Saturday, August 12, 2006

Multicultural Outreach from the Swedish Police

Reader LN has translated an article for Gates of Vienna from yesterday’s Metro International in Sweden:

AINA Will Attract Suburban “Kids”

Aina is Turkish-Swedish slang, and is an abbreviation of the Turkish slang expression aynasiz that means “without mirror”. The word hints at the police with the meaning that a police officer has no sense of shame and decency and consequently would not dare to look in a mirror. (Source: Z. Adami, Gringo)

AINA police carA police car with the slang word for police “AINA” is supposed to tempt suburban “kids” to join the police corps. “The police believe they can reclaim the word and undramatize or defuse it. By using the same word as the kids in the immigrant suburbs you are creating a feeling of nearness,” says Zanyar Adami, editor in chief of the paper Gringo.

Different Ethnic Backgrounds

During the youth festival “Young 08 “ next week the police will unveil the renamed police car. The objective is to tempt youngsters with different ethnic backgrounds to join the corps for police education.

It is also part of the fight against juvenile delinquency, by investing in tempting new groups to join the police force. “Too many young people are drawn into gang criminality and we must all engage in trying to stop this. On way could be to get more police officers with experience from the suburbs,” says Chief Commissioner Carin Götblad to the Swedish News Agency TT.

Zanyar Adami believes that the car will draw the attention of the “kids” and create a dialogue between them and the police.

“Is it enough to only show up a car with the word ‘AINA’ to reach suburb youngsters? — No, one PR campaign is not enough, but it shows that the police are receptive. I believe that it can tempt some to enlist,” says Zanyar Adami.


Photo caption: Chief Commissioner Carin Götblad demonstrates the new police car that will tempt suburban “kids” to qualify as future police. Photo: Land Earthy/Scanpix

5 comments:

Zerosumgame said...

I have a feeling that trying to recruit Islamic minorities for the police force there will encounter the same problems as trying to recruit blacks for American police forces:

1) There is an intense cultural hostility toward the police, and thus nobody wants to be seen as a turncoat by joining it.

2) With the high rate of crime and juvenile deliquency within each group, it might be difficult to even find recruits meeting the first qualification -- no arrest record.

NOTE: I couldn't help but smirk when I saw that the Turkish writer worked for a paper called "Gringo" :-)

X said...

I'm imagining the local police cars with "rozzer" and "baconmobile" splashed across the side, now...

In Russet Shadows said...

This is more of the same -- a PC "let's throw money and create a department/PR campaign" solution. To be sure, there will be favorable press reports on the program. There will be breathless interviews with the cops on the street, glorifying the new program. What there won't be is truth. The media continues to fiddle while Rome burns, spinning its alter-reality tales, designed to deceive themselves into thinking that nothing is wrong. They will continue to do this until they feel the hands of a Muslim around their own throats.

It is tragic how the watchmen have turned into navel-gazers.

John Sobieski said...

That is incredibly stupid. Europe has fallen and can't get up.

Fröken Sverige said...

Some of us know, what we are up against. All swedes are not sleeping. But we are still very few that is awake.....the rest is PC and/or just afraid...

I just hope it´s not too late for Sweden...

This is a great blog! Keep up the good work!

My best

FS