I have relatives in Sweden and I find the disparity between what is reported by external (non-Swedish) media about events happening in Sweden and what the Swedish mainstream media itself reports is deeply disturbing.
Parts of Sweden are descending into chaos, some parts (Rosengård in Malmö. Biskopsgården in Göteborg, Järva in Stockholm, etc - these are the 'no-go zones') already have. The news you get to see in the US and elsewhere often comes from these areas. Elsewhere in Sweden things are more like they used to be, although the problem with 'utanförskapsområder' (areas where a parallel society takes shape, areas which are no longer part of Swedish society) is growing. This is caused in large part by the fact that migrants are allowed to choose where they want to live. They often choose to live with others from their home countries and/or cultures, which leads to areas becoming dominated by non-Swedish and for the largest part non-western culture, which in turn leads to the remaining native Swedes moving out either voluntarily or being harassed until they leave. It is these areas which can turn into no-go zones where gangs rule the streets, where police can not operate without being harassed or literally attacked, where both ambulances and fire trucks get bombarded with stones by 'angry youths'.
In other words, these areas end up in a spiral of violence and destruction, leading to an exodus of people - native Swedes as well as well-integrated migrants - who are fed up with the violence. The ones who remain are either those who cause the problems or those who can not afford to move for whatever reason.
My grandma actually lives in Biskopsgården, I go there often.
Would I let my children go to school in Sjumilaskolan? Not if I could avoid it. But I also don't worry that my grandma will be harassed by the youths or the niqab ladies. Because she hasn't been.
The failure in these areas is obviously a huge problem and the state has fallen short in dealing with the issues. Hopefully the court system will take the hint and start helping the police but that's for the future to tell...
But I also remember the same kind of areas from 20-30 years ago. Where the social services put the drug addicts and alcoholics, where several cars would randomly get trashed because someone had a party, where the local nazi gang would show up to beat up an immigrant because of some rumor etc. These areas are not a new problem. I guess the big difference is they've gone from knives to guns. These are the areas where the most vulnerable in society live and everyone who can leave.
There is also the difference of the scale of the problem, coupled with the polarisation in the media which has led to knee-jerk reactions when it comes to reporting on the issues - think of the way Dagens Nyheter (one of the bigger daily newspapers in Sweden) handled - or should I say covered up - the sexual abuse going on at the 'We are Sthlm' festivals. They sat on this news for 5 months until it was no longer tenable to do so due to the same kind of abuse happening in Cologne and elsewhere.
Think also of the infamous 'Code 291' used by the police for crimes where migrants are involved and the orders to keep these events out of the news 'because it might favour SD [1]'. This polarisation has led to an large reduction in trust in police and the justice department, as well as an all-time low trust level for journalists. The police should be politically neutral, just like the state media. Coloured reporting by the media is one thing, but a police force which acts out of political intent is an order of magnitude worse and something which is normally associated with failed states. Seen in that light the current police chief's clearly political stance is not just unfortunate but a real destabilising factor in Swedish society.
[1] SD or Sweden Democrats is a political party which wants to change the Swedish stance on migration, this party is shunned by all other parties and by most of the media while it averages around 20% of all votes.
'We are Sthlm' was not judged newsworthy until the Cologne stuff. Now every potential groping at every festival is newsworthy, to the point where it's getting ridiculous.
And are you telling me the police literally has a code that singles out EVERY migrant related incident in their system? And that this would supposedly hide it from someone? Obviously that has worked out swimmingly and they really thought it would be 'secret'. Heck, coverup central DN has the very story being quoted on the Norwegian wiki article for Kode 291. Reading your replies in this thread I can understand why they'd want to keep stuff back at least until the situation settles.
Code 291, the fighting at asylum seeker housing, migrants raping migrants, the high costs of taking care of the migrants and so on... all of it has been reported on extensively in the mainstream media, heck, it's even been reported on extensively by SVT and SR.
You can literally live in the SVT/SR media bubble and know about all this.
The area around 'Järvafältet'. Maybe I should have mentioned Tensta/Rinkeby/Husby et al as well but I don't think HN is interested in a detailed listing of Swedish problem-areas. Vivalla in Örebro, ... the list goes on and, unfortunately, is growing. Kronogården in Trollhättan might be next given the recent developments there.
I'm interested, actually, but only because the core parts of Stockholm are so immaculate that it's hard to imagine the city (or its suburbs) might have any "sketchy" parts. Though I'm sure it must have its soft underbellies, if you're willing to go out a bit.
The "truth" in this case might just be based on your bias also, don't you agree? The parent comment could just as equally care about the truth in his own bias, who is the one who can judge what is objectively the truth or not?