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- Sweden reports 23 bystander deaths in gangland shootings since 2023
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Sweden reports 23 bystander deaths in gangland shootings since 2023
Violent crime rise
Twenty-three innocent bystanders have been killed and 30 wounded in gangland shootings in Sweden over the past three years, according to recent statistics.
Twenty-three innocent bystanders have been killed and 30 wounded in gangland shootings in Sweden over the past three years, according to recent statistics.
Violent Crime Toll
Twenty-three bystanders have been killed and 30 wounded in gangland shootings over the past three years, underscoring Sweden’s escalating struggle with violent crime.
Twenty-three bystanders have been killed and 30 wounded in gangland shootings over the past three years, underscoring Sweden’s escalating struggle with violent crime.
Police Insight
“We are dealing with very young perpetrators who, in many cases, have no previous experience of violent crime,” said Alexander Wallenius of the Swedish police.
“We are dealing with very young perpetrators who, in many cases, have no previous experience of violent crime,” said Alexander Wallenius of the Swedish police.
Key developments
Statistics show that gangland shootings in Sweden have resulted in 23 innocent bystanders being killed and 30 injured over the last three years, underscoring the escalation of violent crime.
Alexander Wallenius of the Swedish police indicated that many perpetrators are young individuals lacking experience in violent crime, increasing the likelihood of incorrectly targeting bystanders.
The minority right-wing government is pushing for new legislation to mandate social media platforms remove gang-related content promptly to combat this rising violence.
More than 20 bystanders killed in Sweden gangland shootings in three years, police say
Published on
Twenty-three innocent bystanders have been killed and 30 wounded in gangland shootings in Sweden in the past three years, according to statistics released on Monday that highlighted its battle to rein in violent crime.
The country has struggled for more than a decade to contain gang violence linked primarily to score-settling and battles to control the drug market.
The innocent victims include people hit by stray bullets, cases of a mistaken identity by the shooter and relatives of targeted gang members, according to police statistics.
Alexander Wallenius, operations coordinator at the Swedish police’s department of national operations, told news agency TT that one reason for the number of bystanders injured was that many of the shooters were young.
“We are dealing with very young perpetrators who, in many cases, have no previous experience of violent crime, which means a greater risk that third parties or the wrong target will be hit,” Wallenius said.
Swedish gangs often use social media and encrypted apps to recruit teens who are paid to carry out crimes.
The recruits are often under the age of 15, Sweden’s age of criminal responsibility, meaning they cannot be prosecuted and fall under the responsibility of social services, making them valuable assets to gangs.
The minority right-wing government, propped up by the far-right Sweden Democrats, has been pushing through proposals cracking down on crime and immigration ahead of a general election on 13 September.
Last week it said it planned to introduce legislation requiring social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat to take down gangs’ “murder adverts” within an hour or face hefty fines.
The government has previously announced plans to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13 for crimes punishable by at least four years in prison.
Additional sources • AFP
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
G20 waters down support for Ukraine amid pressure for peace talks
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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