Barritrad’s Interview with the Citizen Guard of Stockholm
BARRITRAD has the great honor to present an interview with a representative of the men who chose to take matters into their own hands after the Swedish police admitted that they are unable to do anything about the criminal gangs who roam the streets of central Stockholm.
It’s important not to exaggerate or speculate about events like these, but instead seek information as close to the source as possible. That’s why we are very glad to be able to present this interview with one of the men who speak for the “citizen guard” who acted in Stockholm Friday the 29th of January 2016.
1. We chose to call your actions in Stockholm the 29th of January for the “citizen guard”, do you feel this is a fair name?
Yes and no. To call the group who participated last Friday for the “citizen guard” is a good way to describe it, since that was exactly what is was; a gathering of citizens who have had enough, but our hopes and expectations are at the same time that others follow our example. So we definitely don’t want to be the citizen guard.
2. Media and authorities (among others) have made a lot of assumptions about who and what this citizen committee consists of. We find it more reasonable that you should be able to define that yourself. So, who are the citizen guard?
Yes, indeed the speculations about who the group last Friday consisted of have run amok, and in the media they have written about everything from “neo-nazis” to football hooligans. I can of course not answer for everyone’s political views or hobbies, but what I do know is what brought us together and that was not any political group or organization. What united us was the common view that it is unacceptable that these criminal elements are allowed to go undisturbed in the capital of Sweden without any action from the legal system whatsoever. We also brought light to this matter by handing out leaflets, and the image that the established media paints is nothing but desperate lies to keep the appearance that it’s only “extremists” who chooses to participate in things like this. The truth is however, that is was perfectly ordinary Swedes, many with immigrant-roots, who grew tired of the police force indifference towards this widespread and repeated criminality from these Moroccan gangs.
3. What made you act the way you did?
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the police, in the aftermath of the massive cover-up scandal [The Swedish police even have a special code (291) for crimes committed by immigrants that mean that they should not report it to the media — translator’s note] admitted that they have no control over the situation at Stockholm’s central station. This made it clear that the state no longer fulfills its part of the social contract. We have among the highest taxes in the world, and despite this the state can’t guarantee our safety on our own streets. You have to draw the line somewhere, and after the latest development in Stockholm and Gothenburg we could no longer sit back and watch as Sweden falls apart. The fact that media play along in this act made it so that we this time chose confrontation, instead of trying to affect opinion by peaceful means such as demonstrations or similar things. We counted with enormous attention and indeed that was what we got. The place for this action was also symbolic in the sense that it was the central station in the capital of Sweden. Stockholm has unfortunately always been a driving force in the destructive development of Sweden, but we wanted to show with force that not everyone stands behind this. The medieval way these immigrants look at women is intolerable, and like all Swedes we have a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife or a girlfriend who risks becoming a victim if we don’t put an end to this.
4. What exactly happened and do you think that you reached your goals? According to the media you attacked women and children, is this true?
Unfortunately it didn’t go completely without problems. Since the police were on the alert and stopped us early we became slightly unorganized while handing out leaflets. Despite this, we got our message across in a good way, so that part of the action can still be considered successful. When it comes to the other aspect, getting our point across to Moroccans, we aren’t as happy. As you said, it’s been a storm in the media where they claim that we attacked both women and children; this is of course not true. But the fact is that we didn’t get to more than a couple of the criminal Moroccans because of the work of the police. It should be said that it was a huge reaction by the police, and after only a couple of minutes they had a helicopter in the air. The police who just a few days earlier claimed that they did not have the resources or the means necessary to do anything against the criminal “street children”, all of a sudden had the manpower to react to us with something like 30 cars, around 10 dog patrols and a dozen civil police officers.
5. Will we see more similar actions now that the spring and summer is closing in?
I’m convinced of that yes. The police unfortunately don’t get any better at their work, and as the weather becomes milder the massive immigration will boom again, and the immigrants will be out on the streets more. If we then don’t have men who organize themselves to patrol the Swedish streets, it’s only a matter of time before a catastrophe happens. We’ve already seen how huge the extent of this is and since the state doesn’t do anything about it in time, it will unfortunately only get worse unless we put a stop to this.
6. What do you think about the Twitter-campaign #inteerkvinna (notyourwoman) and the #inteerman (notyourman) equivalent started by Swedish feminists?
