Thanks to a well-organised police strategy and well-executed security measures, Gothenburg’s Nazi demo ended with remarkably few incidents, bearing in mind what could have happened.
True to our predictions, it was not the Nazis who created the relatively few and relatively limited incidents of violence, but the Leftist and Anarchist so-called counter-demonstrators. Who were there not so much to demonstrate against the pathetic Nazis, but rather to have some “fun” attacking the police. Which they did.
Responding with impressive calm and good planning, the police boxed in the Nazis after they failed to turn up at their allotted venue – the racists tried to bypass the security arrangements by gathering at a different location. The only effect this had was that they failed to get to their allotted venue at all until the time allowed for their demo ran out, after which they were ignominiously forced to turn back and get out of town. Their leader was arrested for violence against a police officer.
True to style, their Leftist and Anarchist opponents, some of them waving Kalashnikov-decorated Hezbollah, Hamas and Fatah flags, then chose to attack the police with rocks, firecrackers and rockets.
All in all about 60 people were either detained or arrested (there is a legal distinction). In some cases, prior to the demonstrations uniformed police swooped down on groups of black-clad, masked Anarchists and took them off the streets simply for being there, as legislation allowed for the police to take such preventive measures.
There were no incidents anywhere near the synagogue, and services were able to proceed entirely without problem the entire day. There were no cases of any Jews being attacked on their way to or from the synagogue, although one beggar hurled an anti-Semitic epithet at a Jew who did not give him any money – hardly surprising since no observant Jew would be carrying money on Yom Kippur. No member of the public responded to the anti-Semitic tirade, and the victim walked on to the synagogue with his family.
Throughout the day the police had thrown a strong and very visible security cordon around the synagogue and all the approach roads leading to it. The police did their job with immense efficiency, and as always with a smile. It has to be said, as indeed I have said on many previous occasions: there is such a huge disconnect between the professional and dedicated police officers getting the job done every single day, on the one hand, and on the other hand their more politically motivated commanders higher up the echelon. Had these commanders listened to our input at an early stage a lot of resources, effort and pain would have been avoided.
The city of Gothenburg owes a huge debt of gratitude to the police for a wonderful job well done under the most trying of circumstances. The police gave up not just their Sunday, but the previous days too as they attended countless briefings on what to expect and how to respond to both the Right-wing and the Left-wing threats. It is to be hoped that they receive proper compensation for all the extra work they put into making Yom Kippur such a thankfully low-key day, all considered, bearing in mind the explosive potential of the Nazi demonstrators and the Leftist/Anarchist/Islamist counterdemonstrators.
Now it is up to the Swedish taxpayer to foot the bill for this hugely expensive operation. I repeat, the cost of which could have been limited to a mere fraction if only the top echelon of the police had listened to our advice early on in the process.