Protesters in Sweden trampled by police horses

Swedish police say several people have been injured today - one seriously - when mounted police charged around 1,000 demonstrators protesting against an election rally by the far-right, 'The Party of Swedes'.

'Police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun Westford said Saturday that officers on horseback chased rock-throwing demonstrators who were "causing violent riots." '

http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/w...b51-1e5e-537a-834c-e6f50bf2a967.html?mode=jqm

The weirdest thing; I was trying to find the name of 'The Party of Swedes' in Swedish, to find out more about what the protests are about.

I clicked on a link where a website had half an article about the party (Svenskarnas Parti in Swedish) with a 'Read More' at the bottom. When I clicked that, it took me to a '404 Page Not Found' error on another website.....based in St Louis, Missouri. Which then popped up lots of articles about Michael Brown. WTH?

That photograph is pretty grim.

ETA: Sites I referred to above in my previous post.

Unfortunately, I don't feel able to link either, as they don't appear to have proper links etc for their articles. I'll check with a mod though, as it would be interesting to hear other's ideas about this odd connection....

Not to make light of the injuries, but in related news, Swedes everywhere celebrated the first interesting thing to happen in their country since 1650.

a reuters article

Police arrested nine people at the march where supporters of the Party of the Swedes were confronted by a counter demonstration by opponents who consider them neo-Nazis.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/23/uk-sweden-unrest-idUKKBN0GN0OD20140823

Party of the Swedes (Swedish: Svenskarnas parti) is a neo-Nazi[SUP][1][/SUP][SUP][2][/SUP][SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][4][/SUP]political party in Sweden. The party describes itself as nationalist, based on a genetic foundation.[SUP][5][/SUP]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_the_Swedes

Lyra500 said:

That photograph is pretty grim.

Click to expand...

You know, I'm looking at the horse body language. Notice that all the horses' necks are strained and waaaaay up, showing throats and chests clearly. The reins are tight on all the horses, too...and subsequent photos look like the horses are stumbling and tripping. One rider looks like he's struggling to stay aboard.

This is telling me that the horses stampeded. Which, for police horses, is pretty damned rare. *Something* set them off somehow. Again, pretty rare for police horses...their desensitizing programs are pretty strenuous and rigorous.

And also note that from what the photos show, the horses are doing their best to not step on the humans. Horses have an instinctive hesitation to step on people - not because they know they're people, but because it's poor footing (and tends to scream, which is problematic, LOL). While do see one horse stepping directly on a person, it also looks like it's trying to not put weight on that hoof.

However, having been stepped on innumerable times, and in one horrible instance trampled inside a trailer (got knocked out...and knocked out of the trailer, too...I woke up UNDER the trailer; apparently I rolled under it to avoid my horse; I don't remember most of the incident), horses weigh a LOT, and their hooves/shoes are sharp. And I don't envy any one who finds themselves on the underside of a horse...

I really wonder what happened - for one horse to spook and stampede is one thing; having a bad day, teeth issue, gear issue...but to have ALL of them go off? Energy must've been very high, and something *really* set them off.

(I should say that I still have the horse who used me as a rug, and love him dearly...he is very, very high strung, though...bless his beanhead heart).

I hope all victims and horses are all right. And yes, Nova, since 1650. LOLOL.

Best-
Herding Cats

Nova said:

Not to make light of the injuries, but in related news, Swedes everywhere celebrated the first interesting thing to happen in their country since 1650.

Click to expand...

Hilarious. So funny that the thumbs up wasn't enough.

Just going by that Wiki article I can see where they are nationalistic racialists and perhaps authoritarian but calling them neo-Nazi seems like a bit of inflammatory hyperbole. Since when were Nazis animal rights advocates and environmentalists? It's a little like calling a Libertarian a neo-anarchist.

I have no clue. I know zero about politics or even the process in Sweden let alone the party. And we all know how reliable Wiki is.

I was just googling to try to find something about this party since Zwie was having troubles finding much about them.

