Police fear riot triggered by groups like Odin soldiers – Dagbladet.no

While recruitment to direct Muslim hostile groups has stood still for the last four or five years, it has appeared increasingly new xenophobic groups online. These groups worry police chief Vegar Martinsen, Dagsavisen.

– This is where it quickly can repay. I am more afraid that groups like Soldiers of Odin will provoke violent conflict than that Islamist militants will provoke violent conflicts in the streets of Oslo, said Martinsen, who leads the dialogue group in organized crime division of the Oslo police.

He emphasizes that he is talking about street violence and conflict groups themselves, not terrorist attacks.

Steffen Larsen, head of Odin soldiers, says he “gets scared at how little Martiensen” has though . He stands firm in that group are neither racists or extreme right, vigilante or vigilante group. He says they do not want to cause trouble.

– The point is to make places we patrol safer. The police had known if they had bothered to talk to me, says Larsen. He says he has applied to several police commissioners, but they have not been interested.

(NTB)