America’s murder rule – Swedish style?

Is the American “murder rule” coming to Sweden? Not quite, but there are some similarities.

Swedish courts to determine when a murder has occurred.
img source: https://www.cozitv.com/shows/murder-she-wrote/

There are many laws that differ, for example, between the United States and Sweden. One of the larger discrepancies is that in Sweden, a person can be guilty of libel or slander even if what they say is true. (See this previous post.)

Another difference, though, might soon lessen. A case before Sweden’s supreme court will consider whether a person can be convicted of murder if, during a violent act, the victim of the violent act dies – or, if there can be extenuating circumstances that lessen the crime.

In the US, the law is clearer. If someone is killed while committing another felony-level crime, it is felony murder. If there was malicious intent in committing the original crime, the reasoning goes, then that malicious intent also extends to the consequences of that crime. Malicious intent means murder, not the lesser manslaughter. In the US, even accomplices can be charged with murder.

Sweden is not considering going that far. The case, SvD explains, will explore if the accused caused the death of the victim when their actions clearly contributed to it.

antidepressant poisoning

The victim in the case before the Swedish court was severely beaten. Records showed she had been beaten many times before. The autopsy presented multiple bruises, a broken nose, ten broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, and serious brain damage. She also had significant amounts of antidepressants in her blood. After the first court concluded the accused was guilty of murder, the appeals court said he was not guilty. It was beyond doubt he had beaten the victim. But it was possible that the victim had died from antidepressant poisoning. He was therefore guilty only of aggravated assault.

The verdict raised many eyebrows. Now the Supreme Court is having a look.

There have been several high-profile cases where lower courts have freed perpetrators from murder verdicts. It was not made clear enough that their actions actually caused a death, even when their actions undeniably played a role in it.  The court will now try to determine what the requirements are to be found guilty of causing someone’s death.

The result will not be the same as felony murder in the United States or the other similar laws around the globe. However, it may, or may not, be a step closer. Whatever the court decides, it will be precedent setting.

Hövding halted

flying through the air with the greatest of ease
image source: https://lego-minifigures.tumblr.com

The Swedish Consumer Agency has halted sales of the latest version of the self-inflating bike helmet Hövding 3. The agency cites test results that show that the helmet does not activate or give sufficient protection in crashes at speeds over 20 km/hour. (According to bikecommuterhero.com, a commuting bicyclist’s average speed is 18-29 km/hour.)

In addition, the consumer agency writes that the helmet’s battery does not clearly indicate when it’s not charged enough for the helmet to function properly.

No money back

This does not mean that a recently purchased Hövding 3 helmet can be returned, however. The agency says that, for the moment, they’re only investigating. To get money back, a safety defect has to be confirmed. That, or the consumer has to show that their particular product has a safety defect. As there’s been no formal recall, a consumer doesn’t have a legal right to a refund.

Hövding disputes the agency’s claims, and says it will appeal the decision. According to Hövding’s statements, there has never been a risk for customer safety.

Last year, the insurance company Folksam rescinded its Hövding recommendation. Internal tests showed that the helmet didn’t inflate fast enough to protect the user in crashes with cars driving at 40 km/hour.

So much for the wind in your hair. For many people, it’s back to helmet head.

Momika… stays?

How to make yourself unremovable

Momika misses his flight
image src: Wikimedia Commons

On Thursday this week, the Swedish Migration Agency came to the decision to remove (deport) Salman Momika. Momika, famous for publicly and provocatively burning the Qur’an on a number of occasions, was found to have given incorrect information in his asylum application as to why he needed the safety and security of living in Sweden.

Momika has been ordered to leave the country. However, given the difficulties in actually carrying out his removal, he has been granted a temporary stay until April, 2024 (which is when his temporary residence permit expires). Momika immediately appealed the removal verdict saying there were political motives for the decision, but the Swedish Appeals Court denied the appeal the next day.

It is uncertain as to whether Momika will ever be able to be removed. Unless the person agrees to leave, Swedish law does not allow removals to countries where the person runs the risk of being tortured or sentenced to death (Utlänningslag 2005: 716). Countries that may in turn send the person on to such a country are also out of the question. Momika’s lack of decency has successfully made him likely non-removable, courtesy of Swedish decency.

There once were four small parties

Four parties bottoming out

Voters aren’t leaving small parties in droves, but they’re leaving. Statistics Sweden published the results of its annual survey the other day. If the election had taken place last month, the changes would have been mostly small, yet decisive. Three big parties remain big, and the Left Party is holding relatively strong. However, there are now four parties bobbing around the 4% required percentage to gain a seat in parliament. The small parties often make up the crucial votes that decide a block’s victory or loss. Why have their voters left them?

