Copenhagen calm after eviction riots

• 
  March 4, 2007 - 12:00PM
  

Violent clashes died out yesterday after a night of street clashes in Copenhagen in which protesters threw cobblestones at riot police and erected barricades with garbage containers which they set on fire along with at least a dozen cars.
At least 170 people were arrested during the violence sparked by Thursday's eviction of squatters from a central Copenhagen building. The clashes started just after midnight in a square a block away.
The eviction angered youths who have viewed the building, a former theatre, as free public housing for years. It has also been a popular cultural centre for anarchists, punk rockers and left-wing groups, where performers have included Australian musician Nick Cave and Icelandic singer Bjork.
One demonstrator was injured in the downtown Noerrebro district, Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said. . The Politiken newspaper said on its internet edition that the rioter had been hit by a cobblestone.
"After a very hectic night, calm finally has settled over the city," Munch said. He could not confirm media reports that many of those arrested were Germans. "We have something like more than 400 people arrested in the past days."
Hundreds of police in riot gear used tear gas to disperse the protesters, pushing away demonstrators and onlookers to allow firefighters to put out the blazes which sent smoke billowing into the night sky.
Shortly after 1am (1100 AEDT) yesterday, protesters briefly clashed with police and erected barricades which they set on fire along with at least a dozen of cars.
About three hours later, a bonfire in the street ignited a blaze in a nearby building housing a kindergarten and an adjacent two-story house. Police said the fire was quickly extinguished and no one was injured.
Across the city, other groups of protesters set garbage containers on fire in the streets. Youths threw cobblestones and clashed with police. One band of protesters entered a school and began hurling chairs, desks and computers onto the street.
It was the second night of violent street battles.
On Thursday night, demonstrators threw cobblestones, burned cars, lit fires and fought with police. Twenty-five people were injured and 219 arrested.
Anticipating more violence, Denmark borrowed 20 police vans from neighbouring Sweden yesterday.
"We want to make sure (Danish) police would not end up in a situation where we lack vehicles that can resist cobblestones if the situation in Copenhagen's streets should escalate further," Denmark's police chief Torsten Hesselbjerg said.

Copenhagen calm after eviction riots

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Copenhagen
March 4, 2007 - 12:00PM

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Violent clashes died out yesterday after a night of street clashes in Copenhagen in which protesters threw cobblestones at riot police and erected barricades with garbage containers which they set on fire along with at least a dozen cars.
At least 170 people were arrested during the violence sparked by Thursday's eviction of squatters from a central Copenhagen building. The clashes started just after midnight in a square a block away.
The eviction angered youths who have viewed the building, a former theatre, as free public housing for years. It has also been a popular cultural centre for anarchists, punk rockers and left-wing groups, where performers have included Australian musician Nick Cave and Icelandic singer Bjork.
One demonstrator was injured in the downtown Noerrebro district, Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said. . The Politiken newspaper said on its internet edition that the rioter had been hit by a cobblestone.
"After a very hectic night, calm finally has settled over the city," Munch said. He could not confirm media reports that many of those arrested were Germans. "We have something like more than 400 people arrested in the past days."
Hundreds of police in riot gear used tear gas to disperse the protesters, pushing away demonstrators and onlookers to allow firefighters to put out the blazes which sent smoke billowing into the night sky.
Shortly after 1am (1100 AEDT) yesterday, protesters briefly clashed with police and erected barricades which they set on fire along with at least a dozen of cars.
About three hours later, a bonfire in the street ignited a blaze in a nearby building housing a kindergarten and an adjacent two-story house. Police said the fire was quickly extinguished and no one was injured.
Across the city, other groups of protesters set garbage containers on fire in the streets. Youths threw cobblestones and clashed with police. One band of protesters entered a school and began hurling chairs, desks and computers onto the street.
It was the second night of violent street battles.
On Thursday night, demonstrators threw cobblestones, burned cars, lit fires and fought with police. Twenty-five people were injured and 219 arrested.
Anticipating more violence, Denmark borrowed 20 police vans from neighbouring Sweden yesterday.
"We want to make sure (Danish) police would not end up in a situation where we lack vehicles that can resist cobblestones if the situation in Copenhagen's streets should escalate further," Denmark's police chief Torsten Hesselbjerg said.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/...868816539.html

this is how fucked up American media is.

this is no less newsworthy than that fire that destroyed
that club in Providence, RI, but will that major media play
it up that much?

America is not the center of the world. Nope.

i know somebody cares.
maybe not you.

someone.

