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andydp
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Joined: 23 Sep 2003
Posts: 8122
Location: Upstate NY near Albany
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 Posted: 09/22/05 - 05:35 Post subject: How to NOT improve your police protection...
Do they have doghnut shops in Sweden ?
Swedish deputy PM stirs anger of 'lazy' police
22 September 2005
STOCKHOLM: Sweden's deputy prime minister faced calls to step down on Tuesday for calling the police "bloody lazy" in a conversation with an aide that was overheard by a journalist who had just interviewed him.
Bosse Ringholm complained police were poor at catching shopkeepers running illegal slot machines.
"It is not so difficult for the local police to go in and check it, but they don't. They are so bloody lazy!" Ringholm said to the aide after failing to hang up his telephone properly following an interview with TV4.
He was recorded calling one unnamed Stockholm policeman an "idiot" and, when the aide commented that police do not take burglaries seriously, said: "They prefer doing nothing because then they don't risk making a mistake."
Ringholm apologised to the police but rejected calls for his resignation. Prime Minister Goran Persson, sinking in opinion polls before elections next year, said he was "surprised".
Jan Karlsen, head of the Swedish Police Association, said he hoped the rest of the government did not share Ringholm's views.
The centre-right opposition, expected to oust the ruling Social Democrats from power in 2006, called Ringholm "a huge asset" for their campaign.
"It is difficult to see how Persson can have confidence in Ringholm after this," Centre Party leader Maud Olofsson said.
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