We wrote here, here and elsewhere about the mass sexual assaults that occurred across Germany, often in conjunction with robberies of young women, on New Year’s eve. All or substantially all of the assaults were committed by Islamic immigrants, in many instances just-admitted “refugees.” It is hard to say which is more appalling, the mass sexual assaults or the efforts by Germany’s officials at all levels to cover them up.

The same thing has happened across much of Europe. This report, from the Associated Press, relates to Sweden:

Swedish police faced allegations of a cover-up Monday for failing to inform the public of widespread sexual assaults against teenage girls at a music festival last summer. Police hadn’t mentioned the August incidents at the “We are Sthlm” festival until newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported on them this weekend following a string of sexual assaults and robberies on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany. Stockholm police spokesman Varg Gyllander confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday there was “a large number” of sexual assaults during the five-day festival and that scores of suspects were detained. He said police should have reported on the incidents at the time “given the nature of the crime.”

It is really extraordinary: there were “widespread sexual assaults against teenage girls” last summer, but the Swedish press made a conscious decision to kill the story.

Gyllander couldn’t confirm the ethnicity of the alleged attackers in Stockholm but said “this involves young men who are not from Sweden.” Roger Ticoalu, who heads the city government’s events department, told the AP that a “large part” of those detained were from Afghanistan, many carrying temporary ID-cards issued to asylum-seekers. He said about 20 teenage girls filed complaints of sexual assault and that about 200 suspects were detained and ejected from the festival for sexual assault and other offenses. It wasn’t immediately clear whether any of them were arrested and charged.

In Sweden as in Germany, these assaults were planned and coordinated by a considerable number of young Muslim men. Why did Sweden’s news media keep the assaults secret until now?

Dagens Nyheter cited police officials saying Swedish police are reluctant to speak publicly about crimes linked to migrants for fear of playing into the hands of the far-right Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party whose support has surged to about 20 percent in opinion polls.

Sure: it’s better that Sweden’s young women be sexually assaulted than to allow “far-right” parties to be proven correct. (In Europe, “far right” means “not crazy about mass immigration from non-Western countries.”) This is the same mentality that led to the cover-up in Germany.

What I find inexplicable is the European liberals’ lack of concern for the young women who have been violated. In their political calculations, the women do not appear to figure at all. It’s almost like they were all Kennedys or Clintons.

Earlier today, Glenn Reynolds reported on an awful story from the United States that is quite different from the incidents in Germany, Sweden, etc., but raises some of the same issues. An 18-year-old girl was in a Brooklyn park with her father. They were approached by five African-American men who drove off the father by pointing a gun at him. By the time he could summon help, all five had raped his daughter. One could respond to this story in a number of ways, but one possibility is: the father should have been armed. Glenn comments:

Too bad he didn’t have a gun — but the New York authorities would have treated him worse than they’ll probably treat these rapists. Because they don’t really care what happens to citizens, but violating gun laws is a threat to their authority.

Interesting point: as in Europe, New York’s political class doesn’t really care what happens to citizens. It’s all about their power. In Europe, that power is threatened by “far right” parties that speak for the people on the issue of immigration. The “far right” parties’ concerns are obviously valid, which is why the authorities, in conjunction with Europe’s captive press, deliberately suppress news that conflicts with the official left-wing narrative. Things are better here, but only a little.