I didn't go to Vilks' talk, but I heard and read that nothing special happened. Vilks gave a 2-hour talk and it went smoothly. As it should. But 130 police were brought to the university, and it cost more than 700 thousand Swedish krona (more than 100 thousand US dollars). Here is the article from the local newspaper.
Well that's good -- but then the real crime is that a single cop seems to cost the Swedish government $384 per hour which seems "slightly" excessive. Also I think 130 was an over-reaction, that would have meant they expected hundreds or thousands of people trying to kill Vilks in which case they would have needed reinforcements anyway...
ReplyDeleteOh, you have no idea how expensive things are in Sweden. I don't think a cop gets paid $384 per hour. Most of the money goes back to the state--I think.
ReplyDeleteAn example: A beer in a bar costs, at least, 55 krona (= 8 US dollars).
Also, yes, they did expect large crowds and protests from a few fanatics. But nothing like that happened. Most of the people I know didn't care anyway, because, as I said, they don't think highly of his art, for the art's sake.