Some 200 youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze in a largely immigrant suburb of Stockholm on Tuesday, the second day of rioting triggered by the fatal police shooting of a man wielding a knife.Meanwhile, of course with no connection....
Dozens of windows were smashed, 10 cars and several containers were set on fire, and seven police officers were injured. Cars and containers were also set ablaze in another of the Swedish capital's suburbs, Fittja, although police said it was not clear whether the two events were linked.
The unrest began Sunday night in response to the May 13 shooting, in which police killed a 69-year-old man who had locked himself in an apartment in Husby, west of Stockholm. Police refused to give the nationality of the victim.Six youths were arrested early Tuesday, but two were released after questioning, police spokesmanJorgen Karlsson said.
Many local residents see the shooting as an example of police brutality, and the violence has stirred debate in Sweden.
Known for its strong welfare state and egalitarian society, the country has nonetheless had the biggest surge in inequality of any OECD country over the past 25 years, according to a recent publication by the global economic watchdog.
"This is not OK. We will not give in to violence," Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said. "We must all help out to regain calm. The residents of Husby need to get their neighborhood back."
Reinfeldt added that Husby — where around 80 percent of the roughly 11,000 residents are first- or second-generation immigrants — has been going in the right direction during his seven-year tenure, with employment increasing and crime falling.
The atmosphere was tense on Tuesday, with residents expressing both anger at police and sadness about the destruction. City workers were seen clearing the debris of a burnt-out container and documenting fire damage.
"It's frustrating and difficult to see how those of us who live here get affected by something that has nothing to do with us," said university student Muhamad Abukar, 24. "And then outsiders get the idea that we are animals, uncivilized."
Abukar said he had seen the riots from his balcony and that those involved were mainly teenagers aged 13 to 16.
Reza Al Bazi, 14, and his friend Sebastian Horniak, 15, said they witnessed the violence throughout the night.
"The people of Husby have become tired of police brutality, so they react like this," said Al Bazi.Horniak claimed he witnessed police firing warning shots in the air and calling a woman a "monkey." ''I got upset yesterday because I saw police attack innocent people, they beat a woman with a baton," he said.
Horniak's claims of racist remarks were backed up by the organization Megafonen, which represents citizens in Stockholm's suburbs. One of its representatives, Quena Soruco, said she heard police use abusive words such as "rats, hobos, negroes."
Sweden's Justice Minister Beatrice Ask told the TT news agency that anyone who feels mistreated by police should file a report.
Prosecutors have launched an internal probe into the shooting. Police say they shot the man in self-defense because he attacked them with a knife when they broke down the door to an apartment where he had locked himself up with a woman.
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Riots grip Stockholm suburbs after police shooting
Dozens of cars have been set alight during the riots
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Rioters have lit fires and stoned emergency services in the suburbs of Stockholm for the third night in a row after a man was shot dead by police.
Incidents were reported in at least nine suburbs of the Swedish capital and police made eight arrests.
On Sunday night, more than 100 cars were set alight, Swedish media report.
Police in the deprived, largely immigrant suburb of Husby shot a man dead last week after he reportedly threatened to kill them with a machete.
The founder of a local youth group told Swedish media the riots were a reaction to "police brutality".
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters on Tuesday that Sweden would not be intimidated by rioters.
'Opportunistic'
On Tuesday night, cars were torched in western and southern Stockholm, and stones were thrown at police officers and firefighters. One area affected, Rinkeby, saw similar rioting in 2010.
Kjell Lindgren of the Stockholm police told Aftonbladet newspaper that the unrest had spread from the original rioting in Husby.
"It feels like people are taking the opportunity in other areas because of the attention given to Husby," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Reinfeldt said: "We've had two nights with great unrest, damage, and an intimidating atmosphere in Husby and there is a risk it will continue.
"We have groups of young men who think that that they can and should change society with violence. Let's be clear: this is not okay. We cannot be ruled by violence."
More than 80% of Husby's 12,000 or so inhabitants are from an immigrant background, and most are from Turkey, the Middle East and Somalia.
Mr Reinfeldt said the situation in the district had been improving in recent years, with more jobs being created and a falling crime rate.
'Monkey' slur
However, local people accused the police of racism.
Rami al-Khamisi, a law student and founder of the youth organisation Megafonen, told the Swedish edition of online newspaper The Local that he had been insulted racially by police. Teenagers, he said, had been called "monkeys".
He said the crowd was reacting to a "growing marginalisation and segregation in Sweden over the past ten, 20 years" from both a class and a race perspective.
Justice Minister Beatrice Ask said anyone who felt mistreated by police should file a report.
An investigation is under way into the shooting of a man, 69, last Monday after police were called out to a home in Husby where the man was allegedly brandishing a machete.
Police say they tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the man after learning a woman was inside the flat along with him. They then stormed the flat.
QQuote: "Rami al-Khamisi, a law student and founder of the youth organisation Megafonen, told the Swedish edition of online newspaper The Local that he had been insulted racially by police. Teenagers, he said, had been called "monkeys"."
Sticks and stones, boy, sticks and stones. Also consider the insults routinely spat at unveiled female pedestrians by these "monkeys" - or the daily recitation of prayers mocking infidels into eternal damnation.
Send every protestor and their entire blood line back to the land of the first immigrant member of their family's historic origins.
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