Rally round the flag

For some commentators, the reason is the behemoth quality of major parties – the closer you stand the more likely you’ll be crushed. The smaller, supportive parties who help form a government are often overshadowed, and their separate, political identities dissipate. Another reason might be the tendency to “rally around the flag.” When things seem shaky and the times are uncertain, it feels safer to seek shelter in something or someone bigger. Finally, since the Social Democrats in particular have surged ahead in popularity it could be voters blaming the government for the mess in the world (or for making it worse).

One response to dissatisfaction can be to form your own party. You wouldn’t be alone.

Form your own party!

There are 107 parties to choose from registered in Sweden for the 2024 election to the European Union parliament. These include the Evil Chicken Party (Ond Kyckling Partiet), the Least Awful party (det minst dåliga partiet), and the Chill party (Chillpartiet). The requirements to register a party in Sweden are few: At least one person to be the party, between 50 and 1500 signatures (depending on the post to which the person wants to be elected), and navigating a minimum of red tape.

In a democratic sense, it’s important to have the freedom to create a political party. Small parties capture people’s interest and can encourage interest in the political process. They can give marginalized people a chance for broader recognition, and can expand a national and/or local political discourse. Perhaps the four above parties have failed in those efforts.

The Evil Chicken Party’s platform calls for a lower parliamentary threshold. They might get some unexpected support.  

Gods and guns

On allemansrätten – the right to roam
Something you don’t see in Sweden very much. If at all.
image source: www.emedco.com

One of the best things about Sweden is the ability to wander around freely in the woods, fields, and waterways. These places are open to everyone thanks to allemansrätten.  Allemansrätten is translated as the right of public access, but there are other inherent meanings. “Everyman’s right,” “freedom to roam,” and “right to roam” are a few.

Don’t disturb, don’t destroy

The concept allemansrätten is first found in the report of a commission on leisure activity in the late 1930s. The purpose of the commission was to find ways to make it easier for city dwellers to get out into nature more often.

Later in 1994, it was written into law that “every man should have access to nature in accordance with the right to roam.” The right itself, however, was never clearly defined. It is more a negative right, meaning you can mostly wander where you will as long as you “don’t disturb and don’t destroy.”

The right to roam has deep roots. Much of the romantic soul of Sweden is embodied in the majesty of the forest and in the wealth of mushrooms and berries found there. Walking in a forest is life-giving. It began with the gods.

The gods then created people from trees

In the Nordic creation myth, trees were created from the hair of the giant Ymir, who was slain by Odin and his brothers Vile and Vé. Some time later, while out walking by the sea, Odin and his brothers saw two trees, an ash tree and what some say was an elm tree. From these two trees they created people, Ask and Embla. Ask and Embla went on to populate Midgard.

The oak tree symbolized, and was dedicated to, Odin’s son, Thor (the god of thunder). If lightning struck and split an oak tree it was under no circumstances allowed to be cut down. It was considered Thor’s place of abode. In her book on oak trees, Åsa Torlind writes that one of the first things Christian missionaries did to convert the Scandinavian heathens was to burn down oak trees and forests. When no ill effects were felt, she writes, people drew the conclusion that the new god must be more powerful than the old gods. They were converted.

Don’t get shot

Felling trees is still not a simple issue. Nor is keeping meadows open by grazing cows and sheep. And even if no one owns the water, a company still can’t install wind turbines where it likes (see this post). Between military needs, the environment, commercial interests, and simple land ownership the right to roam isn’t as uncomplicated as it looks from the outside. Especially now when you might get shot.

It is well known that the military is going through a massive upgrade. There are more recruits, and more training exercises. This includes more active firing ranges. Previously, people have quite blithely, if illegally, walked by a warning sign to go picnicking in a meadow. Now, the message is that visiting your favorite little corner of the universe may put your life in danger.  

The right to roam has some limitations, as well as a number of responsibilities. The number one responsibility is perhaps making sure that there is nature left to go roam around in.

How to grow a steel forest

wind energy at sea
image source: https://www.mvrdv.com/projects/98/north-sea-wind-park

Earlier this week, the government gave the green light to two offshore wind parks. It’s a start.

Conflicts of interest

The wind park application process is known to be expensive and extremely complicated. However, the Swedish Armed Forces and the municipal veto are the two main reasons many new “steel forests” (stålskogar) haven’t been approved in the last ten years.

While Sweden is working hard to up its military capacity in response to the war in Ukraine, it is also trying to increase its energy production. Unfortunately, the operations of the Swedish Armed Forces and operating wind parks are often not compatible. Wind parks want wide, open spaces – where the military has operations as well, particularly at sea. In addition, wind turbines disrupt radar, sensors, and other communications which strikes at the very heart of Swedish military capacity. Adding to the conflict is the impression that the military won’t discuss the issue. When Radio Sweden requested a comment, it responded by saying it wasn’t their job to talk about wind power.

