Cops slam critics in secret Facebook group
A quarter of the Swedish police corps belong to a closed Facebook group in which members freely mock and hurl insults about high profile critics.
The group was founded by eight officers in 2012 and now has around 5,000 members, or around one-fourth of the Swedish police force, the Expressen newspaper reported.
The group calls itself UMF, an initialism taken from the Swedish words "underbetalda, missnöjda och förbannade" ('underpaid, unhappy, and pissed off') and new members must be approved by current members before being allowed to join.
Members of the group take to the social media site to air grievances against critics and problems within the Swedish police.
Among those on the receiving end of the UMF rants is Swedish television personality Elisabet Höglund, who criticized the police for fatally shooting a knife-wielding man in Varberg in July.
Höglund was blasted for being a "mummy in a clown wig" and a "witch", who shouldn't bother calling emergency services if she were ever in trouble.
Carin Götblad, the former commissioner of the Stockholm police, was compared to a figure from a reality television series because she would "do anything to get noticed for her own benefit".
UMF members also took aim at journalists and writers, calling Aftonbladet editorial writer Eva Franchell and author Johanna Langhorst "shit that smells bad" for their criticism of a fatal police shooting in Husby that many cited as a cause of the unrest that gripped the north Stockholm suburb last spring.
While the Facebook group is filled with a large number of angry and spiteful comments, some members have written posts expressing their concerns about what appears on the site.
"This forum gives me a less than enjoyable insight into how we police portray ourselves which makes me ask whether we should continue to goad one another on this downward spiral," wrote one member, according to Expressen.
Another member wrote that he was "terrified" by what appeared on the site.
The Local/dl
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The group was founded by eight officers in 2012 and now has around 5,000 members, or around one-fourth of the Swedish police force, the Expressen newspaper reported.
The group calls itself UMF, an initialism taken from the Swedish words "underbetalda, missnöjda och förbannade" ('underpaid, unhappy, and pissed off') and new members must be approved by current members before being allowed to join.
Members of the group take to the social media site to air grievances against critics and problems within the Swedish police.
Among those on the receiving end of the UMF rants is Swedish television personality Elisabet Höglund, who criticized the police for fatally shooting a knife-wielding man in Varberg in July.
Höglund was blasted for being a "mummy in a clown wig" and a "witch", who shouldn't bother calling emergency services if she were ever in trouble.
Carin Götblad, the former commissioner of the Stockholm police, was compared to a figure from a reality television series because she would "do anything to get noticed for her own benefit".
UMF members also took aim at journalists and writers, calling Aftonbladet editorial writer Eva Franchell and author Johanna Langhorst "shit that smells bad" for their criticism of a fatal police shooting in Husby that many cited as a cause of the unrest that gripped the north Stockholm suburb last spring.
While the Facebook group is filled with a large number of angry and spiteful comments, some members have written posts expressing their concerns about what appears on the site.
"This forum gives me a less than enjoyable insight into how we police portray ourselves which makes me ask whether we should continue to goad one another on this downward spiral," wrote one member, according to Expressen.
Another member wrote that he was "terrified" by what appeared on the site.
The Local/dl
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