I don't know that it was reported here either, and we're not very far from there. And I don't know, why is it so important?

The American media was also not particularly fair to the WTO protestors in Seattle.

It's a well-known fact that we sell our news here, and probably even more well known that just about no one wants to read about squatters going ballistic. The police are always roughing up the squatters in Minneapolis and they never mention it on the news here--the only time they did mention it on the news here was because a squat actually burned down and people were injured that way. Because us kiddos and our parents needed to know that squatting kills.

It's weird, when I had a vague inkling that a lot of the media was being used to push ideology on us, I was really angry. When I saw proof that all of it is, I couldn't get angry about it anymore. I think my idea that the media was supposed to be something that it's not kinda died. The idea that it's impartial and free and lovely is a myth, but god knows where it came from.

I wanted to see that part of Copenhagen in all its anarchist legal drug fueled glory.

Guess not.

100 people burning to death is a hell of a lot more important than a group of assholes who get destructive because they are asked to grow up and pay rent. How dare you even try to compare a tragedy like that.

I am fully aware that in parts of Europe the squatting and employment laws are far different than here in the states, but in my earlier days I also lived in squats and hung out with the whole anarchist crowd. It didn't take long to realize that they didn't have a point, just an addiction to drama, and a talent for making excuses.

For a crowd that is so seemingly dedicated to liberating people from the oppressive forces and freeing minds, it seems hysterically funny that they would destroy educational facilities. Let me guess, they impose the evil of rules, or whatever the bullshit excuse du jour is.

The funny thing is, I never met a person in that scene who didn't have a choice but that lifestyle, actually they all bragged how they chose to be "free". Here's my dare to all of you anarchists. Go walk into the projects, or a run down trailer park, and tell everybody your political views and that you chose your lifestyle. I'm going to be a capitalist pig, take bets on the side that you will not make it out without at least a serious ass kicking (Vegas odds are on my side), and pay my rent for months.

It doesn't matter if you're an evil, stupid, heartless, American (or however you are generalizing 300 million people this week into one category. seriously it's been done, for a long time, you're not original, we've heard it, we laugh at you now for lack of originality) or a Scandanavian who is so far superior a slacker is the same in any country. Bullshit is the same in any language.

I've been homeless, for the real reasons, and having overcome that, I know that anyone who is serious about turning their life around would never be involved in something like that because the last thing they need is to get arrested.

hi.

wto riots

august 1999.

and still
the progressives have yet to really create an effective way to reply
to the greedy elites who wish they made the sun rise and fall. sad!

yeah, they are manipulative. ("programming.")

-------------------
squatting can be a more fun and cool way of life than rentpaying/owning -- but there are obstacles.

The culture of generosity

In a short interview on CNET News, marking the second anniversary of Yahoo!'s acquisition of Flickr (is it only two years?), Caterina Fake talks about attention economies, the internet "culture of generosity" and the creating of online communities ('It really is kind of like building a civilization. You need to have a culture and mores and a sense of this is "what people do here." If people greet each other and are helpful, and stomp on trolls immediately and keep the trash in the trash cans, that becomes what the culture of the place is. And that scales.'), and then the interview winds up with this:

Jeremy Neumann (from the audience) asks, "At South by Southwest Bruce Sterling was very down on blogs, podcasting, videos and other participatory media, comparing it to folk art which he said was really, really bad. Is it the taking part and the sharing that counts or are we raising the bar with user-generated content?"
Fake: It used to be when you wanted to hear music, you didn't go turn on the radio and listen to Christina Aguilera. You went down to the living room and grabbed cousin Joe and played the banjo.

There's nobody trying to be The Rolling Stones down there, or even Whitesnake. The "audience" for this stuff is usually friends, family, people like that. It's not meant to be judged by, ahem, Whitesnake standards. So I'd have to disagree with Bruce Sterling there. On the other hand, there are gems in all those family snapshots and MP3s of people noodling in their basements. And social networks are great ways of surfacing those really amazing things. Interestingness on Flickr is a great way to do that. It looks at all the human activity around a photo and determines which ones are the most interesting.

Scepticism about the value of the write part of the read/write web is persistent amongst those not yet using the web to write. No surprise there (but how quickly we can forget this)! I'm not sure how convincing they'd find it, but this interview does offer another accessible piece to which I can point them.
There's no substitute for participation, though — for reading and writing online.

----
BUT WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT, CRASSY?
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Punx.Com :: Index

On March 1, a police “anti-terror” squad landed by helicopter on the roof of the “Ungdomshuset” (Youth House) to storm the building in the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen which has been occupied by squatters for almost a quarter of a century.