The veto

The Swedish military’s ability to do their job is a national security issue. But local concerns can stop a wind park’s establishment just as effectively, albeit with more discussion. According to Timbro, over 1300 new wind park proposals have been nixed since the “veto” was first allowed in 2009. (It’s actually not a veto, but more an absence of support for an application. If the municipality doesn’t indicate support for a project, the project doesn’t happen.)

The reasons for not supporting a park establishment are many. Steel forests kill migrating birds and get in the way of migratory animals. They make a distinctive sound that many find unpleasant, and can’t exactly be said to increase the value of one’s home.

Compensation

Animals are out of luck, but various compensation plans have been floated in an attempt to make wind parks more attractive to people. One popular suggestion is that some compensation would be paid to the municipality for its pain and suffering. However, there is disagreement on what amount would be needed to placate a hesitant municipality, and how it would be granted.

Compensation based on how near one is to a turbine, the height of it, and a rebate on the electricity it generates are some options. Locals might also have the right to sell their property based on its value before the local wind park went up. These possibilities are all difficult to implement. Another worry is that compensation could be so expensive that no wind park is built at all.

The government’s go ahead doesn’t mean the wind parks will be built. The Land and Environment court has yet to give its approval, and there is enormous opposition on behalf of the fish- and birdlife. It takes time to grow a forest.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

I love statistics so should you, statistics say what I want them to.
image source: mentehealth.com

The above quote was at one time attributed to American writer Mark Twain. That has now come into doubt, but there is no doubt the phrase still comes in handy. Still, sometimes statistics, though imperfect, are what you have. What we have as of last Thursday are the Swedish unemployment figures for April.

According to the Swedish Public Employment Service (for those in Sweden, arbetsförmedlingen), only 6.3% of working age persons were signed up with the unemployment bureau as of the end of April. According to Statistics Sweden, it hasn’t been this low since 2008.

Not ‘pink slip’ as in Cali car ownership

The economy these last years has been very confusing. We’re supposed to be in very bad shape. Pink slips have been handed out left and right. Volvo, Trustly, Kry, Storytel and Klarna are some big Swedish names that have signaled coming layoffs. Offsetting these numbers, however, is an overall shortage of workers that is left over from covid.

How much workers work is another figure that gets tossed around in regard to a country’s economy.  The Swedish measure, sysselsättning, is translated as employment in this context (although it can also mean just keeping busy). Statistics Sweden defines an employed, sysselsatt, person as someone who, during a reference week, performed some work for at least one hour as an employee. April statistics show that the vast majority of people in Sweden work 35+ hours a week., as opposed to part time.

For the first quarter of 2023 and using this employment standard, 69.5%  of people (this figure adjusted for seasonal variations, etc.) between the ages of 15 to 74 years old were employed.

The foreign borns

“Foreign borns” is a huge, and hugely diverse group, but Statistics Sweden works the numbers anyway. To start, 87.9% of Swedish born persons are in the labor force, which means that they are between 20 and 64 years of age. That number is 86.7% among foreign borns. Most of Sweden is in the work force.

The relative employment rate (see sysselsättning above) for the first quarter of 2023 was 85.5 percent among Swedish born persons and 74.7 percent for foreign born persons. Happily, the number of foreign borns who got a job is up a couple percentage points since last quarter. (Both figures are adjusted for seasonal and other variations.)

The biggest difference was in the unemployment figures for the first quarter of 2023. For Swedish born persons, the unemployment rate was only 3.4 percent. It was 13.8 percent for foreign born persons according to official statistical figures. It’s a significant difference. It could be more, or less, than one thought.

Statistics Sweden is the source for all these figures. If going down a rabbit hole on numbers is a fun way of spending an early summer afternoon for someone, a look at the latest numbers gives an interesting picture of Sweden.

Getting an upgrade

Making Stockholm look good for the tourists – plus defending the city
image source: https://www.beridnahogvakten.se/historik/

One of the fun, touristy things to do in Stockholm is to see the parade of the Royal Mounted Guard. Even jaded Stockholmers look as the horses trot from the Cavalry Barrack to the palace. In a country where the monarchy is a bit of a side note, the pomp and circumstance of the changing of the guard is a diverting anomaly.   

But nothing goes unregulated. Apparently, the helmets worn by the Royal Mounted Guards (with or without plume) are sub-par. When it comes to safety, the 1800s-style helmet hasn’t kept up with the times. Falling on the helmet spike would no doubt cause a nasty gouge. But, SvD reported, rumor has it that just dropping it on the ground causes it to dent.

a helmet for the times

Meanwhile, the city environment has become louder and busier, stressing the horses. “Riding through the city, with its construction, trams, motorcycles and cars, is to be put in a vulnerable position” Andreas Lundin, safety representative for the music corps of the Defense Association said. “To have the security of a proper and tested riding helmet is the least one can wish for.”

