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Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

theguardian.com

131–140 of 179 posts

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#131
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for in Sweden.

Wikipedia says robbery, assault and sexual assault ("contact crimes") together made up 12% of reported crimes in 2003 Sweden. Theft related were 53%. The article claims that in 2007 Sweden "violent crimes and robberies make up about 75 percent of all crimes reported in Sweden." I'd say they've conflated theft and robbery in that article, possibly a translation issue, possibly fear mongering. (edit: and this is backed…

That's particularly likely given the quote where the national police chief is quoted as talking about thefts.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#132
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

d-intl.com is run by a bunch of paranoid and outright crazy neo-fascist. It's extremely racist and have close ties to the Norwegian terrorist Ander Bering Breivik as well as to the violent English Defence League(EDL). It's not by any means a decent source for anything.

Well thats just like your opinion, and not true at all. The problem in Sweden is the same as in Denmark only worse. The media is controlled by leftists to a degree that almost no rightwing views are ever presented. In Denmark 80% of journalists vote to the left, and we only have one or two papers who present the 55% of the population who vote on the right wing. The same is true in Sweden only worse.

> The same is true in Sweden only worse.

I would need a good source for this, since some newspapers in Sweden are rather right-wing with even some quite extreme libertarian columnists.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#133
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are being racist. What you're saying is that immigrants are somehow more inclined to commit crimes simply because they're immigrants. That _is_ a racist statement and you're also ignoring the real reason. The reason crime is increasing is that Sweden has become a more unequal and segregated society. Immigrants have been hit harder by this development because of, for example, discrimination on the job market. So b…

"Immigrant" is not a "race". That said, a very recent report in the UK shows that immigrants are more productive and add value in the UK, contrary to right wing hate mongering. No idea if that is the same anywhere else, but it does show a difference between what we are told and the actual economic facts.

While it is true that "immigrant" is not a "race", the idea that swedes are inherently less criminal than all other ethnicities is still racist.

One might argue that "racist" should be replaced with the term "xenophobic" or something like that. However the underlying assumption is still that some groups are "better" than others simply because of their ethnicity.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#134

Murders are down 50% from 1990s, and the number of victims of street violence is down 30% the last 5 years. But these numbers are not unique for Sweden. The one type of violence that is up is for organized crime. http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/antalet-mord-halverat-sedan... (list of references in swedish) But yes, we have a very ineffective police force, everyone knows this. We have more police personnel then ever…

> Makes it easy to be a criminal in Sweden.

But apparently not easy enough for to actually encourage people to commit crimes.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#135
post #116
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it isn't, but it appears to be the endgame of representative democracy. I'd suggest reading Hobbes' Leviathan, or perhaps Hayek's Road to Serfdom, if you haven't already, as both anticipated this exact malaise. The US and the UK are in the terminal stages of decline. The representative democratic ideal is ultimately revealed to be a fiction, and the rule of law is a falsehood - for without a universally applied r…

This doesn't make sense to me. Why hasn't my native Norway ended up in this spot? Claiming "it is inevitable" isn't a valid argument, projecting to unlikely-seeming future scenarios can be used to prove anything. Just because two big nations have ended up with a screwed-up political system doesn't prove that it is an inevitability.

Try arguing with a Norwegian police officer. Even calmly. Odds of ending up in jail overnight are pretty high, though you might find one with a sense of humour now.

Norway is one of those countries where shouting insults at a police officer can be illegal where shouting those same insults at a random strangers would not be - there explicitly is one law for public officials and one for the rest.

The idea of public officials being above the rest is deeply embedded in the Norwegian system, and only started fading with the growth of the labour movement, and steady inclusion of the labour movement into the establishment starting with the first lasting Ap (labour party) government in 1935 onwards. Even then, Ap took up the baton (..), and wielded it against the groups to their own left, with extensive illegal political surveillance for decades.

The reason Norway is now as civilized as it is, is simple:

Norway eventually got filthy rich thanks to the oil. The average salary in Norway is about 70% above the average salary in the UK, for example, and the salary curve is far flatter.

