According to information received by the Swedish newspaper, the violent riots that followed the appearances of far-right politician Rasmus Paludan were not sufficiently prepared in advance.
The Swedish police leadership is heavily criticized for handling violent riots across the country at Easter and for not being prepared for the situation. Tells about the review newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) (switch to another service)who is familiar with internal police communication and interviewed several police officers.
According to DN, more than 300 police have already reported injuries in the four-day riot, in which police were stoned and police cars set on fire. There was a riot in places with a far-right politician Rasmus Paludan occurred or intended to occur.
The Danish-Swedish Paludan is known for appearances in which he burns a Muslim holy book in the immigrant-dominated areas of the Qur’an.
Police: We were just trying to do something
According to Dagens Nyheter, urgent requests to come to work for the policemen who were on leave began to rain at Easter. Examples of messages published by the magazine illustrate the seriousness of the situation: “Urgent. We need to get the troops together early tomorrow morning.”, “We need more [väkeä]. Call if you can. “,” The situation is really acute now. “
According to police officers interviewed by the newspaper, the police leadership panicked and was far too late. Prior to Easter, the police leadership had calculated that the same police could move from one city to another and take care of securing Paludan’s appearances in different locations.
When the riot then tied the cops to one city, the next place had to be fetched with new cops in a hurry. Riot-equipped police officers were transported to the scene from a couple of hundred miles away.
By the time the reinforcements finally arrived, the riot had already gotten out of hand.
– We were just trying to do something. The management was frozen and in shock, describes a specially trained police officer in an interview with DN.
Police sources also estimated that insufficient preparedness may have been driven by a desire to save on compensation and a desire by police districts to take control of their own territory.
Auxiliary forces not received because “it was too dangerous”
The first violent riots broke out on Maundy Thursday, but police did not ask for further confirmation of the events on Good Friday until the same day. In Örebro, for example, police only set up riot fences on Friday when it was too late.
Many specially trained police officers would have liked to help stop the riot, but had traveled elsewhere for Easter or had time to drink alcohol during the holidays due to a lack of precaution.
– It was horrible to see colleagues being exposed [väkivallalle] while unable to do anything, says the police interviewed anonymously.
In some places, the leadership also banned some police officers who wished to confirm the riot scene because they considered the situation too dangerous for them, DN reported. The relocation and cancellation of Paludan’s planned appearances was also used as a means to end the riot. Paludan was even held in police custody for some time.
– If you fail on Thursday, then hell will not fail on Friday, Saturday or Sunday either, the police who were at work on Easter confirm.