SPOTLIGHT: Sweden is in trouble. An acquaintance who lives there uttered precisely those words a week ago, before arson struck three separate communities.

BIG PICTURE: The New York Times says ‘more than 100 cars’ were deliberately torched in Sweden Monday evening. In the run-up to the September 9th national election, ordinary Swedes are rattled. With good reason.

A hundred cars may not sound like the end of the world, but Sweden’s population is a scant 10 million. That’s 10 cars per million residents.

Let’s extrapolate those numbers for a moment. The US population is 326 million. If 3,260 vehicles had been set alight around America on Monday night, how safe would ordinary people be feeling?

How about 650 in the UK?

LINKS:

• New York Times, More Than 100 Cars Burned in Mass Arson Attack in Sweden
• Deutsche Welle, Wave of arson attacks hit cars in Gothenburg, other Swedish cities
• The Daily Mail, Dozens of cars are destroyed as gangs of masked youths go on fire-bomb rampages in cities across Sweden
• Associated Press, Swedish police say suspect in car fires arrested in Turkey
• Reuters, Youths in Swedish towns burn and vandalize scores of cars

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