Swedish foreign minister stabbed by knife

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Combat Ingrid
Spencer: This has bigger implications than other murders. Sweden has been very proud of being so peaceful and secure that even the top politicians don't need bodyguards all the time. Events like this ruin that feeling of safety. Loss of innocence in a way.

But sure, under different circumstances the other killings would have been breaking news.

I can understand that even if I disagree with the premise. I think a good analogy is the events of 9/11 in NYC. America is actually no less violent after the event, but there seems to be a strange sense of loss for many people.

[Chemical Ollie]

Guess who has been appointed (acting) foreign minister now? Jan O Karlsson, the least diplomatic person in the cabinet. He caused a scandal when he referred to GW Bush as " that bloody Texan". While the statement is technically correct, it is not the smartest thing to say at a dinner with the American ambassador.

Anna Lindh had the carisma and integrity to frankly express her view and still be close friend with her counterparts, while Jan O Karlsson is just an arrogant jackass. But I guess he will not last long on that position, as Göran Persson has plans to completely restructure the cabinet after the Euro referendum.

[statusperfect]

Jan O Karlsson has guts

[Gramphos]

We wll just have to wait and see what happens...

[Winston]

Originally posted by SpencerH


Sweden has an average of 10 murders/month.

Actually, they have 900 murders/year. Their murder rate vs. population is twice that of the US, 3 times that of Denmark, 5 times that of Norway and nearly 10 times that of Finland.

Interpol just published this last week. Although not all the statistics are necessarily from the same year (overview is published semi-annually), the above numbers were all from the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. Interpol notes that there are no significant variations from national trends during those years.

So basically Sweden isn't all that peaceful and non-violent, that we would all like to think.

[Chemical Ollie]

I think our high number of murders is a cause of our "hospitality". Most of our murders are either muslim women who are beaten to death by their family to punish them for adapting Swedish manners, or members of the Russian or Serb mafia who have internal shoot-outs. We also had a lot of nutcases going berzerk recently, an effect of drastic cuts in mental clinic fundings.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by statusperfect
Jan O Karlsson has guts

So did Anna Lindh. But she also had charm and wits, which Jan O Karlsson has nothing of.

[Footie Mad]

Those statistics are rubbish since all unnatural deaths in Sweden count as murders until resolved which gives a misleading number, comparing for example with Norway where a death is not labeled murder until confirmed so. Real number of murders are low.

[Kropotkin]

Winston: Those statistics are not accurate. The correct figure are along the line of 100-150 per year.

[Winston]

Accurate or not, they are the numbers Interpol use for comparison between countries.

[Kropotkin]

In fact, it seems like the latest figures are 219 for 2002, a 31% increase from the year before. A troublesome trend indeed but not at all 900.

[Kitschum]

Originally posted by Winston

Actually, they have 900 murders/year. Their murder rate vs. population is twice that of the US, 3 times that of Denmark, 5 times that of Norway and nearly 10 times that of Finland.

I suppose Interpol must have forgotten a decimal point in that figure. The actual number of reported crimes involving lethal violence in Sweden in 2002 was 98 (3 of which were committed in previous years). The higher figure mentioned by Kropotkin is misleading since it includes many cases which were initially reported as murders while turning out to have been either duplicate reports, accidents, suicides or from unknown causes, and so on. So the figure of 900 is not only not accurate, but in fact amazingly ridiculous. This also means that there was no increase in lethal violence last year. What was that they say about lies, damned lies and st- again?

For a source to this, see pages 32-33 (Chapter 2) in:

http://www.bra.se/extra/publication/?button_showpublication.287.=1

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As for Anna Lindh, I don't have words for what I'm feeling. It's just a shock and a tragedy and I can't express it properly yet.

[SpencerH]

One would expect that a Dane would know enough about Sweden to know that 900 murders/year is a ludicrous number. I only lived there for 7 years and I know its bull****. I was surprised to see it at 100-150.

[Winston]

Just referring what I read in the paper last Saturday. The number of 900 murder cases drew only minor objections from two quoted Swedish criminologists. Plus it has to be worth something for Interpol to publish it in their official country comparison.

The fact remains that Sweden has by far the highest murder rate per capita of any Nordic country. The notion that Sweden is an immensely peaceful and harmonic society is false.

[Rasbelin]

I have just read all articles by SVT and saw some of the videos. The press conference was quite informative, but the English part is fecking bad. They didn't summarise the events properly. Well, that God I'm blingual, because otherwise I would have no clue what's going on. I was abit confused when I read the morning paper today, but now I realised she actually has died. IMO a very sad incident. However I have to point out that you can't blame SÄPO too much for what happen, as it was unexpected. One thing that makes me confused is that how the feck is it possible no one notices someone probably in a hurry leaving NK. At least I do pay attention to such sights, even if a person wouldn't be running. Also the security guards of NK are a big question mark IMO. Where were they?

Hopefully the hitman will be caught soon.