A year after ridiculing President Trump for talking about it, the New York Times acknowledges that Sweden has a crime problem, and suggests very indirectly that it may have something to do with its loose immigration policy – just as the president insisted.
“Fuzzy Slippers” at Legal Insurrection pointed out the paper’s original refusal to acknowledge the truth behind President Trump’s February 2017 remarks about Sweden’s refugee-related rise in crime. Then, in a surprise on Sunday, the paper actually wrote about violent crime in Sweden, even quoting a line by Trump from the speech it had mocked a year before.
“Grenades and Gang Violence Rattle Sweden" used the incident of a man killed by a hand grenade in Stockholm to talk about the disturbing crime trend in Sweden, and hinted gently about a possible cause: Immigration.
....gang-related assaults and shootings are becoming more frequent, and the number of neighborhoods categorized by the police as “marred by crime, social unrest and insecurity” is rising. Crime and immigration are certain to be key issues in September’s general election, alongside the traditional debates over education and health care.
....
Sweden’s far right-wing party blames the government’s liberal immigration policy for the rising crime, and will thrust the issue to the fore in the fall campaign.
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Even President Trump weighed in on the issue, saying that after taking in “large numbers” of immigrants, Sweden was “having problems like they never thought possible.”
Note that a year later, the above is no longer a “baffling” line from Trump, but an acknowledgement of truth.
Here’s how the paper covered it originally: “‘Last Night in Sweden’? Trump’s Remark Baffles a Nation,” Sewell Chan’s February 20, 2017 piece, opened:
Swedes reacted with confusion, anger and ridicule on Sunday to a vague remark by President Trump that suggested that something terrible had occurred in their country.
During a campaign-style rally on Saturday in Florida, Mr. Trump issued a sharp if discursive attack on refugee policies in Europe, ticking off a list of places that have been hit by terrorists.
Chan admitted:
Mr. Trump did not state, per se, that a terrorist attack had taken place in Sweden. But the context of his remarks -- he mentioned Sweden right after he chastised Germany, a destination for refugees and asylum seekers fleeing war and deprivation -- suggested that he thought it might have.
“Sweden,” Mr. Trump said. “They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.”
The same line that was “baffling” in 2017 is now relevant today.
The next day’s front page led off with Chan and White House correspondent Peter Baker’s follow-up, “TV Blares, Trump Repeats and Sweden Gasps.” This 2017 Times paragraph hasn’t aged well:
Immigration is a hotly debated issue in Sweden, Germany and many other European countries. Sweden, which prides itself as a humanitarian leader, processed a record 163,000 asylum applications in 2015. But statistics in Sweden do not back up the suggestion that immigrants have created a major crime wave.
