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Officer slams police over Husby shooting

A police officer who was present when a colleague shot dead a 69-year-old man in Husby in Stockholm in May, sparking days of riots, has stated that the incident "contradicted everything the police stand for".

Officer slams police over Husby shooting

“The police must protect, help and put things right. In this case it was the opposite,” the police, named in the Swedish media as Martin Marmgren, wrote on his blog.

The man stresses that he does not want to blame any person, neither in the patrol nor in operational command.

“There has been an internal investigation, which concluded that the fatal shot was fired in self-defence and no individual police officer is suspected of any crime. But, and this is the difference, I believe that the police as an organization carries a great debt as we were unable to handle the situation without someone dying,” Marmgren wrote.

The officer noted that the 69-year-old man was armed with a large knife. While he believes that “the police had full control of how we chose to approach the situation regarding tactics, the means and the tools.”

“Then the result should not have been so devastating,” he argued.

The shooting, which occurred on May 13th 2013 has been blamed for having provoked days of violent rioting which broke out in the suburb of Husby a few days later. The unrest later spread to other locations in the Stockholm area.

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STOCKHOLM

Stockholm Pride is a little different this year: here’s what you need to know 

This week marks the beginning of Pride festivities in the Swedish capital. The tickets sold out immediately, for the partly in-person, partly digital events. 

Pride parade 2019
There won't be a Pride parade like the one in 2019 on the streets of Stockholm this year. Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/TT

You might have noticed rainbow flags popping up on major buildings in Stockholm, and on buses and trams. Sweden has more Pride festivals per capita than any other country and is the largest Pride celebration in the Nordic region, but the Stockholm event is by far the biggest.  

The Pride Parade, which usually attracts around 50,000 participants in a normal year, will be broadcast digitally from Södra Teatern on August 7th on Stockholm Pride’s website and social media. The two-hour broadcast will be led by tenor and debater Rickard Söderberg.

The two major venues of the festival are Pride House, located this year at the Clarion Hotel Stockholm at Skanstull in Södermalm, and Pride Stage, which is at Södra Teatern near Slussen.

“We are super happy with the layout and think it feels good for us as an organisation to slowly return to normal. There are so many who have longed for it,” chairperson of Stockholm Pride, Vix Herjeryd, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

Tickets are required for all indoor events at Södra Teatern to limit the number of people indoors according to pandemic restrictions. But the entire stage programme will also be streamed on a big screen open air on Mosebacketerassen, which doesn’t require a ticket.  

You can read more about this year’s Pride programme on the Stockholm Pride website (in Swedish). 

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