The only solution to gun violence in Sweden is the one that society is not prepared to offer

Those without a future are not afraid of spending it behind bars.

The Week

A recent report in Sweden pointed to a spike in gun violence and murder, making it one of the few places in western Europe where such violence is rising, rather than falling.

Simple solutions - harsher sentences, restricting the movements of at-risk young people, security cameras - have all been proposed.

This week I wrote about it in Swedish and offered the column to one of the biggest newspapers, knowing in advance that it was going to be rejected. There’s a limit to how things can be discussed, what we can say and what we cannot say, what arguments may be used and the things that cannot be mentioned.

You’re expected to condemn the violence, as if that makes any difference.

You’re expected to treat the perpetrators - and, in some cases, the victims - as anti-social scumbags, as if they sprang up like weeds through cracks in the pavement, rather than as a product of a system that created and shaped them.

You’re expected to accept that harsher penalties and more police are the answer, when all they really are is a comfort blanket for clueless people who are scared by the headlines, regardless of the fact that status and social class protects them like a force-field, and that it is often their consumption of recreational drugs that creates the market forces that ends in the death of brown boys in shootings.

I’m reproducing a translation of the column (which was eventually published online by a local news agency that does excellent work) here.

I’m not sure that the content of the argumentation is universal, but I suspect it is. Even if it’s not, the point of it is to question what we are told and why, and how politicians get to set the agenda, despite their staggering arrogance, ignorance and stupidity.

Three people were shot dead this week. I knew who one of them was, but but I did not know him well.

The Column

Being Behind Bars Holds No Fear For Those With No Future

The only thing that could put an end to the deadly violence is the only thing that society is not prepared to offer.

Hope.

Last week, statistics were published showing that fatal shootings in Sweden have increased. On Monday, news broke that a man was shot in Husby and later died of his injuries. A few hours later a fatal shooting in Hjulsta.

Like everyone else, people in the suburbs are shocked when a fatal shooting occurs. But we are not surprised. Many of the teachers and youth workers have seen the kids they have taken care of slip into crime. Some have seen their old students die. They have often flagged early on that a child is on the wrong track, but nothing is done.

Little boys become big boys who see their parents toil without getting anything back. They dream other dreams, but see that the path to a decent life and a good job is slowly but surely closed off. They see that the parents can neither support nor stop them.

Even if you manage to get through primary school, high school and university, it usually does not help. Without a -son in your surname, your CV goes straight into the dustbin when looking for a job.

It is not certain that you can get through school either. Resources for special educators, student assistants and school meals have been slashed. Properly-qualified teachers are rejected because they are too expensive. Diagnoses, medical care and family support are lacking. Housing is built on football pitches, professional dreams suddenly covered with even more concrete.

Community supports are being shut down or relocated, and when everything is gone, there is nothing for many but to deal from the bench outside the grocery store.

No-one involved invests in a pension. No-one in the industry expects to grow old. It often ends up in an institution or in a coffin, but the place on the dealer’s bench is quickly filled by someone else who is willing to put his life on the line for some designer clothes and a hard-man reputation.

Before the gunsmoke has settled, the booming voices are heard from the other end of the blue line of the underground, the one that ends near the Swedish parliament building.

A stream of bottomlessly stupid drivel is offered as an answer by people who don’t even know what the question is. Harsher sentences and surveillance cameras and a ban on young people being in certain places. The ignorance knows no bounds, but you get your face on TV. After all, there are elections soon.

When you have no future, you’re not afraid of spending time behind bars. Those who do not have the respect of society are happy to accept its fear instead. Those who are not given the chance to earn a living legally choose other paths.

Lethal violence is not just a problem for the judiciary, but also for healthcare and schools, the labor market and housing policy and every single part of society. But no one wants to hear this. It has to be simple solutions that give quick results, preferably before the next election.

Such solutions do not exist.

For most of those who are already in the gangs, it is already too late - and it is also too late for the "runners" (teenage boys and girls who run errands for the gangs) who will get involved this summer, for want of something better to do.

There are so many talented young people that will never get an honest chance, and even if they were to get it, they will have to work twice as hard to get half as much.

If we really want to put an end to the fatal shootings, we must offer future generations an alternative. Everything else is just empty talk and vote-fishing.

It's won’t be easy.

And it's definitely won’t be cheap.

It will demand as much from the young people and the suburbs themselves as it will demand from Swedish society.

If we can not offer them hope, then we have nothing to offer them at all.

The Podcast

… this week took a turn towards sports. Euro 2020 is coming up and there are three Nordic nations taking part.

This week I published two podcasts - one about Finland, who have reached the finals of a major tournament for the first time, and a second with Claus Røndbjerg about Denmark, who won in 1992 and who are playing all their games at home.

There’ll be one about Sweden next week before I head to Copenhagen for the three group games that will be held there, and (whisper it) I’m beginning to get my love of football back.

Nature is healing.

Take care out there.