Unfortunately they act just as you expect them to act, which is completely brain dead. Only a completely lost feminist can manage to come up with the logic that they are against a rape-culture while at the same time importing it in tremendous amounts, and then attack those who actually want to do something about the problems. They would most likely behave differently if they once in a while stopped posting on social media, left their all-white neighborhoods and got out in the real world. But what feminist activists waste their time doing is, if you look at the greater picture, completely uninteresting. Instead we choose to rejoice in the positive response that we received from all around. That many have waited for an action like the one we did is obvious and it gives all of us who participated new energy to work with.
7. What do you think of the claims we’ve seen in the media that the men who joined the civil guard are “insecure”, “violence romantics” and “oppressors of women”?
I actually haven’t seen those claims, but my spontaneous reaction is that it’s exactly as the claims that we are hooligans or “neo-nazis”; completely bizarre. Is it an expression of insecurity to confront criminal elements protected by the police, while putting your own health at risk? With the knowledge of what kind of propaganda that the medial mafia will spread, where no lies are too big? No, it’s obviously projection and wishful thinking from their side that we would be insecure. That we are violence romantics is also completely absurd. The whole reason why we are forced to do this, is that the state no longer can guarantee the safety for our beloved ones. We would be happy if we didn’t have to do this, but unfortunately the situation today is such that our women aren’t safe, and that’s why we have taken to the streets. In my eyes that is the complete opposite of oppressing women, but then again, I’m not a feminist.
8. The police are now putting together a special group to deal with civil guards like this. What do you think about this and does it mean that you’ll cease to exist?
That reaction is not surprising, even if it is as laughable as it is tragic. We have under a long time witnessed how Swedes get harassed, assaulted, robbed, raped and murdered. During all this the police have complained about how they don’t have any resources to do anything about this. After this, there was only a mere two days before they found resources to form a special force that will hinder Swedes from organizing themselves to pacify our public spaces from these crimes. This is witness of a fear about what this development means, because the police know exactly how many it is who are mad about this. That the police, like most other parts of the Swedish state, aren’t loyal to the Swedish people are made clear yet again. But we can’t, and wont, be affected by this at all. This assembly came when we talked with our friends who were also tired of the development and we decided that it’s gone far enough. It naturally hasn’t changed.
9. If the reader wishes to become a part of this civil guard, is there any way to contact you, or do you think they should act on their own?
As I said; this was a spontaneous assembly which unfortunately makes it so that there are no central organization to contact. We do of course, hope that more people will still follow our example and the best advice we can give is simply to talk with your friends and acquaintances and start organizing yourself on a local level. Get a few guys together and walk the streets. Show yourselves. Of course, this isn’t about starting an escalating spiral of violence by mindlessly attacking every immigrant you see, but contributing with our presence to make the streets safer and of course, be ready to intervene if and when you stumble upon any criminal activity. If you don’t have the right acquaintances to make this possible, there are always a number of existing organizations and quite a few forums for like-minded people where you can find them. If everyone does this, it will start ripples on the water which makes it easier for new ones who want to join. In a short time we got 100-150 people consisting of different smaller circles of friends, and those of us who was there have definitely only grown stronger to activate ourselves even more and participate again. It doesn’t matter if it’s five people who attend a meeting about a new refugee shelter, a group in a bathhouse [bathhouses have been some of the most subjected places for sexual harassment by immigrants — translators note] to keep the order, or simply patrolling the streets with 20 other men who have had enough.
10. Any final words to the reader?
It isn’t as much what you are doing that’s important, but that you take the steps out on the streets to show yourself and inspire others by taking action. We really don’t claim to be any heroes but simply want to show other, non-organized people that have been fed up that there are things you can do. Order stickers and put them up, print posters and put them up, gather your friends to patrol the streets, participate in demonstrations and so on. There are hundreds of thousands of sympathizers around in Sweden and the more of us who have the courage to show their faces, the faster we can truly make a change and make this country better together.
We’ve had enough!
Barritrad wishes to thank the citizen guard for entrusting to us by making this interview, and we hope it has given answers to some of the questions that might arise when something like this happens in Stockholm. One thing is certain however, and that is that ordinary, decent people have nothing to fear from the citizen guard. On the contrary; they are the last barricade between order and chaos when the police are unable to do their work.
We’d also like to express our gratitude to all of you who take responsibility for making Sweden safe again. We wish it wasn’t needed, but we are happy you are there. Something I think we share with a lot of you.
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Source: Barritrad
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