A request that the Swedish Work Environment Authority look into the issue has been on the books since 2012. SvD’s article about the helmets on Thursday of this week sped up the wheels of bureaucracy. On Friday, the Swedish Armed Forces’ Royal Guard representative promised that new helmets would be forthcoming.

The Royal Guards aren’t just pretty. They are actually responsible for defending the Stockholm and Drottningholm palaces, the royal family, as well as helping defend Stockholm city if it were threatened. Every blue-coated, stone-faced, poorly-helmeted guard is a trained soldier or sailor. Respect.

idle threats?

Looking rather peaceful at the moment.
image source: viator.com viator.com https://tinyurl.com/yc6vcwum

Edited to add – I was wrong. The government today announced it is going along with the Sweden Democrats and reducing the amount of biofuel that is mixed in with regular fuel. This is just the beginning – there are still questions. The question of what happens if/when Sweden doesn’t meet its climate goals, how this announcement is met by the general population, and where Sweden might have to try and make up for increasing CO2 elsewhere, remains to be seen.

The Sweden Democrats threatened the government with pulling their support and causing a governing crisis twice this week. There’s nowhere else they can go on these particular subjects, so the response has been a collective ho hum. But the fossil fuel reduction obligation and immigration are two issues that are not going to go away.

The price at the pump

The Sweden Democrats garnered a lot of votes with their promise to cut gas prices. A large part of the cut was to come from drastically reducing the percentage of biofuel mixed in with regular fossil fuel.

In 2018, Sweden passed legislation to successively reduce the percentage of fossil fuel at the pump – hence the name “reduction obligation” (reduktionsplikten) – in favor of a larger percentage of biofuel. However, biofuel is almost entirely imported (di.se) and expensive to make, which raises the pump price. 

Define “minimum”

The Sweden Democrats want to lower the amount of biofuel to the lowest level possible under EU rules and by that, decrease the cost of gas. The EU hasn’t set a fixed percentage, but instead has a general carbon emissions goal in the transport sector that nations can reach the way they want. Therefore, the Sweden Democrats think the required percentage might be zero.

No one else is going along with zero. Finding other ways to cut carbon emissions to meet EU rules and avoid paying a fine is a huge headache that might lose voters. That SD loses some votes isn’t keeping anyone other than SD up at night.

immigration shwimmigration

Reducing immigration, however, is more than a one-off election promise for SD. It’s their reason for existence. After three years of negotiations, the European Parliament passed a proposal this week on how the EU will manage asylum and immigration. One passage has every single hair on SD’s head standing straight up. The proposal allows the EU to require member states to take in a certain number of third country nationals should a crisis arise.

SD’s Mattias Karlsson demanded that the government stop the EU agreement. Otherwise, he tweeted, it would be “hard to see how their cooperation with the government could continue.“

As it is quite a long road between a parliament decision to EU law, the government doesn’t seem to be sweating the threat. The negotiations between the parliament and the council of ministers over a final wording are likely to take time. It’s not until next year a binding vote might be taken. By that time, Sweden’s presidency will be long over, and with it its responsibility for shepherding the law through the system.

Strike!

Have fun getting to work.
image source: sverigesradio.se https://tinyurl.com/46e5w4mk

Thousands of Stockholm commuters this week were inconvenienced by striking train conductors. The strike by 20-30% of commuter train conductors in Stockholm resulted in many canceled and delayed rides. It did not result in any change in the staffing plans that the conductors struck to prevent.

“The Swedish model”

Strikes are rare in Sweden, especially since the 1990s. Up through the 1930s, however, there were many. The government at the time finally stepped in and told both employers and employees to sit down and work it out. Which they did.

The outcome of the negotiations, the Saltsjöbaden Agreement of 1938 (updated), was groundbreaking. In it, it was decided that the employer had the right to distribute work as they saw fit. Employees, on the other hand, were free to join a union. The government was to stay out of it. The employers and employees would arbitrate workplace issues themselves through collective agreements.

When these signed, collective agreements were in place, an obligation to maintain peace in the workplace (fredsplikt) was also understood. In other words, strikes would not be allowed as long as there was a collective agreement.

Breaking the law

This is what the striking train conductors broke in their so called “wild strike.” There is a collective agreement in place, but they struck anyway and disrupted the workplace peace. The strike is considered illegal, even by the union.

The train conductors knew this even as they considered their cause important enough to risk being sued and even dismissed. So far, however, Stockholm Region’s decision to replace train attendants with cameras, alarms, and other technology stands. Conductors will likely be the sole employee on commuter trains in the future.