We've had social democratic ministers from a party that used argue for revolution and was an early member of Komintern that are millionaires. A long range of our past "threats" to the establishment are now wealthy and firmly embedded in the establishment. The class struggle in Norway is largely "on hold", and the police is being wielded against immigrants instead.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#136
post #115
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police are there to: - Do you for speeding. - Protect the establishment. - Threaten violence. - Prop up the prison-industrial complex for the benefit of private corporations. They are categorically not there to help you. They never have been. This is a misapprehension that has been around since the days of Peel. A police force is the state's visible threat of violence against its populace, in order to exact contr…

Could you please add a bit of explanation as to why you are so confident that this interpretation of the role of the police should be regarded as categorical fact? Particularly in the case of UK, if your knowledge allows, given that we operate, at least in principle, an explicitly Peelian system of policing, in contrast to, for example, our European neighbours.

Consider the UK police treatment of demonstrators. It's one of the most brutal in Western Europe, and in many countries the very idea of a practice like kettling brings out images of fascist dictatorships.

I'm Norwegian. In Norway, government officials are often found participating in May day demonstrations, and it's a public holiday. Imagine my shock the first May day I experienced after moving to the UK, with police lining up units on horseback with shields all around and slowly forcing demonstrators into a smaller and smaller space and keeping them their for hours.

How does that fit with Peelian principles to you? It's the kind of method that is pretty much designed to provoke violence and distrust.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#137
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love your source. >The rise has stalled and the trend has been reversing with a slight decline of 1% in 2012 [1]. From your source: "Since 2003, the number of reported offences has increased by approximately 147,000 (+12%). Since 1975, the trend in the total number of reported offences has been characterised by a continuous increase." That a 1% decrease in the statistics of a single year represent any significant c…

Between 2003 and 2013, the Swedish population grew by 7.8%, which should be taken into account when looking at absolute numbers of reported crimes.

If you want to take that into account, then go to youtube and search for "Sweden riot", then you get a grip how the population grew, why the crime rates grew and why there are less people in jails while most smaller crimes are unsolved.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#138
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allow me to be blunt: Who the hell cares how safe you FEEL? That's just a reflection of how much the media has coloured your view on how much crime is prevalent. Says next to nothing about how safe you actually are, which is the only important statistic.

> Who the hell cares how safe you FEEL? You should, how safe you feel is part of your quality of life. It's correct that it may not reflect objective statistics, and that it's influenced by media, but the fact remains.. how you feel affects your life. For example the situation with healthcare. Your health insurance adds to your quality of life even when you are not using it.

You are always using your health insurance. Saying that you aren't using your health insurance when you are not currently filling out a form to pay for a doctor's visit or hospital stay is like saying that you're not using your car when your foot isn't currently on the gas.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#139
post #71
post #8

Another bullshit article. Crime in Sweden is insane, I don't feel safe anymore. We barely jail anyone for crimes, it's always fines and community bullshit service when it should be prison.

Allow me to be blunt: Who the hell cares how safe you FEEL? That's just a reflection of how much the media has coloured your view on how much crime is prevalent. Says next to nothing about how safe you actually are, which is the only important statistic.

>Who the hell cares how safe you FEEL?

Right-wing populist anti-immigrant political parties.

Re: Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets

#140
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well thats just like your opinion, and not true at all. The problem in Sweden is the same as in Denmark only worse. The media is controlled by leftists to a degree that almost no rightwing views are ever presented. In Denmark 80% of journalists vote to the left, and we only have one or two papers who present the 55% of the population who vote on the right wing. The same is true in Sweden only worse.

> The same is true in Sweden only worse. I would need a good source for this, since some newspapers in Sweden are rather right-wing with even some quite extreme libertarian columnists.

Gothenburg University JMK surveys all all journalists in Sweden, and last time:

41 procent Miljöpartiet (green party, left-wing) 15 procent Vänsterpartiet (communist, extreme left)

Public Service Radio Sveriges Radio: 54 procent Miljöpartiet (green party, left-wing) Public Service TV Sveriges Television: 52 procent Miljöpartiet (green party, left-wing)

http://www.journalisten.se/nyheter/svenska-journalister-fore...

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