Copenhagen, yesterday

Copenhagen has again been in the international news, due to riots in the street. This is something that happens with frigthening frequency. The cause this time was the eviction of people from Ungdomshuset.

I hunted around on flickr, and found some photos:



This photo was taken close to Christiania, where some demonstrators set containers on fire. The smoke in the picture is either from those fires, or from teargas used against the demonstrators.
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According to the text description, this picture was taken yesterday morning. That would have been around the time when the police cleared the house.
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The title of this picture translates to 'tough bouncers'. It shows the police in full riot gear, making sure that no one gets to the house.
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I included this picture to show that some of the people involved are fairly young. Many of them are young teenagers, just like the kids on the picture.
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Of course, none of these pictures shows the actual fighting that has been going on, and which has let to over 200 people getting arrested.

Copenhagen right now

Things are a bit hectic in Copenhagen right now.

This morning, the police evicted people from Ungdomshuset (trans: The Youth House), which is a place for the alternative youth to hang out. The use of the house was granted to the youths in the early eighties - as a way to avoid them occupying houses - and was run by the City of Copenhagen. However, it was sold by the City in 2000, and after the settlement of a number of trials, it was found that the users could be evicted.
As I said, that was what happened during the morning.

The crowd using the house are the anarchist movement of Denmark, much like the people involved in the riots on May 18, 1993. As the police expect rioting, they recommend that people keep away from that part of town. There are also increased checks at the borders, as it's expected that there will be coming support from Germany and Sweden.

It's one of the cases where I feel sorry for the police. They are caught in a situation where they have to uphold the courts decision, though it's quite understandable that the users of the house are upset that the house got sold, when they had the right of usage. It didn't help that it was sold to a far-right Christian fringe church.

The Guardian has an article about this, as does the Washington Post. Be sure to keep an eye on the Wikipedia entry on Ungdosmhuset, which is updated with the latest events.