I Still Feel Like Rioting...
That's what it says on the side of Ungdomshuset (The Youth House) just outside of Copenhagen. Thursday morning, they got evicted, and it was not pleasant.
So what you've read, if anything, is that they're left-wing squatters who've occupied the building since the early 80's. The building got sold in 2000, and they're kicking them out. That's all BBC or CNN tell you.
Yeah, some ridiculousness has broken out in Denmark. The last time they got any international attention was with some political cartoons. That, they were proud of, this, they are not. So what's the deal? Why does anyone care about these lazy, cheap hippies? Well to start, they have every right to be there: Indymedia. Part of a political compromise, that ended violence, promoted peace, made both sides happy. Damn, that makes sense. So for the past 25 years, the youth have been using it for what it was given to them for.
The only problem was that the local council held on to the property rights for them. And for whatever reason, in 2000 they decided to sell the rights to the highest bidder. Man, that sounds like bullshit. So, for the past six years, they've been trying to do something about it. They've talked with the politicians, and even agreed to move from that building if the city was willing to offer them somewhere else of equal condition and value. For whatever reason, they refused, saying that the youth would instead have to pay for it. Six years have passed with them fighting, peacefully, to work this out. Then in December, the group who purchased the building, ironically, some extremely conservative Christians, who are against nearly everything the youth stand for, have ordered them out.
In December, just before I left for the states, there was a large demonstration. And now, after the eviction, another.
Thursday afternoon, some friends told me of what happened, and I decided to walk down to see for myself. Let's call it "cultural immersion". I honestly did not know what to expect. Here's what I saw:
Not sure if demonstration is really the word for it. At first, everything was cool. Just a bunch of people hanging out by a fire. People were smiling and taking pictures, I saw a dog I wanted to pet. Then these huge police vans pulled through and the popo got out with riot gear on. Immediately everyone starting running, so I followed. Again, with my whole policy on public running with normal clothes, I wasn't quite as speedy as the rest; that led a few badged gentlemen to give me some not so gentle shoves. As I backed away people began chanting something to the cops. I asked someone to translate and he said it meant something like, "don't touch us, this is our home". Then people starting picking up cobblestones and bottles to throw at the cops. I did my best to separate myself from them.
Down the street people were already building another barricade and trying to set it on fire. The police decided to test the durability of their vans by being macho and driving though it. Afterwards, they started driving in circles announcing something in Danish. Someone was kind enough to tell me that they were threatening us with gas. Since I have plenty of my own, I opted not to stay any longer. When I got back home I found this video online that was taken the exact time that I was there.
Click here to see some more pictures.
So what you've read, if anything, is that they're left-wing squatters who've occupied the building since the early 80's. The building got sold in 2000, and they're kicking them out. That's all BBC or CNN tell you.
Yeah, some ridiculousness has broken out in Denmark. The last time they got any international attention was with some political cartoons. That, they were proud of, this, they are not. So what's the deal? Why does anyone care about these lazy, cheap hippies? Well to start, they have every right to be there: Indymedia. Part of a political compromise, that ended violence, promoted peace, made both sides happy. Damn, that makes sense. So for the past 25 years, the youth have been using it for what it was given to them for.
The only problem was that the local council held on to the property rights for them. And for whatever reason, in 2000 they decided to sell the rights to the highest bidder. Man, that sounds like bullshit. So, for the past six years, they've been trying to do something about it. They've talked with the politicians, and even agreed to move from that building if the city was willing to offer them somewhere else of equal condition and value. For whatever reason, they refused, saying that the youth would instead have to pay for it. Six years have passed with them fighting, peacefully, to work this out. Then in December, the group who purchased the building, ironically, some extremely conservative Christians, who are against nearly everything the youth stand for, have ordered them out.
In December, just before I left for the states, there was a large demonstration. And now, after the eviction, another.
Thursday afternoon, some friends told me of what happened, and I decided to walk down to see for myself. Let's call it "cultural immersion". I honestly did not know what to expect. Here's what I saw:
Not sure if demonstration is really the word for it. At first, everything was cool. Just a bunch of people hanging out by a fire. People were smiling and taking pictures, I saw a dog I wanted to pet. Then these huge police vans pulled through and the popo got out with riot gear on. Immediately everyone starting running, so I followed. Again, with my whole policy on public running with normal clothes, I wasn't quite as speedy as the rest; that led a few badged gentlemen to give me some not so gentle shoves. As I backed away people began chanting something to the cops. I asked someone to translate and he said it meant something like, "don't touch us, this is our home". Then people starting picking up cobblestones and bottles to throw at the cops. I did my best to separate myself from them.
Down the street people were already building another barricade and trying to set it on fire. The police decided to test the durability of their vans by being macho and driving though it. Afterwards, they started driving in circles announcing something in Danish. Someone was kind enough to tell me that they were threatening us with gas. Since I have plenty of my own, I opted not to stay any longer. When I got back home I found this video online that was taken the exact time that I was there.
Click here to see some more pictures.
posted by Jordan at 11:35 PM
1 Comments:
Jordan,
I know I'm missing the point of the post, but what is your "policy on public running with normal clothes?"
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