“On Saturday, November 22nd, the National Socialist Front (NSF) decided to transfer all of its assets to the newly started People’s Front party as we feel this party has the ability to rebuild a Swedish Sweden. This also means a closing of the books for the National Socialist Front,” the group writes on its website.
According to the magazine Expo, the group has done away with all references to Hilter, but continues to fight for an ethnically homogeneous Sweden.

http://www.thelocal.se/20081125/15918

The party was founded as The People's Front (Folkfronten) in November 2008 by members of the now defunct National Socialist Front and is chaired by Stefan Jacobsson.[SUP][6][/SUP] The name of the party was changed in 2009 to avoid confusion and loss of votes in the upcoming 2010 elections; when they filed an application to the Election Authority of Sweden it became apparent that a newly established socialist group had been registered under the same name only weeks before to block them from using that party name.[SUP][7]

[/SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_the_Swedes

http://books.google.com/books?id=RV...v=onepage&q=The People's Front sweden&f=false

More detailed article. Rocks and flares thrown, police ride towards protestors to disperse them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tml?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Mmmm. I don't know anything about the Svenskarnas Parti, but living in Germany as I do, I know this; if you cross those symbols on those banners the Svenskarnas Parti marchers are holding in the picture here, you get a swastika.

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=83&artikel=5817089

I'm familiar with the political party in question, but that's neither here nor there. I feel bad for the horses; they didn't sign up for this.

Nova said:

Not to make light of the injuries, but in related news, Swedes everywhere celebrated the first interesting thing to happen in their country since 1650.

Click to expand...

Hey, what about the 'serial killer' of 30 people, who just got released this year?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26654316

Montjoy said:

I'm familiar with the political party in question, but that's neither here nor there. I feel bad for the horses; they didn't sign up for this.

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. I still weep when I see old photographs of the devastation wreaked on horses in wars too.

If there are flares being thrown, that would do it. Rocks most horses are desensitized to (I worked with Tango with a beach ball, and progressed to a rubber ball, and then ping pong balls...rocks get thrown up from other horses on trails all the time). But flying fire? No...fire is one of a horse's greatest fear...and to have something fly at them on fire? No, I can completely understand now why they bolted.

I can't blame them, either.

Best-
Herding Cats

I am from Sweden and just woke up to these pictures on facebook, I will see if I can find some links and some info.

I am from Sweden and just woke up to these pictures on facebook, I will see if I can find some links and some info.

http://www.thelocal.se/20140823/ten-injured-at-malm-anti-nazi-demonstration

The swedes party in swedish is called Svenskarnas Parti They have also been linked to a stabbing earlier

http://hbl.fi/nyheter/2014-03-12/579741/tva-haktade-knivdad

translation google
Two arrested for stabbing spree
Matts Lindqvist
Published: 12/03/2014 18:41



Two men have been arrested for a knife fight with Nazi overtones in Malmö last weekend. The row has raised a stir and led to several anti-Nazi manifestations.


Before a packed courtroom in Malmö district court detained a 24 and a 27 year old man with attempted murder, attempted murder and participation in on Wednesday. The men were involved in a knife brawl in Malmö this weekend, where several people were injured. One person is still in hospital seriously injured.

A third person, a 20 year old man, who had also sought custody, was released on the loose.

There are different opinions about what happened at the altercation, which took place after a feminist rally. It is clear that two of the three requested detained members of Nazi Swedes portion. They claim that they acted in self-defense. But one of the stabbed as

Aftonbladet talked to says this:
- Swedes party have stated that their members were attacked. Something that many media also wrote. That is not true. We got all of them stabbed in the back. How do you get backstabbed if you yourself are attacking someone? It does not make sense, it's bizarre how they can get it to that it was the anti-fascists who attacked the Nazis.

Police say they still have no clear picture of what happened.

Knife The row has brought a stir in Sweden and several anti-Nazi rallies were held around the country.

So it seems to me that the Swede party was having a demonstration and of course anti nazi/racism groups wanted to show their dislike. Massive police force was in place to protect the nazis and used violence we rarely have seen here at all. IMO this is scary ****.

do hope the links works