A year ago, a criminal leader was shot dead inside a hotel at Fridhemsplan in central Stockholm. Six months earlier, a man was stabbed to death on the sidewalk at a nearby intersection.
When the police carried out a special operation in the area in February this year for two weeks, 18 drug crimes and 14 crimes against the Knife Act were discovered, among other things.
Perhaps a large part of the crimes around Fridhemsplan, and other vulnerable places in the country, can be prevented in the future – if the government’s proposal on visitation zones is hammered through.
But when TV4 Nyheterna asked the country’s 290 municipal board chairmen if the system should be pushed through, the answer was clear. Out of 173 respondents, 105 announced that they were negative about the proposal, while only 53 were positive about it. 15 answered “don’t know”.
– I think it is very, very unfortunate that people are collectively singled out. It signals that if you stay in this place, or live here, then the police can search you for no reason whatsoever, says Karin Wanngård (S), chairman of the Stockholm municipal board.
All but one of the Social Democrats answered no. A large majority of all centrists who answered also say no. But one who answered yes is the liberal Torkild Strandberg, the municipality’s strongman in Landskrona.
– I have difficulty understanding the criticism. These areas are often very self-explanatory. For everyone who lives in accordance with the law, this is rather something that can be greeted with satisfaction, he says.
In the player above: This is how the proposal is supposed to work – and see more about the survey.