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HIPSTERS

Stockholmers heap scorn on Brooklyn comparison

Many Stockholmers reacted with consternation after a BBC video compared the Swedish capital to the New York borough of Brooklyn.

Stockholmers heap scorn on Brooklyn comparison
Cinema-goers at Hornstull's Bio Rio. File photo: Hannu Makarainen/Flickr

A video posted on the BBC web site this week attempted to illustrate the fervour felt for Brooklyn by residents of the bohemian – but increasingly commercialized – Hornstull neighbourhood of Stockholm.

"I think this movement really took speed in 2008 and 2009 during the financial crisis, when people started looking at the more basic things in life," publicist Henrik Evrell told the BBC. "What was happening in Brooklyn we saw as a symbol of this ideology."

Hornstull residents themselves had mixed reactions to the comparison to the multicultural borough of New York and the central capital district on the western edge of Södermalm island. 

The daily Dagens Nyheter published an array of reactions on Wednesday, with some claiming that some Stockholmers' desire to ape the New York borough was indicative of an inferiority complex.

"Our anally retentive little brother complex… permeates all of Stockholm," Hanna, 34, told the paper before conceding she herself was a symptom, as she wore eye glasses she did not have any optometric reason to wear.

"Hornstull is the finger on the pulse of [Stockholm's little-brother complex] ," she added.

Other Hornstull residents sung Brooklyn's praises and said the gentrification of Hornstull was welcome and should continue. One even specifically referenced the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Williamsburg, illustrating that Stockholmer fascination with "Brooklyn" had less to do with the huge and multicultural borough at large and perhaps more to do with the hipster-teeming enclaves along the L line of the New York subway.

The Local's readers, however, did not hold back about the BBC video, in which the brewers Brooklyn featured heavily.

 
Another reader said she felt it was impossible to compare an artsy part of New York with a capital city such as Stockholm.
 

One of The Local's readers, many of whom are foreign-born, took the opportunity to praise not Brooklyn, but Stockholm. 

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POLICE

French cops now allowed to unleash hidden hipster

French police will now be able to reveal their inner hipster to the public after police chiefs changed the rules to allow them to grow beards and have tattoos.

French cops now allowed to unleash hidden hipster
Will French police now let loose their inner hipster? Photo: AFP

Up until now the hipster look has not been welcome in France’s police force, but a trade union claims it has successfully changed the rules so officers can have beards and tattoos.

The rules around appearance clearly stated that having a beard was forbidden without special authorisation and the hairstyle must “be compatible with the wearing of headgear”.

According to France's Huffington Post a recent internal document reminded officers of the rules, which were aimed at cracking down on “radical” looks, especially among new recruits.

But a trade union has been fighting against the strict rules and this week claimed a victory.


(Spot the secret hipster!)

Force Ouvrière announced on Wednesday that from now on police can have tattoos as well as a beard “as long as it is well cropped”.

“After two years of negotiations and as a result of strong demand from across the force, the union SGP Police-FO has obtained permission for officers to have beards and tattoos,” a statement from the union said.

(A future Paris policeman?)

But police officers cannot just go out and get any old tattoo. There will of course be some restrictions.

“The tattoos must not be racist, political, religious or xenophobic. And as for the beard, it must be neat and compatible with the wearing of equipment.

“If we want the police force to be closer to the public, we need to adapt to changes in society and renew the rules, that date back to 1974,” Yves Lefebvre, national secretary of the union, told Les Echos.

“The beard must be neat and trimmed, we don’t want the kind of beard seen in the foreign legionnaires,” he said.

The famous “hipster cop” from London (see below) could soon be making an appearance in France.

 

 

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