This final eviction move – the debut of the police unit – provoked six days of street-fighting, which made headlines around the world.

The bourgeois press played up the burning cars and barricades, but rarely mentioned the fact that protesters were beaten, tear-gassed and in some cases run over as the cops moved to break up or seal off what began as peaceful demonstrations.

Extra police vehicles were brought in from Sweden and the Netherlands for the military-style assault.

it's less like this COULD happen in America and more like it has so many times. Kent State, MOVE, the WTO in Seattle in 1999. the police state is not 'impending'...


Copenhagen’s social-democratic mayor, Ritt Bjerregaard, disappeared on a ski trip during the police assault, but she returned to denounce the protesters and explain that private property rights were sacrosanct. (For social democrats, anyway!) While the bourgeois media tried to whip up hysteria about “foreign agitators,” the cops struck swaggering poses for ”trophy photos” on the site. They have since been deployed to conduct arbitrary body searches at checkpoints around the city.

<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">What set off this wanton display of police power in “peaceful” Denmark? The municipality of Copenhagen had officially handed over the abandoned building to the squatters back in 1982, and it became a cultural center at which such well-known musicians as Nick Cave and Björk had performed. But seven years ago the city administration went back on its word, and sold the building for a pittance to a fundamentalist sect, Faderhuset (“Father’s House”). Led by one Ruth Eversen, the homophobic Faderhuset was politely described by the New York Times (4 March) as a “Christian congregation.” In a Sunday sermon delivered as the fighting raged, Eversen exulted that the eviction was a victory over “Satan” – i.e. abortionists, homosexuals and others who are objects of hatred of these reactionaries (also including Muslims, punk rockers and anarchists).

