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CRIME

‘Scared’ Stockholm woman in sexism stir

After a woman bolted when she saw Stockholmer John Nylander, 23, as she walked through a dark forest, his subsequent Facebook rant led to a national debate about sexism and patriarchy.

Published: 6 February 2015 17:11 CET
'Scared' Stockholm woman in sexism stir
Johan Nylander's post about a woman running when she saw him has gone viral. Photo: Private
Nursing student Johan Nylander parked his car in the suburb of Hägersten late on Monday night before cutting through a small forest to get to his apartment.
 
He documented what happened next on his Facebook page: "I saw a girl walking on the path I was heading towards. The moment she saw me she ran. She didn’t say anything, she just ran. I was stunned and just wanted to run after her and shout that she didn’t have to be afraid of me. But I know it wouldn’t have helped. There was nothing I could do."
 
The rest of the post read: "I first felt really stupid that I made a girl so scared and shocked that she ran as soon as she saw me. But now I just feel sad. I feel so bloody sad that we have reached the point where girls run as soon as they see a man walking towards them. It’s completely f**king insane. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that she ran, I would probably have done the same had I been in her situation. But THAT she should have to run, there are no words to explain how sad that makes me. Together we have to make sure future generations of girls don’t have to run. You’re done running now. Us men need to take our bloody responsibility to make sure that no one has to run any more. I hope that all you other men who read this are with me and will help make this a reality."
 
By Friday his rant had been shared thousands of times and was one of the most talked-about issues on social media across Sweden.
 
"I hope that people will heed this man's call. For my daughter's sake. And for my son's. And for my own," said one commenter Elisabeth Ökvist on Facebook.
 
Linda Olsson, another commenter wrote: "The first time a man doesn't turn this into how sad it made HIM and how unfortunate it is for HIM that girls live in a constant fear of rape. (…) Imagine what it is like to always be frightened as soon as you're out walking on your own or when it gets dark." 
 
"Of course I am honoured to get this kind of reaction from everyone around me, but in another way it makes me sad that it took a white male guy to make this debate happen in Sweden on an issue that millions of women have been talking about for ages," Johan Nylander told The Local.
 
"I don't know if the woman was thinking I was going to attack her but the fact that she ran suggests she was scared of men in general."
 
The debate may seem like an unlikely one in Sweden, a country famous for gender equality and tolerance as well as low crime levels.
 
But there have been a number of high profile sex attacks in recent years. In 2013 there were almost 1,600 cases of sexual assault involving under-18s in Stockholm alone.
Earlier this week eight Swedish men were arrested over an alleged gang rape on a ferry heading from Stockholm to Finland.
 
"Are we really that gender equal?" questioned Nylander on Friday.
 
"I'm not quite sure. I have seen us sliding down some of those international lists. Debates about women's rights in Sweden are bubbling. It was a big issue before the last election as the Feminist party campaigned for votes and we need to keep people talking about this," he told The Local.
 
Asked how he felt the problem should be tackled by politicians and other officials he said: "There are people wiser than me who have better thoughts about this. But my hope is that men will start to think about how they behave and how they think and to change the way they act."
 
Despite the national stir, figures suggest that men are still far more likely to be attacked in Sweden than women.
 
Figures from the Swedish Prime Prevention Council show that 2.6 percent of men in Sweden reported being assaulted in 2012, compared to 1.3 percent of women.
 

 

POLICE

Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

A new report in Dagens Nyheter has revealed over 514 suspected leaks of sensitive information from at least 30 members of the police force to criminals since 2018. Here's what we know so far.

Published: 30 April 2024 12:28 CEST
Updated: 30 April 2024 15:45 CEST
Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

What’s happened?

According to an investigative report by newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN), multiple gang members have infiltrated the police force by, for example, dating police employees, or using family connections to gain access to sensitive information about ongoing cases.

The first article in DN’s series focuses on a woman the newspaper calls Elin, who met a man, Jonas (not his real name), on a dating app when she had one year left of her police education. She falls in love, but his only goal with the relationship is to get a source within the police force which he can use for access to secret information.

Over the course of four years until she was caught, she made multiple illegal searches in the police register for Jonas, his associates and enemies, as well as providing him with information on ongoing investigations against him.

Other cases investigated by the newspaper include a border guard who sold classified information to gangs, a police officer who leaked information to what DN describes as “one of Sweden’s most notorious criminals” and an investigator who was dating a man she was investigating, who she shared screenshots of sensitive information with.

In another case, the police received a tip-off that information was being leaked to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. It was discovered that a group of five alarm operators had made an unusually high number of searches for members of the Hells Angels, who were later discovered to have connections with the gang that they had lied about during their background checks.

What have the consequences of these leaks been?

In some cases, the leaks preceded revenge attacks on enemies of the gang member involved in the relationship. In other cases, the gang members’ enemies disappeared or were murdered.

Some of the people from the police force involved in the leaks were sentenced to fines for illegal data access or breaches of professional secrecy, while the evidence against others was not sufficient to prosecute. 

At least 30 employees had for different reasons been considered “security risks” and either resigned or were forced to quit, the newspaper reported, with over 514 suspected leaks taking place from police to criminals since 2018.

How do criminals find police officers?

According to DN, they look for things that can be used as blackmail, like police officers who buy drugs, or set “honey traps”, like the one used against Elin, where they meet police officers or students on dating apps and start a relationship.

“You take Tinder, for example, and set your search radius so the police school is in the centre. When you get a match, it’s easy to check if it’s a student, through class lists or how they present themselves on social media. They’re proud of their line of work,” Jonas told DN.

They might also use their family connections to put pressure on relatives who work in the police force.

Why is this important?

It’s important because Sweden has seen a rise in gang-related violence in recent years, with a surge in shootings and bombings as gangs fight for control over different drug markets.

Swedes also have a high level of trust in the police force – 72 percent according to a 2024 study by Medieakademin, topping the list of state authorities, with a higher level of trust than universities, healthcare, the courts and even the Swedish church. This was five percent higher than in 2023.

Although the vast majority of police officers do not leak information to criminal networks, Sweden does not have a history of organised crime infiltrating the police force, so officials are keeping a close eye on these leaks to make sure they don’t become more common.

On April 29th, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told TT newswire that the leaks were “very serious”, potentially putting trust in the police force at risk.

“There are many great risks and one is that trust in police declines, that people get the idea that mafia-like methods are used to infiltrate law enforcement,” he said, before adding that he was unable to say whether it constituted a threat to national security or not purely based on the initial DN article.

“But the mere suspicion of these types of connections are damaging,” he told the newswire.

What happens now?

Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer told DN that he planned to call a meeting with police leadership about the reports, which he described as “extremely serious”.

“[At that meeting] we will consider the need for further measures,” he said.

“Leaking sensitive information to criminals is against the law and can have very damaging consequences for the work of the police force,” Strömmer told DN, adding that it could undermine trust in the police and “damage democracy”.

Last summer, the government increased the penalty for breaching professional secrecy, and a special investigator was tasked with looking at a potential reform of the rules on corruption and professional misconduct in February – the Crime Prevention Council is also involved in that investigation, where it has been asked to provide information on how gangs use government employees.

“Protecting the integrity of the justice system against infiltration and other security threats is a central part of the new national strategy against organised crime that the government decided on earlier this year, and it is given the highest priority in our assignments to the authorities,” Strömmer told the newspaper.

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