A little excitement in Copenhagen

Some demonstrations in Copenhagen today after the police evicted some squatters from a house they've been living in since 1982.

Associated Press news article
BBC News article

A little background on the issue:

Danes view themselves as a very tolerant society. A quote from a Dane:

Denmark is a very tolerant country. In all sorts of ways.

Take gay rights. Our country was the first to allow same sex marriages back in 1989. Take the generous social benefits in Danish society; we tolerate that a minority of unemployed may not really want to work, because we want to secure help to those who do. And Danes have a high tolerance of inappropriate behaviour – particularly if it involves drinking. A shrug is a typical response when someone makes a complete fool of herself at a party. “She was drunk”, it’s said afterwards. And all is forgiven.

In Denmark we cherish tolerance. It is an important part of our self perception.

In the 1970s, some Danish people took over an abandoned military barracks in Copenhagen and kind of declared this as an autonomous region. My Danish politics professor described them as the "flower power" crowd. As Danes view themselves as tolerant, and really favor compromise over conflict in just about all areas of government, Christiania was allowed to stay. It actually isn't too far from my kollegium. You can click the link if you want more information about it.

Along those lines, in 1982 the municipality of Copenhagen allowed a group of young people to inhabit another building owned by the city, called Ungdomshuset. This is where the problems were today. I guess the building had a bad fire in the 1990s, and it turned out to be in worse shape than authorities thought. They wanted to renovate the building, but the squatters didn't cooperate. Anyways, the city of Copenhagen sold the building in 2000 to a Christian group. The squatters refused to leave. The group that bought it was well aware that this was the squatters intention before they purchased it.

Anyways, the squatters were still there until today. The city of Copenhagen, friends of these squatters (in Christania and elsewhere), and others had tried to find compromises. They raised money to buy the house back from the Christian group, but the group didn't want to sell. They found a different house for these people to have, but the squatters said they weren't leaving.

It went through all kinds of court battles, and the squatters lost and were ordered out by December 14, 2006. There were some riots on December 16, 2006 about the issue by these people in Copenhagen. I think it got kind of violent when the police came to break it up.

Anyways, the police raided the house this morning and arrested about 70 people I think. There were demonstrations all day today. Police in riot gear driving around in 10 person blue vans. Nothing violent though. They think these demonstrations might continue for awhile, with friends of these squatters from other countries maybe coming.

It was all over the news tonight. There were 2 helicopters flying over Copenhagen all afternoon. Nothing to worry about though. This area where the "action" is about a mile north of the metro station I get off at to go to DIS. My kollegium is in the far opposite direction. This is what DIS had to say:

Some of you may be aware that Ungdomshuset, a center for youth in Copenhagen, has been slated for closure and that there has been much controversy over this, including some violent protests in December. This morning Ungdomshuset was raided by the police; in response supporters of Ungdomshuset have started to gather in the surrounding area of Nørrebro. DIS students are strongly advised to avoid Nørrebrogade from the roundabout to the lakes. There is a potential that protests could spread to other areas of the city, including around Nørreport station and/or Rådhuspladsen (City Hall), over the coming days. If you see a large crowd, please avoid it, and do not walk or bike down any streets which are blocked by the police.

At this point, we currently assess the risk to DIS premises as LOW and to DIS students as LOW

So, no worries.

There were some demonstrators near city hall this afternoon after I got out of class and was heading towards my bus. I stayed well clear, but did snap some pictures from a block away.

2007_02_28 Demonstrations

I was very impressed with the police. They were extremely non-confrontational, but at the same time certainly made a big splash with their presence. The major Copenhagen newspaper had people all over town handing out "special editions" for free. I have no idea what is in it, but lots of pictures.

I'll let you know if anything new happens.