Explosions in Oslo, government HQs damaged

[solaris]

Originally Posted by Dagless

Last I heard it took 60-90 minutes for the police to show up on the island.

Exactly 60 minutes after the local police received their first stress call.
They lost 10 minutes due to engine failure on their police boat. But the remaining 50 minutes is declard for.

It is a small police county with just a handful officers on duty, so 8 minutes after they received the firs stress call they asked the Oslo police for backup. The local police arrived at the main land with their boat after 35 minutes, and some few minutes later they had the boat ready, at the same time the special forces arrived by car from Oslo (~30 miles away). The gunman was arrested 2 minutes after they arrived the island.

I am still i disbelieve! Tragic!

[cluthz]

It's really clear now that this is the work of a crazy right wing extremist and describes himself as a "counter-jihadist".
He has published a 1500 page manifest filled with conspiracy theories and claims that he has planned this for years.

Latest casualty reports indicates there are 93 dead, which is a lot considering Norway is one of the countries with fewest people in the world (about 5 mill people).

Also attacking a camp with kids, on an island with nowhere to go, is only a work of a deranged madman and cannot be defended by even the most extreme ideologies.

I've heard many horrible stories about terrorism, but never where massacring children has been the main goal.

A few asked about laws and punishments in Norway, and to be frank, we have the most forgiving justice system in the world. The longest sentence you can get here is 21 years in jail, and a 21 years sentence usually means you are let out after 15 years with good behaviour. I really don't hope we see this guy walking in the streets again in 2026 ...

[iStudentUK]

Originally Posted by cluthz

A few asked about laws and punishments in Norway, and to be frank, we have the most forgiving justice system in the world. The longest sentence you can get here is 21 years in jail, and a 21 years sentence usually means you are let out after 15 years with good behaviour. I really don't hope we see this guy walking in the streets again in 2026 ...

From what I understand the maximum initial sentence is 21 years, but after that time it can be extended by 5 years if there is still a threat to the public, and by more blocks of 5 years after that. So there is the possibility of life long custody.

I hope Norway doesn't fall into the trap of clamping down on freedoms in response. Look what happened in my country, and even worse the US.

[joepunk]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

If only he had killed himself before deciding to mass murder almost 100 people.

In some way I'm glad he did not kill himself. I can understand that the father wishes his son would have killed himself and that would have been good for the father, but not so good for the public. We need to live with him, and know his crazy racist ideas and how that racist thinking has developed in Europe.

[Cybbe]

Originally Posted by iStudentUK

From what I understand the maximum initial sentence is 21 years, but after that time it can be extended by 5 years if there is still a threat to the public, and by more blocks of 5 years after that. So there is the possibility of life long custody.

I hope Norway doesn't fall into the trap of clamping down on freedoms in response. Look what happened in my country, and even worse the US.

This is correct. There is also some speculation that the prosecutors will charge him with crimes against humanity, which in a new penal code can be punished with 30 years. This would be unchartered territory though.

[Scepticalscribe]

Originally Posted by iStudentUK

From what I understand the maximum initial sentence is 21 years, but after that time it can be extended by 5 years if there is still a threat to the public, and by more blocks of 5 years after that. So there is the possibility of life long custody.

I hope Norway doesn't fall into the trap of clamping down on freedoms in response. Look what happened in my country, and even worse the US.

I agree completely; Norway is one of the most impressive countries in the world in terms of its respect for civic values, ethnic diversity, education, health, women's & minority rights, government accountability - and everything else which allows for the development of a civilised society. It has scored consistently in the top two of three countries in the UNHDI for years. The country (and its Scandinavian siblings) stands as a beacon of what might be achieved in a humane setting where respect for civic rights and human rights and the environment are core values.

Despite this appalling atrocity, I would hate to see that lost.

[chaosbunny]

Originally Posted by cantthinkofone

It happened here with the Patriot Act.

I know. Whenever some lunatic was on his insane "mission", the harpies come out to exploit it to make some new surveillance laws that have a poor track record of preventing these things but decrease the freedom for the general public.

The Norwegian politicians seem to act responsibly though, I have read in the news today. But German and Austrian officials are already calling for more (anti)terror laws. It doesn't even need to be their country where it happens ...