‘No quick fix'

Ultra-violent gang crime shocks a liberal nation

- Mark Townsend

They began heading for the shopping mall exit when they saw the police. One of the four gang members, a rapper called Lelo whose music videos venerate handguns and violence, turned to exchange pleasantries with Mike, an officer with the Swedish police.

Lelo and Mike have history. During a riot outside the mall that prompted a killing that could easily have led to another six, Lelo was among 32 arrested. In his court appearance, Mike had to intervene as Lelo’s posturing threatened to boil over.

“Now we get along, say a few words to each other. It’s important because you don’t know when you’re going to bump into them next. Here, everyone knows everyone,” Mike smiled. Here is Hj ällbo, a grid of tower blocks and flats on the outskirts of Gothenburg.

Hjällbo is dominated by the city’s most brutal criminal network, whose gangland lifestyle threatens to undermine democracy in Sweden, which is plagued by the worst rates of deadly gun violence in Europe, 10 times higher than Germany.

An obvious question emerges: how did an open society like Sweden’s incubate such a vicious subculture?

Eight kilometres south of Hjällbo’s shopping mall, the threat is evident on the laptop of Erik Nord, the urbane head of Gothenburg police. The 60-year-old presses “play” on a video.

CCTV tracks two figures dressed in black entering a barber’s shop. In English, one says : “ Stand back.” The intruders point handguns at a man’s head. Nine shots, over three seconds, are recorded by the CCTV audio. The gunmen leave. Their target rolls offa chair and hits the floor with a thud.