recent second- and third-generation migrants.
At first glance, Rinkby looked like any other city.
Just like Stockholm, it was clean and calm.
Still, as I walked around the small town with journalist Diamond Salihu, they told me stories of shootings in busy places, such as the city’s pizzeria, a park opposite the school, an apartment building, and garages.
There was a feeling that the Rinkeby people had always been a few yards from the scene of the gun murder.
Locals, police officers and an award-winning journalist told me that Sweden is a segregated country.
Polarly opposed communities are divided by class, race and wealth.
Yet gun crime in the country unites everything through the driving force of violence – the lucrative drug trade.
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Dealers, consumers and abusers play a role in the cycle of violence.
The illicit drug trade in Sweden is estimated at up to SEK 6.9 billion between 2015 and 2019.
According to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Sweden has the highest proportion of drug-related deaths in the European Union, with 81 cases per 1 million citizens, nearly four times the EU average.
Controlling the flow of drugs and money fuels organized crime and violence in Sweden, as well as in most cities around the world that have problems with gang and gun violence.
From Stockholm to London, the history of gun killings is not due to the fact that none of the cities is the “Wild West”, but the result of organized crime and social deprivation.
Police have seized weapons such as this Uzi pistol. Credit: On assignment, ITV News
In 2021, Health Minister Sajid Javid said that people who “have a cocaine line may not think they are harming someone or playing a role in a criminal enterprise.”
He claims that they are “the last link in the chain that has suffering, violence and exploitation at every stage.”
In Sweden, I would understand that young people are trained in gangs.
Gangs use Sweden’s minimum criminal law.
As a result, so-called “killers” are often “killed boys,” teenagers who know they can face up to four years in prison, even for murder.
My Task report took me on a journey where I talked to victims of gun violence and people trying to save lives and make the often divided country safe for all.
The Swedish government told the program it had increased sentences and police levels and closed a record number of offenders last year.
You can watch the full episode of On Assignment, Tuesday, May 31 at 10.45pm on ITV.
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