Minneapolis can happen in Malmö

The violent repression of the population of Minneapolis has been horrifying. It feels unreal, like the news in an apocalyptic movie. And from the Swedish perspective there's a dangerous tendency towards exceptionalism that makes people underestimate the potential for it to happen here.

Even a lot of yanks didn't think it would get this bad this quick. Project 2025 laid the blueprints for Operation Metro Surge years ago now, but when it was released, there was tons of denialism about the likelihood of it being implemented.

So let's take a look at the first four items in the Sweden Democrats' document "Action plan to respond to attacks against Sweden" published around the same time period as Project 2025.

1. During demonstrations, riots and similar events, the police operate on the basis of Särskild polistaktik (SPT). The concept is conflict reduction rather than trying to control crowds. These tactics must change. The police should be instructed to develop tactics based on taking and maintaining control in difficult situations and combating serious attacks on law enforcement, security and constitutionally protected rights.

2. In order to take control of degenerate situations, new tools must be put into use. The purchase and use of water cannons, rubber bullets and the increased use of tear gas must be accelerated and financed.

3. Uncertainty about a police officer's right to use force to carry out their mission risks leading the police force to back down from difficult situations and numerical disadvantages. The police's use of weapons is currently regulated in the Police Act, as well as by delegation in the Shooting Ordinance. Police officers also have the right to self-defense, like everyone else. The Shooting Ordinance stipulates that police officers may use weapons to arrest someone who is reasonably suspected of certain crimes. The list of crimes is to be expanded to include sabotage of law enforcement activities and violent riots.

4. In addition to the police's specially trained employees, the military also has security expertise. Cooperation between the military and the police is to be expanded so that the military can provide more assistance to law enforcement with both personnel and equipment to handle difficult situations.

Long story short then, that's less de-escalation, more use of force, and increased militarisation. Remind you of anything in particular?

The party's youth wing goes a step further and calls for a Swedish ICE. Doesn't leave much room for doubt about which way the party's ideological winds are blowing in the long term.

I still remember how it felt when Folkets Park was converted into a paramilitary fortress for Eurovision. The equipment and the will to deploy it already exist. All that's missing is an expansion of the criteria for when that should happen, and the Sweden Democrats have set their vision out in clear terms.

In fact, more recent history in Malmö even sets a precedent for an Operation Metro Surge-style raid. On the 23rd of April last year, hundreds of police flooded Rosengård in an enormous high-visibility policing operation. It was a whole circus, with officials from Kronofogden and Skatteverket and god knows where else along for the ride. The pretext was to find weapons, drugs, and arrest wanted criminals.

Approximately fuck all was actually achieved. No arrests, no big weapons stash discoveries, and some small-scale confiscations of drugs. One thing that was certainly accomplished though was the establishment of a precedent about large-scale police operations in Malmö.

So I'm not just complacently thinking "the trouble with the fucking yanks is they've no fucking sense" to myself when I see videos of these far away street executions. I think about how the raw materials for something very similar are right here in the city around me.