On Tuesday, a gang leader was murdered in the district of Berga in Linköping. And the night walkers have seen up close how gang crime is increasing in the area. In the evenings, they meet children on soccer fields who are recruited by gangs.
– There are older people lurking in the activity park where the children play football. They try to recruit by being nice and offering things, says Michelle Jansson.
“Better to be shot in the head”
Together with Susanne Hanning Svensson, they meet children who go about the gangs’ errands – where the youngest are eight years old.
– Eight-year-olds get easier assignments. They drive around with whistles on their electric kicks and warn when we are coming so the gangs have time to move. We are not police but we are adults who act on what we see, says Susanne Hanning Svensson.
During the last four years, she has been walking at night in several vulnerable areas and she has seen how crime has escalated. Some of the twelve-year-olds wear bulletproof vests.
– They say that it is much easier to be shot in the head because then you die immediately and that is why they have worn vests, because then you don’t have to suffer, says Michelle Jansson.
Exposed: Light prey
For Michelle Jansson, this is nothing new. For a year now, she has seen how the gangs mainly recruit children with a disability, who come from broken families or are outcasts.
– They are terribly impressionable and seek adult contact. All of a sudden someone cares and then it’s so easy to fall there, says Michelle Jansson.
“Meet the children at the front”
After the murder of the 40-year-old gang leader on Tuesday, many people do not dare to go out in Berga. But for the two night walkers, fear is not an option.
– It’s terrible that many people don’t want to go out, but we have to dare to be adults, says Susanne Hanning Svensson.
The night walkers believe that a gathering of forces in society is needed to do something about the deadly violence.
– Nice articles are written by the politicians, but they are not out at the front and meeting the children who need the most help, says Michelle Jansson.