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It’s been a common theme in reporting here in Sweden when people are murdered that it’s “only” criminals shooting “each other”, and today there was a news entry about how “actually eighteen people total without connection to the gangs have been injured or killed in the crossfire these last few years”.
As if the other victims weren’t people too.
They’re human, they’re us. We, the people, are shooting each other.
Thinking about their deaths in terms of “they fell a long time ago; they fell the moment they joined the gang” is twisted and it’s not my jam but if that’s what it takes to help you see the tragedy, it’s a heck of a lot better than “who cares? They’re criminals”.
And even those so far gone into racism that they don’t care about human lives, can’t they at least realize how messed up it is that the fabric of our society is so alienating and unwelcoming that people are joining gangs instead?
Yeah, I was wrong when this reporting first started up and my first take was “crime is down actually”. It was, but that was a fluke blip in the stats. It’s become pretty clear since then that it’s way up. I was the equivalent of a climate denier and I regret that. I need to acknowledge that explicitly.
The other take I’ve been on the last few years, that the fachos’ “harsher punishments”, “harder tactics” line is not the answer, I’m still on that. That should’ve been my take from the beginning. Those harsher punishments are not evidence-based, they don’t help you catch the shooters, and they increase alienation since they target immigrants specifically.
Truth is, I don’t know what to do. A lot of us don’t. But it’s my genuine belief that the bluebrown efforts to widen the chasm between “immigrants” and “citizens” is exacerbating or even causing the problem.