Riots in Sweden Escalate, Racism and Police Brutality to Blame

Sweden's youth took to the streets on Wednesday, continuing a four-night long riot in the Stockholm suburbs that has shocked the usually peaceful and calm country.

According to NBC News, the riots moved from the north to the south side of the city-hundreds of groups of young people set cars on fire, threw stones into windows and attacked police.

Local news services said that there was a police station in the southern suburb of Ragsved that had been set alight, although none were hurt from the flames and the fire was put out relatively quickly.

Authorities have not pinpointed what exactly incited the protests, but local youth activity center worker Selcuk Ceken said that he thought it had to do with police brutality, along with growing racism that has plagued the suburbs for years.

"It's difficult to say why they're doing this," he said. "Maybe it's anger at the law and order forces, maybe it's anger at their own personal situation, such as unemployment or having nowhere to live."

In the eyes of newspaper editor Rouzbeh Djalaie, the reasons behind the riots are simple.

"Unemployment, the housing situation, disrespect from the police," he told NBC. He claimed that young immigrants are often stopped by police for searches and identity checks.

Some say the riots began after police killed a 69-year-old man when they found him brandishing a machete in the Husby suburb, earlier in May. This event aroused allegations of police brutality.

Sweden recently ducked one of the worst financial crises they've seen in the past few years, but still grapples with issues of youth unemployment and asylum seekers from neighboring countries who are constantly denied refuge.

Most immigrants to Sweden live in the capital's suburbs, where the riots began, raging on for another four nights.

The demonstrators have waited until night time before beginning their protests, breaking windows of storefronts and schools, a police station, as well as an arts and crafts center.

Rami al-Khamisi, co-founder of social group Megafonen, said that Swedish society is becoming more and more divided by social and economic differences.

"And the people out here [in the suburbs] are being hit the hardest," he said. "We have institutional racism."