The killer was only 14 and had lived in youth homes as a ward of the authorities since he was eight.

A year ago, a gang helped the boy escape, put him up in a hotel and gave him cannabis, food and new clothes. Six days later, gang members told him it was time to repay them for their kindness. They had a job for him.

Together with another youth, the boy, who as a juvenile cannot be identified, shot dead a 33-year-old Hells Angels biker. He was convicted by a court which described the case as a gangland contract killing.

As he was too young to be sentenced, he was handed back to social services and sent to another youth home.

Sweden has long prided itself on one of the world’s most generous social safety nets, with a state that looks after vulnerable people at all stages of life.

But these days it also has another distinction: by far the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU. Last year 55 people were shot dead in 363 separate shootings in a country of just 10 million people. By comparison, there were just six fatal shootings in the three other Nordic countries - Norway, Finland and Denmark - combined.

  • @[email protected]English
    2•6 months ago

    I know I know the US totally compares well in terms of police violence and prisoners per capita. To North Korea. It also compares well in terms of gang violence – to Haiti or Mexico.

    Meanwhile, Germans consider it a national embarrassment that the Swiss and Japanese have better train systems. All a matter of perspective.

    • @[email protected]English
      -3•6 months ago

      Hmm the Germans don’t keep the trains running on time anymore? Interesting, you’d think if they kept one thing from 1933-1945 it would have been that instead of the literal nazi police members they still have. Strange. Funny you guys also have one of the sex trafficking capitols of the world, Romania. Btw of how are the UK racists who insist that “they hate the ‘gypsies’ for their culture” which is exactly what the racists say over here about the “thugs” and their “rap music?”

      Foh lmao, we both have problems and you’re just as delusional as the nationalistic dickheads I’m always bitching at over here, but you pick an area the size of one of our states to be nationalistic about which lets be real is fucking sad.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•6 months ago

        For someone who claims to be able to complain about their own country you’re doing awfully little of it.

        Also, no, the Nazis didn’t make the trains run on time. Unless you count animal wagons, that is.

        • @[email protected]English
          -1•6 months ago

          Whoops my bad, that was Mussolini, Italy is in the EU too though and so was Franco’s Spain. I hear they still have a problem with fascists too, weird trend developing here. Btw fucking wild you’d say “animal trains,” of course they also compared Jewish people to animals so I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess that’s why you’re brushing the whole current nazi problem aside.

          And wait I thought we could only talk shit and pretend our countries are the best, which the US is and it’s perfect, there are no problems. (That’s you, that’s what you sound like.)

          • @[email protected]English
            1•6 months ago

            Btw fucking wild you’d say “animal trains,” of course they also compared Jewish people to animals so I shouldn’t be surprised,

            Maybe because they actually used animal trains. Cattle wagons. Something like that it’s not like I’m a native speaker. The type of train carriage built for purposes of transporting livestock.

            What did you expect, 1st class accommodations to Auschwitz?

            …and no, Mussolini didn’t get the trains running on time, either. The Swiss and Japanese do, though.

            And wait I thought we could only talk shit and pretend our countries are the best, which the US is and it’s perfect, there are no problems.

            Who do you mean with “we”, here? US and China? Oh, Bavaria. Bavaria also definitely qualifies.

            • @[email protected]English
              -1•6 months ago

              Coulda went with murder trains or something less racist, really. Pretty fucked up dude.

              Suuuree suuure which evil fascist dictator did it is really the point, ignore the “fascist” bit, that’s in the past, and ignore the “current” bit too because that would be admitting you have a problem and you can’t do that, you have to pretend you’re perfect, because you have nothing going for you other than white aryan Europeen “supremacy.”

              You’re a reactionary, nationalistic, delusional, and seemingly racist person, seek help.

              • @[email protected]English
                1•6 months ago

                Coulda went with murder trains or something less racist, really. Pretty fucked up dude.

                I don’t think having trains specialised to murder people in makes much difference to using cattle wagons to transport people to camps specialised to murder people in. In the grand scheme of things, in both cases you’re still constructing something specifically to murder people in.