Swedish police comments 'taken out of context' in film cited by Trump

Two Swedish police officers interviewed for a documentary cited

by Donald Trump as evidence of a link between crime levels and

asylum policy in Sweden say their comments were taken out of

context, accusing the interviewer of “bad journalism”.

At a Florida rally on Sunday the US president sowed confusion by

seemingly referencing a non-existent terrorist attack in Sweden,

later explaining on Twitter that the comment had been a

reference to a news segment on the Fox News TV channel,

which described an “incredible surge of violence” in Sweden.

But two police officers interviewed for the broadcast told

Dagens Nyeter newspaper on Monday that their interview had

been edited and “we were answering completely different

questions in the interview”. They described the filmmaker who

interviewed them, Ami Horowitz, as “a madman”.

Horowitz denied the accusations, saying he stood by his

reporting and that the two policemen were “probably under a

lot of pressure because of what they said”.

Fox’s nightly Tucker Carlson Tonight show featured the segment,

introduced as “Filmmaker documents refugee violence in

Sweden”, in which Horowitz appears to ask two off-duty

policemen if they “see the violence really spreading across

Sweden into cities”.

'Sweden, who would believe this?':

Trump cites non-existent terror

attack

“At least one or two times a week,” one of the policemen said,

seemingly in response to Horowitz’s question. “And, let’s say, five

years ago, how often do you think it was?”, the filmmaker then

asks. “Three times a year,” the other policeman responds.

“Really,” Horowitz says. “The increase in crime is exponential.”

The film then cuts to a close-up of the second policeman, who

says: “I think we were caught off guard. We didn’t expect there

to be so much increase.”

As presented on screen, the comments leave doubt as to

whether the policeman is talking about an increase in crime

levels or immigration.

In the remarks published on Monday, however, police officer

Anders Göranzon said the interview had been about areas with

high crime rates, and “there wasn’t any focus on migration or

immigration”.

Asked about his reaction to seeing the edited segment,

Göranzon said: “We don’t stand behind it. It shocked us. He has

edited the answers. We were answering completely different

questions in the interview. This is bad journalism.”

“It feels like hell,” Göranzon continued. “The real questions should

be shown along with our answers. We don’t own the rights to the

film, but the end result is that we don’t want to talk to journalists

after this. We can’t trust each other.”

Sweden is often misunderstood.

But Trump’s views subvert the truth

Reached by the Guardian, Horowitz denied that he had misled

the Swedish police officers.

“I stand by everything I said,” he said. “The answers were

accurate. I was clear about the intent of our interview and I’m

pretty sure I told them what the entire piece was going to be

about. If you see what I asked them it was mostly about gun

violence and very little about immigration.”

“This is part of the problem that Sweden has, and the officers are

probably under a lot of pressure because of what they said. It’s

difficult in that environment to stand up to it, so I feel sorry for

them.”

“They’re courageous guys, great guys, and these are

unfortunate comments. What you hear say is accurate, and

everything I asked them is what you see on the film.”

Asked about being described as a “madman”, Horowitz said:

“I’ve been called that before. I’ve been called worse. At the

end of the day, the issue is important and if this is the vehicle we

need to get the issue out there, then I’m fine with it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/20/swedish-police-comments-

taken-out-of-context-in-film-cited-by-trump