Add Category
Updated
And now there has been another attack. This time in Stockholm, the beautiful beating heart of Sweden.
Yet more lives destroyed and damaged by a terrorist intent on using a truck as an instrument of mass murder.
The tragedy will now trigger a grim, all-too-well rehearsed routine.
First the crime scene, for it is a crime, has been quickly locked down as a massive security operation kicks into gear.
Dozens of journalists from across the globe are now gathering at the edges of the police tape to speak in sombre tones.
They're asked about the mood on the ground — always shocked — and the impact on the city — things are understandably quieter.
Everyone wants details about the attacker.
Was he, for it's usually a he, motivated by radical Islam? Or something else?
Did he act alone? Or part of a group? Had he been to the Middle East?
Will there be any arrests? The dead, sadly, come second.
"Where are they from?" is usually the most common question, as though the nationality of a victim somehow has any bearing on the grief a family will be going through.
As this all happens, makeshift memorials grow and grow.
Cards of condolence, candles and flowers slowly spread out until they form a small sea that needs to be contained by yet more official tape.
Leaders give defiant speeches and vigils are held as a sign of a city's solidarity.
And then after a day or two the crime scene is reopened.
Suddenly, life returns to normal and the news cycle moves on.
Eventually the memorials are packed up too, usually to be replaced by a smaller, more permanent plaque.
For most, it is then as though the attack had never happened, posing the simple questions:
What did it really achieve? What was the point?
Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, media, sweden, european-union
First posted