The city’s still very quiet. My friends and I are trying to find out if there’s an open pub somewhere where we can all sit and have a drink and talk yesterday’s events over.
Here’s what I know now: Some 80 people died from gun-shot wounds from Utøya yesterday. At least 7 others died from injuries sustained from the bombing in Oslo. Countless others have been injured, some very badly and others only mildly.
The shooter arrested at Utøya is a 32-year-old Norwegian male, by name of Anders Behring Breivik. He’s a previous member of The Progress Party (I call them fascists) and its youth organisation. This party is the Labour Party’s greatest and most dangerous rival, as the second largest party in the country. Breivik has lived on the posh side of Oslo all his life, before he recently moved to a farm in Hedmark. He owns an agricultural firm. It’s believed that he may have built the bombs out of artificial fertiliser. Breivik is active on anti-islam forums, is a self-professed nationalist and is strongly opposed to multiculturalism.
Breivik is in police custody and being interviewed, but according to Aftenposten.no some witnesses from Utøya are saying that there was another shooter, so the police now fears that there may be a perpetrator still walking free. However, whether these witness statements can be trusted is still being examined.
Apparently, though, someone was apparently just arrested at Sundvollen by Utøya. The reporter on TV2 is saying he looked Norwegian, had (possibly dyed?) dark hair, was very young, and had a smile on his face when they slapped him in irons. They’re saying he may have had a knife? More on this later.
Anyone who knows me knows that I believe in a criminal justice system that places rehabilitation before punishment. I think this is the foundation of a civilised, modern society, to take people who have committed terrible crimes and do our very best to turn them into people who can be productive members of society. I want to make this very clear before I tell you that I hope that Breivik and whatever accomplices he may have had are locked up for the rest of their lives. A person who kills nearly 100 people in a day cannot be rehabilitated, and I wouldn’t take the chance of letting him out even if it seemed like he could be. Lock him up and throw away the key!
That’s all I want to say for now. Everyone in Norway stands together today. I’ve seen several politicians on TV since last night whom I usually despise and I haven’t been able to hate them. Like our prime minister said last night, we need to take care of each other and stand together now. I love my country, and its people. We will not be crushed!