There have been "explosions" in Oslo tonight. I guess not known why yet but I observe there have also been increasing numbers of explosions, mostly related to organised crime and gangs in the Netherlands, which unlike Sweden's issues with the same, seem to have flown under the radar internationally
A similar trend is reported in Italy. Is violent crime becoming more violent and international? Is "someone" (a state actor perhaps?) flooding the black market with weapons?
Overall violent crime has been falling for decades pretty much everywhere in Europe so it's interesting to see these trends
This is the kind of thing the old twitter was very good at. You could make some observations, ask generally if they were correct and before long a statistician and a criminologist appeared to answer your question. Closely followed by an expert in geopolitics with Europol following behind..
If you were really lucky they'd end up publishing a paper on the phenomenon. So, are the stories about gangs, violent crime and explosions in Europe just a coincidence in my feed? Or is something really going on? There's no question that the Netherlands underworld has turned very nasty.for instance.
@Ruth_Mottram
Best I can do is the following quote from the Europol report on Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment:
> Weapons trafficking often does not lead directly to violence, but firearms trafficking to and within the EU, and the availability of weapons in general, are major enablers for organised crime-related violence. The use of explosives and firearms is becoming more frequent, relying on intermediaries and weapons dealers.
@tobychev nice, just what I was looking for! Its like the old days again...