#1 Riots rock Stockholm suburb
Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 5:46 pm
Sidneymorningherald
I do have to ask why a crew of young adults are trying to get into a Jr High School dance in the first place as well. But also, even if they were denied solely because of their race, trying to burn down the damn school isn't an acceptable response. Sweden does have legal ways to challenge discrimination.
I found this on BBC but the report there was a paragraph so I tracked down something with more meat.Up to 100 youths rioted for two straight nights in a heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm, throwing bricks, setting fires and attacking the local police station, police say.
"They set fire to a school building ... They tried to set fire to the police station and other buildings and vehicles, but mostly they have thrown rocks and bricks at police and firefighters," police spokesman Mats Eriksson told AFP on Wednesday.
He said no one had so far been injured in the riots in the Rinkeby suburb, known for having one of the highest concentrations of first- and second-generation immigrants in Sweden.
The riots began late on Monday.
"The whole thing started when a group of young adults were not permitted to enter a junior high school dance. They got angry and started throwing rocks through the school windows," Eriksson said.
Up to 100 people went on a rampage, breaking 23 windows at the local police station and setting at least one car ablaze.
Three people were arrested late on Monday, but had since been released, Eriksson said, adding that "I would say things got worse" on Tuesday night, when a school and four or five cars were set on fire.
"Firefighters were there but they couldn't approach the blaze (at the school building, which was basically burned to the ground), because they were under attack," he said.
Eriksson said local police in the western part of Stockholm would receive reinforcements from across the capital to try to calm tensions in Rinkeby.
"This is an extremely serious situation and we must bring it to an end as soon as possible, otherwise it will keep getting worse," he said, adding the riots were "an attack on both the society as a whole and on the residents in the area".
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt also cautioned that the riots needed to be brought quickly under control.
"The consequences risk becoming very serious and could affect the people living in Rinkeby," he told the TT news agency.
Education Minister Jan Bjoerklund and Integration Minister Nyamko Sabuni visited the suburb around noon on Wednesday to assess the situation.
I do have to ask why a crew of young adults are trying to get into a Jr High School dance in the first place as well. But also, even if they were denied solely because of their race, trying to burn down the damn school isn't an acceptable response. Sweden does have legal ways to challenge discrimination.