Violence in Sweden draws attention after Trump claims

STOCKHOLM — Residents in a northwestern suburb of Stockholm predominantly inhabited by immigrants have clashed with police officers, two days after President Donald Trump unleashed a vague but pointed critique of Sweden's migration policies.

About 20 to 30 masked men threw stones and other objects at police officers in the suburb, Rinkeby, after the police arrested a man on suspicion of dealing drugs. A police officer fired a warning shot, but the disturbances continued for several more hours, stretching into early Tuesday morning. A photojournalist was injured in the clashes.

The episode drew scrutiny worldwide because of Trump's assertions — based on a Fox News segment — that Sweden had experienced a surge in crime and violence as a result of taking in large numbers of refugees. Trump's comments were greeted with anger in Sweden, the latest example of strong criticism by the U.S. president antagonizing friendly countries, including neighbors like Mexico and allies like Australia and the European Union.

Swedish officials criticized Trump's statements about crime in the country as exaggerations. Preliminary statistics do not show a major increase in crime from 2015, when the country processed a record 163,000 asylum applications, to 2016. Disturbances like the one in Rinkeby, officials said, are not unprecedented but are infrequent. In 2013, the police shooting of a man wielding a knife led to nights of violence in the suburbs of Stockholm, including Rinkeby.

Interior Minister Anders Ygeman called the clashes on Monday "very serious." But, he added: "There is work being done to make our suburbs and socially vulnerable areas safer. Sometimes it can get a little messy, but the police are not backing down."

[From an anchor's lips to Trump's ears to Sweden's disbelief]

Nonetheless, the disturbances in Rinkeby were seized upon by some people online as evidence of Trump's claim. Rinkeby, an economically deprived area of about 16,000 people, is overwhelmingly populated by residents with immigrant backgrounds.

Right-wing news outlets in the United States and elsewhere have insisted that Sweden is covering up evidence of migrant-related crime — a claim officials in this prosperous Scandinavian nation, which has a long humanitarian tradition, have rejected.

Lars Bystrom, a police spokesman, said the police were summoned at 8:18 p.m. Monday to the transit station in Rinkeby, about 7 miles northwest of Stockholm's City Hall, after officers made a drug-related arrest and were set upon by residents.

A police officer fired a live round of ammunition as a warning shot.

"No one was hit, but it had the intended effect of clearing the scene so that police could make an arrest," Bystrom said.

The clashes intensified, with up to 70 people throwing stones and objects, before the police finally got the situation under control around 12:15 a.m., he said.

Asked whether there was enough of a police presence in Rinkeby, Bystrom cited the district police chief, Niklas Andersson, in describing police resources in the area as plentiful. But Bystrom also said that officials would continue to bolster security.

Patrik Derk, the district director for Rinkeby-Kista, the northernmost of the boroughs

that make up the municipality of Stockholm, said it would be a mistake to see proof of Trump's claims in the unrest.

"This type of problem exists in most countries, even in the USA," he said in a phone interview. "And we are managing these problems and will succeed with this. They're complex problems."

Derk was hired in late 2015 to "make Rinkeby a better place to grow up and live in," as he put it. He previously helped turn around the Hovsjo district of Sodertalje, a city southwest of Stockholm that, like Rinkeby, has a large population of low-income immigrants.

"We created jobs through building development initiatives and training unemployed youth," he said, adding that the efforts involved collaboration with the police as well as economic investments. "And that's what we are trying to do here. Create a condition for the residents to live a good life in the area."

Derk acknowledged that Rinkeby had significant problems: "It is one of the more troubled areas in terms of school results, tight quarters, unemployment."

[Europe combats a new foe of political stability: Fake news]

Benjamin Dousa, 24, an appointed member of a local board in Rinkeby that distributes public money for schools, social services, parks and recreation, and elder care, wrote in an opinion essay that Trump's critique had some merit.

"A battered journalist, stones thrown at the police and stores that are being plundered, unfortunately, are not unusual occurrences where I live," Dousa, whose father was a Turkish immigrant to Sweden, wrote in the essay, published in the newspaper Expressen. "I hear the police helicopter every other day."

He said that in the neighborhood, "this type of criminality has become part of everyday life."

The prime minister, Stefan Lofven, has said that complaints that migrants are driving a crime surge are exaggerations.

Trump's critique was made in response to a Fox News interview with Ami Horowitz, an American filmmaker who argues that migrants in Sweden have fed a rise in violent crime. Right-wing news outlets like Breitbart and Infowars have also pointed repeatedly to Sweden as a case study of the failure of immigrants to assimilate.

Dousa said in a phone interview that he was familiar with the English-language right-wing news reports.

"Of course, some of them are fake, but the situation in Rinkeby is not good," he said. "The police don't have control over the area. That's not fake news."

Horowitz has not responded to requests for an interview about his videos, which Swedish officials say contain errors and distortions.

But Dousa said he was sympathetic to Horowitz's argument that Swedish elites are unwilling to talk about the problems associated with migration.

"If you said you had a problem with integration in Sweden, you would be called a racist," he said, adding that the situation has been changing: "The debate has opened up." Questions about migration policy are being raised not only by the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party, but also by left-wing parties, he said.

Asked about Dousa's characterization of the problem, Derk said he agreed that more police officers were needed and that many young men in the community had criminal backgrounds. But, he said, officials should "address the underlying problem of unemployment and cramped living conditions."

He added: "We need to develop relationships on the spot with the residents. We need to motivate people to leave criminality by creating work."

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Christina Anderson reported from Stockholm, and Sewell Chan from London.