SALEM 2010.

Salem, a suburb of Stockholm, the 9:th of December 2000. It is right after midnight when a multicultural gang counting about fifteen persons close in on a Swedish boy standing at a bus stop on Säbytorgsvägen. The boy, a rather short and skinny young man, is waiting for a bus on his way home from a party.

- Fucking racist! the gang shout as they approach him. A Swedish girl with long blond hair, shouts at him with a foreign accent.
-Fucking racist! Do you dare to stay?! Are you scared!?

The weeks before the incident the media had launched a hatred campaign directed against Swedish patriots. Among other things they claimed that “rightwing extremists” had murdered a 6 year old foreign boy in Germany, the accusations were totally unfounded and it was later revealed that it had all been lies.

- Beat him to death! a girl snaps in a superfluous request to the aggressive mob, who already has gotten scent of the prey. The gang knows that it is more than allowed to attack people who they suspect are racists. A couple of days earlier they got green light from the highest level. The Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson had stated in an article in one of Sweden’s largest newspapers, concerning nationalists, that “We will crush them”. The multicultural suburban gang is this night absolutely determined to make his words come true.

When the assault starts the boy immediately realizes his vulnerable position, alone against a bloodthirsty mob armed with wooden planks and other things they can use as weapons. He tries to seek refuge by throwing himself on the hood of a passing car. He pleads to the driver “Please, help me” hoping that the driver will take him to safety. One of the gang members shouts something to the driver and the driver tries to shake the boy off the vehicle by driving back and forth. The boy is holding on for his bare life when the gang pulls him down to the ground. The car drives away and the beating continues.

Now an intense battering begins, the gang keeps kicking and hitting repeatedly with planks against the victims head and body. After a while the boy lies almost lifeless in a ditch. One of the attackers then grabs a 1,5 meter long plank and starts to hit the boys head repeatedly with it and he does not stop until a teenage girl who happened to pass screams hysterically and begs him to stop. One of the girls who is participating in the battering shouts back to the protesting girl that “The racist deserves it” and the gang member who is holding the plank is raising it towards the witness in a threatening gesture.

At this stage one gang member who had left to get his bigger brother returns. He starts to jump on the head and neck of the almost lifeless boy. The older brother had come to help to take care of one of these detestable racists who murder “small children” and are a threat against “democracy” and he now feels his hatred boiling over.
- Out of my way, I have got a knife! he shouts in excitement as he rushes forward towards the almost lifeless boy holding a carving knife.

The other gang members leave place for Khaled Odeh who sits astride on the boys back. He raises and lowers the large carving knife again and again. After stabbing the boy at least four times in the back, the blade brakes in half. Khaled then takes the boys head with his left hand to pull it backwards.

He feels a raging hatred for the mutilated young boy; a boy that he knows threatens democracy; a boy who murders small children, he knows that the boy must be crushed. So he decides what to do. “I will kill him”. The words go through his mind as he forces what is left of the knife into the throat of the boy.

Satisfied that he has liberated society from a racist he elatedly gets up on his feet. The blood which is covering his hands is still warm. He looks around and shouts to the people standing around him that no one has seen him. Then he runs away with his brother after him. The rest of the gang members walk their separate ways and disappear. “Crush racism”, someone shouts among the shadows.

But Khaled Odeh has been seen. The Swedish girl who witnessed the brutal assault approaches the boy with tears in her eyes. The boy is trying to raise his head but fails. His clothes are drowned with blood which is pumping out of his slashed neck artery. He is trying to gasp for breath, out of his mouth is heard a wheezing sound, when his head again falls to the ground in the cold ditch. The life runs out of Daniel Wretström as the girl desperately tries to save him.

When Daniel was still alive he gave his surrounding laughter and joy. Family and friends described him as considerate, kind and very much liked. The flame in his eyes was put out when he was only seventeen years old and had a whole life ahead of him. My son Daniel was a soft and delightful boy with a twinkle in his eye, his mother tells us. He really brightened life with his humour and his pranks. It wasn’t always sunshine but everything we went through together made us closer to each other. He found relaxation and calm when fishing, and he could sit in the boat for hours, just pondering and enjoying the peace. I soon learned to avoid letting Daniel into a fishing shop since it would take a long time before he came out of there. He loved to fish, to meet girls, to play drums and his family. In my eyes he was a wonderful guy that I was very proud of. If we would ever fall out, the words “I’m sorry” were very important. He often said “mummy, I love you.” and his friends listening was not embarrassing to him at all. Daniel was a boy who made very large impression on people that he met, and he won a lot of people’s hearts. Every time I look out my kitchen window and on Daniels little house I see a dark window, the lights are put out, and I wonder, why did they take your life?

The legal consequences have been described as a farce, where judges and jurymen declared Swedish youth outlaws and with no legal rights. The killer, Khaled Odeh, was sentenced for manslaughter to psychiatric care since the court came to the conclusion that he suffered from temporary insanity when he committed the crime. When the verdict is formulated this way it is not unusual that the convicted is declared healthy after about a year and is released. Only six of his companions were prosecuted. Three of them were sentenced to forty hours of community service and contact with the social services. Two of those remaining were ordered to pay 1800 Swedish crowns (about 200 Euros) in fines and the last one was released on parole and ordered to pay 1800 crowns in fines. Is a Swedish boy’s life worth that little? Less than a speeding ticket?

You are far from alone not wanting society to be destroyed and brutalized. To keep the memory of one of the Swedish young citizens whose blood has been spilled upon the sacrificial altar of the establishment, alive, there is an annual memorial march, around the anniversary of the murder. The year of 2001, 1400 demonstrators gathered to protest against the accelerating violence against Swedes. The least we can do is to participate in this memorial manifestation and boost our detestation for the negative social change. Everyone who is opposed to the multicultural violence is welcome!

salemfonden.info