Christiania under attack and Copenhagen-Update


squatting / free spaces / protest sites | Rest of Europe 15.05.2007
The police entered christiania yesterday to evict and demolish a house, that partly burned down a couple of years ago. The eviction lead to a night of street fighting in the area. Timeline is translated from modkraft.dk
Yesterday's attack on christiania has to be seen in connection with the attack on Ungdomshuset the 1st of march which lead to a week of riots all over Copenhagen. Again the police is now attacking a free space in Copenhagen that has been under attack from both police and government several times the last couple of years
The reason was officially that there had been made new constructions on the house which against the new administration "rules" for christiania that forbids any construction at all, which also lead to another major police raid in september 2006. Unofficially it is said that the eviction might be a test from the police to see the reaction to evictions on christiania, prior to the promised eviction of all "illegally" build houses in the area..
From several politicians and the opinion in general among left radicals the official reason for the attack has been critized as being pointless. The house was officially asked to be removed by Christiania themselves back in 2006 and there hasn't been any reason stated why it had to be removed just now a month and a half after Ungdomshuset and a week before the court decides whether or not 3 houses on Christiania should also be evicted.
To many it seems like the police is training for these evictions of houses that are still in function and also this might be an attempt to shift the public opinion AGAINST Christiania by creating and provoking several riots in the area week after week.
However, the riots and fighting yesterday also shows that the police isn't always the strongest force. People were caught by surprise this morning when they attacked Christiania but by evening the demonstrators proved to be a much more prepared and stronger force than the police seem to have been prepared for.
Even though Copenhagen might have seemed to disappear again in the international news the city has been the center for huge political mobilizations time after time and there has been more and more focus on police brutality in the danish news.
At the same time sentences has been decided by the city court against some of those people arrested around 1st of march. Most of them have been confession trials and might therefor not give any hint about future trials but in one or two trials people have been sentenced for long jail punishments even though there was more civil witnesses supporting them than police witnesses against them.
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From modkraft.dk:
Kl. 01.51
The police has bloked Prinsessegade (main road to christiania) and has parked a big amount of vans and officers on the main square in the area Christianshavns Torv
The situation seems unchanged.
Modkraft.dk is ending tonights reportage
Kl. 01.39
A police attack hasn't begun anyway. Four police vans are parked across Prinsessegade with a number of officers in gas masks in front of and behind the vans.
Further up the street closer to Christiania molotov cocktails and teargas granats are thrown in each others direction but without any real movement.
The police has all equipment ready but nothing is happening
Kl. 01.28
A witness reports that the police has taken on gasmasks and is standing next to their vans by the church half way between the square Christianshavns Torv and the entrance to Christiania
The witness thinks it looks like the preparation for a final attack on the demonstrators.
Kl. 01.24
There has just been new clashes between demonstrators and police around Prinsessegade and Bådmandsstræde.
The police moved forward in vans and had rocks thrown after them. The police then retreated and fired teargas at the demonstrators.
In return the demonstrators threw at least 3 molotovcocktails at the police
It seems as if the clashes doesn't lead to any changes in position. The police has again retreated.
Kl. 01.05
The fighting between demonstrators and police seems to stop just as slowly. There aren't as many demonstrators on the street as earlier in the evening.
There is still a lot of clashes with the police where paintbombs and molotovs are thrown at the police
A witness has estimated the number of demonstrators to be around 100 but there is more inside christiania.
Kl. 00.55
After demonstrators have been retreated to christiania they have now started running out in different locations in the area. There is fighting in a street next to Prinsessegade. The police is slowly retreating.
There are still huge amounts of gas in the streets but the wind keeps spreading it out.
Kl. 00.41
There is still fighting between police and demonstrators in Prinsessegade. Also there is still a lot of gas in the streets but the demonstrators are just moving according to the amount of gas, retreating when there is too much. Molotovs are frequently being thrown at the police
The demonstrators are pouring water on the teargas bullets (?), moving from one to another with water bottles.
The area is covered with a huge policeforce.
Kl. 00.24
The police has fired extremely much teargas in the streets. A witness says taht the demonstrators are crying and vomitting. But people still havent given up but are instead very aggressive. A lot is retreating from the gas but several demonstrators are staying.
Water and lemons are handed out among the demonstrators.
The wind in the area is continuing and the demonstrators are moing towards the police as soon as the gas is gone.
Teargas has just been fired into christiania over the musikplace Loppen (Loppen Christiania)
Kl. 00.18
There are burning barricades several places in the area. In a parallel street to Prinsessegade a larger barricade is on fire
Kl. 00.13
Everything is quiet on Sankt Hans Torv where a demonstration was suppose to start at midnight. 15-20 demonstrators are hanging out there and there isn't any sign of disturbance.
Kl. 00.11
A clash is being prepared in Prinsessegade. The police has fired huge amounts of gas in the street but a wind is spreading it out. That makes the demonstrators move forward as soon as the worst amount of gas is gone
The police seems to be hesitating, according to a source
Kl. 23.59
The police moved towards the demonstrators a moment ago. They were met with rocks and the like.
One van was set on fire which is out again by now
A minute after the attack the police retreated again and regrouped.
They fired gas at the demonstrators
The demonstrators have retreated a bit but are very disciplined. They are yelling "Hold the line" to each other. A witness calls them "ready for battle"
Kl. 23.55
The situation is tense. Barricades are build in Prinsessegade
By Bådmandsstræde a smaller clash is happening. Opposite earlier the police is hesitating a bit. At other attacks the police has answered to demonstrators' attacks with powerful attack on them.
It is the demonstrators that are offensive now.. They are yelling out paroles against police brutality
The house the police evicted this morning has been rebuild.
Kl. 23.47
SMS-messages has called for a demonstration at Nørrebro at midnight. As the demonstrations on christiania and in the area earlier it is to protest the eviction of a house on christiania earlier today
Kl. 23. 42
There are two large burning barricades in Prinsessegade. One of them was attacked by a police 15 minutes ago.
A new fire is being made between the two barricades. The mood is tense & battle-prepared.
The area has been blocked by police. No one can enter or leave the neighbourhood. Even the metro has been stopped.
Witnesses describe the situation as silence before the storm
Kl. 23.33
Police has just started a massive and violent attack on the entrance to Christiania. This is after demonstrators again has made attacks on the police. A single demonstrator didn't make it away and has been arrested and carried away
Kl. 23.23:
The police attacked the entrance to christiania five minutes ago. The demonstrators replied with molotovs, rocks and bottles.
The police has retreated again and a new attack is expected.
There are several burning barricades in the area
The riots started shortly after 22 o'clock where a demonstration on the main square in the area started by sms's started a larger fire and build barricades. The police attacked the demonstration after about 10 minutes and at least 25 people were arrested.
The demonstrators spread out in the area afterwards and started building burning barricades around the entrances to christiania.
Politiken.dk writes that at least 42 persons had been arrested at 22.30
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Pictures & video: Video og fotos - Indymedia Denmark
http://politiken.dk/poltv/?ExtID=1646
http://politiken.dk/poltv/?ExtID=1646
More video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImOBGgLEBHI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpse1ohja4g
playlist: