The vigilantes were described as a motley crew of homeowners and concerned citizens, as well as neo-Nazi activists and football hooligans.
In the Stockholm suburb of Tumba the police decided to abandon their earlier non-intervention policy as a large group of police officers rounded up and dispersed a group of vigilantes trying to fend off rioters.
The decision to round up vigilantes while, according to Stockholm Chief of Police Mats Löfving, "doing as little as possible" to stop rioters, met with a wave of protests in various social media and on the Internet. Representatives of some vigilante groups contacted Fria Tider to give their view of last night's events.
– The number of police officers on the streets is simply staggering. The police appear to have focused all their resources on stopping the Swedes, Fredrik Becklin, spokesman for the nationalist youth organization Nordisk Ungdom (Nordic Youth), said Friday night.
– It makes me sick to see the police clamp down on us Swedes with full force and without warning, using nightsticks and tear gas, while they don't do a damn thing about the immigrants. We are only trying to help maintain order, while the immigrants set cars and buildings on fire, said a young man who wished to remain anonymous.
The police, however, rejected the accusations as unfounded.
– The police talked to them and checked ID on a few, two of them were removed from the scene, they were not arrested but "removed" as we call it, police spokeswoman Tove Hägg said to Fria Tider late Friday night.
– They were at the wrong place at the wrong time. They didn't understand it themselves and they had been told to disperse, but refused to do so.
Later during the night the police appear to have relaxed their attitude to the presence of vigilante groups in the streets. The police is reported to have stepped aside and watched as a huge crowd of vigilantes chased immigrants through the streets of Tumba, chanting "the city is ours" and "we will do what the police can't do". Several independent sources testify about vigilantes managing to scare away groups of rioters torching wastepaper baskets.
Police in riot gear secure an area where a building has been set ablaze. During the riots firefighters have been popular targets for young stonethrowing rioters.
Photo by: Swedish Police
Cars on fire but no firefighters in sight. During the riots the Stockholm Fire Department has on several occasions abstained from putting out fires in order not to provoke the immigrant rioters.
Photo by: Submitted by reader
During the week the riots spread to other cities in Sweden. This photograph by one of Fria Tider's readers shows a playground burning in Linköping, Sweden.
Photo by: Submitted by reader
About Fria Tider
Fria Tider is an independent conservative Internet-based newspaper in Sweden.
