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Swedish police officers praised by New Yorkers

A video has emerged of Swedish off-duty police officers breaking up a violent fight on the New York subway.

Published: 24 April 2015 17:30 CEST
Swedish police officers praised by New Yorkers
The Swedish police heroes meet with NYPD heads. Photo: New York Police Department/TT

As The Local reported on Thursday, the Swedish officers, who are all in their twenties, were on their way to see a show on Broadway when they heard the operator of the train call for help over the intercom from any police officers who might be on the train.

When Samuel Kvarzell, Erik Näslund, Markus Åsberg and Eric Jansberger got to the front of the train, they saw a homeless man being attacked as passengers looked on. The group managed to restrain the person who was beating him, who was also believed to be homeless, according to the New York Post.

On Friday the four Swedes met with NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton, who praised their resourcefulness.

“We are guests of the New York Police until Sunday,” Åsberg told Swedish news wire TT, and added: “We're a bit surprised at all the attention”.

In a video filmed by a New York resident and published on YouTube, the Swedes are heard asking if the suspected culprit is injured, while restraining him.

In the US, where police violence is a hot debate, many have taken to social media to suggest that NYPD should employ Swedish officers in the future.

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POLICE

Denmark convicts man over bomb joke at airport

A Danish court on Thursday gave a two-month suspended prison sentence to a 31-year-old Swede for making a joke about a bomb at Copenhagen's airport this summer.

Published: 5 October 2023 17:11 CEST
Denmark convicts man over bomb joke at airport

In late July, Pontus Wiklund, a handball coach who was accompanying his team to an international competition, said when asked by an airport agent that
a bag of balls he was checking in contained a bomb.

“We think you must have realised that it is more than likely that if you say the word ‘bomb’ in response to what you have in your bag, it will be perceived as a threat,” the judge told Wiklund, according to broadcaster TV2, which was present at the hearing.

The airport terminal was temporarily evacuated, and the coach arrested. He later apologised on his club’s website.

“I completely lost my judgement for a short time and made a joke about something you really shouldn’t joke about, especially in that place,” he said in a statement.

According to the public prosecutor, the fact that Wiklund was joking, as his lawyer noted, did not constitute a mitigating circumstance.

“This is not something we regard with humour in the Danish legal system,” prosecutor Christian Brynning Petersen told the court.

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