A Riotous Score

SCORE!!!!!

A standard comic caricature of a soccer announcer includes an exaggerated pronunciation of, “SCORE!”  Our American roots, however, simply don’t allow us to tap into this worldwide enthusiasm for people running around in short pants kicking a black and white ball.  What’s all the fuss about?

Rioters right behind our apt.

We were equally confused this evening when we heard hoots, yells and jeers from the courtyard and park adjacent to our apartment. Jay quickly grabbed his camera. Two groups of young men, each numbering in the 50+ range, converged in a headlong Braveheart-like rush and began beating one another senselessly.  What’s this all about?

Soccer Fans and Police Face Off 

The police quickly arrived and with professional precision separated the warring factions.  The surge subsided only to re-emerge on the same field of battle 20 minutes later.  The police arrived again but were now better equipped with horse mounted officers, flash grenades, pepper spray and an ambulance, just in case.

After the second and final battle was quelled, Jay went outside and spoke with a knot of officers.  He learned the melee was among rival soccer fans.   Evidently such outbreaks regularly occur with the opening of the soccer season.

We returned to our humdrum activities in the apartment.  Jay downloaded video and still images he took of the event to his computer to assemble a short video.  The quiet was again broken by a knock on our apartment door.

Two police officers stood in the doorway.   As through ripped from a script from Law & Order, one officer flashed his badge and asked if we had witnessed or had any images of the riot.  We invited them in to see the high definition video and images that Jay had loaded on his MacBook.  In their excited response they failed to perform the normally quick translation of the English j sound and replied simply on their native Swedish pronunciation, “Yackpot!”

In the viewing of images, particular attention was paid to isolating an individual whose participation in the riot had resulted in his arrest. “He’s wearing purple pants.”  Dressed in something that made him so easily identifiable, we suspect hooligans, regardless of nationality, are not the sharpest tools in the shed. 

The police requested and received copies of the still and video images.

The experience provided us a unique opportunity to glimpse a few layers deeper into Swedish life.   Clearly there are complexities and textures to any society.   So the next time we take our number at the deli counter and wait our turn to participate in the seemingly never-ending orderly Swedish society, we will know that we are only on the edge of our cultural appreciation of our European home.

Below is a short video of the rioting fans.