Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

SHOOTINGS

Reformed gang member shot dead in Copenhagen after book launch

Nedim Yasar, a 31-year-old former gang leader who worked as a radio show host and mentor for young people, was fatally shot in Copenhagen on Monday night after a launch event for his new book.

Published: 21 November 2018 12:15 CET
Reformed gang member shot dead in Copenhagen after book launch
Nedim Yasar. Photo: Tobias Nicolai/Ritzau Scanpix

Yasar died of his injuries on Tuesday, Copenhagen Police confirmed in a statement.

The 31-year-old worked on Radio24syv’s programme ‘Politiradio’ and was about to release his memoir ‘Rødder’ (Roots), written in collaboration with journalist and author Marie Louise Toksvig.

The book sets out Yasar’s route out of organised crime and was published on Tuesday – the day he died of his injuries.

He was shot around 7:30pm on Monday evening on the Hejrevej road in the Nordvest neighbourhood of Copenhagen after leaving a launch event for the book.

“The current police assessment is that at least two shots were fired by one person, who left the scene on foot,” police wrote in the statement on Tuesday.

The suspect was wearing dark clothes, police said. Potential witnesses were encouraged to come forward.

Yasar contacted police in August 2017 after what he said was an attempted assault against him, but had not reported any threats more recently, according to the police statement.


Yasar's book on sale in Copenhagen on Tuesday. Photo: Bax Lindhardt/ Scanpix 2018

Radio24syv’s managing editor Jørgen Ramskov said the crime had deprived Denmark of an important voice in the discussion of organised crime in Denmark, and of the individuals who become involved in it.

“Nedim had nuance and experience of one of the most important questions faced by our society: what should be done about crime and gang crime. Nuance and experience are crucial in this debate,” Ramskov told Ritzau.

“He was an important and mature witness who had broken free and found a way out. Not just for himself, but so he could share his story with others,” he added.


Radio24syv flew its flag at half mast after Yasar's death. Photo: Bax Lindhardt/ Scanpix 2018

Yasar, who was born in Turkey and arrived in Denmark at the age of four, led the Copenhagen-based criminal gang Los Guerreros, according to police.

He quit the gang in 2012 and joined a police programme designed to help young people leave organised crime, after he discovered that he was going to be a father.

Ramskov told Ritzau he felt both sorrow and anger over Yasar’s murder.

“This is just so cowardly and vile. That’s why we must continue where he left off. We have to keep telling these stories,” the managing editor said.

“This is not ‘just’ a killing in a gang conflict. It’s a clear signal from dark forces that we must keep quiet. That’s why it’s so important that we keep speaking out. And speaking loud,” Ramskov added.

Justice minister Søren Pape Poulsen described Yasar's death on Tuesday as “sad and infinitely meaningless”.

“I met Nedim once. I met a man who with all his heart wanted to create a new life and make a difference for others. My thoughts and compassion go to his friends and family,” Poulsen wrote in a tweet.

Ramskov said that Radio24syv would continue to cover serious societal issues.

“Nadim was concerned at times and received threats. But he wasn’t scared. He insisted we shouldn’t be scared. That we must insist on being able to speak out.

“We must, for the sake of everything, hold on to that,” he said to Ritzau.

READ ALSO: Gang crime cost Denmark 315 million kroner in 2016: study

SHOOTINGS

US criminologist lauds Malmö for anti-gang success

The US criminologist behind the anti-gang strategy designed to reduce the number of shootings and explosions in Malmö has credited the city and its police for the "utterly pragmatic, very professional, very focused" way they have put his ideas into practice.

Published: 8 March 2021 16:12 CET
US criminologist lauds Malmö for anti-gang success
Johan Nilsson/TT

In an online seminar with Malmö mayor Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, David Kennedy, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said implementing his Group Violence Intervention (GVI) strategy had gone extremely smoothly in the city.

“What really stands out about the Malmö experience is contrary to most of the places we work,” he said. “They made their own assessment of their situation on the ground, they looked at the intervention logic, they decided it made sense, and then, in a very rapid, focused and business-like fashion, they figured out how to do the work.”

He said that this contrasted with police and other authorities in most cities who attempt to implement the strategy, who tend to end up “dragging their feet”, “having huge amounts of political infighting”, and coming up with reasons why their city is too different from other cities where the strategy has been a success.

Malmö’s Sluta Skjut (Stop Shooting) pilot scheme was extended to a three-year programme this January, after its launch in 2018 coincided with a reduction in the number of shootings and explosions in the city.

“We think it’s a good medicine for Malmö for breaking the negative trend that we had,” Malmö police chief Stefan Sintéus said, pointing to the fall from 65 shootings in 2017 to 20 in 2020, and in explosions from 62 in 2017 to 17 in 2020.

A graph from Malmö police showing the reduction in the number of shootings from 2017 to 2020. Graph: Malmö Police
A graph from Malmö police showing the reduction in the number of explosions in the city between 2017 and 2020. Graph: Malmö Police

READ ALSO: 

In their second evaluation of the programme, published last month, Anna-Karin Ivert, Caroline Mellgren, and Karin Svanberg, three criminologists from Malmö University, reported that violent crime had declined significantly since the program came into force, and said that it was possible that the Sluta Skjut program was partly responsible, although it was difficult to judge exactly to what extent. 

The number of shootings had already started to decline before the scheme was launched, and in November 2019, Sweden’s national police launched Operation Rimfrost, a six-month crackdown on gang crime, which saw Malmö police reinforced by officers from across Sweden.

But Kennedy said he had “very little sympathy” for criminologists critical of the police’s decision to launch such a massive operation at the same time as Sluta Skjut, making it near impossible to evaluate the programme.

“Evaluation is there to improve public policy, public policy is not there to provide the basis for for sophisticated evaluation methodology,” he argued.

“When people with jobs to do, feel that they need to do things in the name of public safety, they should follow their professional, legal and moral judgement. Not doing something to save lives, because it’s going to create evaluation issues, I think, is simply privileging social science in a way that it doesn’t deserve.”

US criminologist David Kennedy partaking in the meeting. Photo: Richard Orange

Sluta Skjut has been based around so-called ‘call-ins’, in which known gang members on probation are asked to attend meetings, where law enforcement officials warn them that if shootings and explosions continue, they and the groups around them will be subject to intense focus from police.

At the same time, social workers and other actors in civil society offer help in leaving gang life.

Of the 250-300 young men who have been involved in the project, about 40 have been sent to prison, while 49 have joined Malmö’s ‘defector’ programme, which helps individuals leave gangs.

Kennedy warned not to focus too much on the number of those involved in the scheme who start to work with social services on leaving gang life.

“What we find in in practice is that most of the impact of this approach doesn’t come either because people go to prison or because they take services and leave gang life,” he said.

“Most of the impact comes from people simply putting their guns down and no longer being violent.”

“We think of the options as continuing to be extremely dangerous, or completely turning one’s life around. That’s not realistic in practice. Most of us don’t change that dramatically ever in our lives.”

He stressed the importance of informal social control in his method, reaching those who gang members love and respect, and encouraging them to put pressure on gang members to abstain from gun violence.

“We all care more about our mothers than we care about the police, and it turns out that if you can find the guy that this very high risk, very dangerous person respects – literally, you know, little old ladies will go up to him and get his attention and tell him to behave himself. And he will.”

SHOW COMMENTS