Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2007, Page 20

_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE 07_007_DISCOURSE
Regarding the article ‘The struggle for autonomy’
by Vilhelm Vilhelmsson in ‘The Grapevine’, issue
04/2007.
After reading the rather one-sided article about
Ungdomshuset and its people, I will have to comment
on a few things since it is definitely not a neutral
view of the case about Ungdomshuset written by
Vilhelm Vilhelmsson.
The article is written like the people connected
to Ungdomshuset are a group of nice innocent
kindergarden kids playing with their toys. Sorry, but
that is not the fact. Far from, actually.
The vast majority of those people are notorious
cold blooded criminals trying to reach their goals with
primitive methods, such as violence and vandalism.
They have no respect what so ever for the general
society and its people. They have taken away their
own membership card to the civilized, democratic
world where most of us belong.
When demonstrating the representatives of the
Ungdomshus always cover their faces with a mask
or a cloth so they cannot be recognized when they
commit their crimes. They do not even want to show
their faces – I would call that being cowardice.
It would have been appropriate for Mr. Vilhelm
Vilhelmsson to mention what the Police actually
found inside the Ungdomshus: The Police found a
huge arsenal of weapons, enough to start a small
war! Nasty weapons like molotov cocktails, flame
launchers, nail canisters, iron spears, big stones and
rocks etc. etc.
All to be used against the Police who, at bottom
line, just did their job – did what they were ordered
to do by the politicians.
Mr. Vilhelm Vilhelmsson describes himself as a
regular in the Ungdomshus. Then I would expect he
would know just a little about what is also going on
in connection to this, now former, Ungdomshus.
One must NOT forget, that the Ungdomshus
did NOT belong to the people that used the house.
They were occupying the house illegally, and since
they would not leave the house voluntarily, the Police
were told to clear the house. The house was sold to
the religious organisation, Faderhuset. However, I
do NOT sympathize with either group! Just to make
that clear !
The people connected to Ungdomshuset were
ready to start a war and of course the Police had
to be well prepared as well. I do not – of course
– sympathize with police brutality and if it really
happened, (as stated by Mr. Vilhelm Vilhelmsson),
during the eviction of the house, the individual of-
ficers must be found and prosecuted. But honestly,
I doubt that there were any, but you never know.
During the eviction of Ungdomshuset, some of
the autonomous people dragged innocent people
out of their cars and put the cars on fire and pushed
them towards buildings in order to set them on fire
too. Furthermore, they were demolishing public high
schools, local shops in the streets, and they put plastic
containers and, everything else they could find, on
fire on the streets of Copenhagen.
I am a police officer myself, and I served in
the Noerrebro area for about 7 years, and I know
a lot of what is really going on in connection with
Ungdomshuset. They are not as described by Mr.
Vilhelm Vilhelmsson. They hate everybody else than
themselves, they hate the Police and other authori-
ties, they hate the democratic society outside their
own small world, and they hate everybody else that
do not share their views upon the world.
Mr. Vilhelm Vilhelmsson also mentioned in his
article that some of the
arrested people were sentenced without any evi-
dence being presented against them other than
police reports. Well, that is not unusual in Denmark
or many other civilized countries, I think. The Police
do NOT necessarily need anything else but the police
reports. Just to make that clear to you and the read-
ers of ‘The Grapevine’.
It is also important to mention that if you, during
a violent demonstration, are told by the Police to
leave the scene, and you for some reason decide to
stay, you are at great risk of being arrested. ALSO if
you do not take part in the demonstration yourself
but just are there as a spectator. That is the way the
law is in Denmark.
Mr. Vilhelm Vilhelmsson made it sound like the
Police just arrested people because of the fun of it.
There was actually a reason and as said before, if
you are told to leave, and you do not, then you will
be arrested. And that is fair enough, I think. And if
you were wrongly arrested, you are of course entitled
to compensation. After all, everyone make mistakes
– sometimes also the Police.
Mr. Vilhelm Vilhelmsson also mentions that
the Police refused, if asked, to give their name and
badge number which they are required to according
to the law. According to the rules in Denmark, the
Police are, if asked, ONLY required to give name,
rank, and duty station, (we are not required to give
our badge number for your information).
But the Police are NOT required to give out
this information to people under the influence of
illegal substances and/or alcohol and/or violent or
aggressive people. And I could suspect that there
were a few people that day that would fall into one
of these categories.
It could be the reason if some officers did not
give their name – I do not know – I was not there. If
it really happened, as said by Vilhelm Vilhelmsson.
Vilhelm Vilhelmsson also wrote that it is a minor
offence to put up posters on the streets in Copen-
hagen but none the less it is a violation of the laws
in Denmark. And he also wrote that it might be a
minor offence to comment on the behaviour of the
Police but if it is done in a humiliating/offending
manner, it is also a violation to the Danish law. Like
it or not.
I am not saying that the Danish Police are not
making any mistakes, but claiming that the Danish
police are a bunch of notorious people who, quote
start: ‘beating up arrested individuals inside police
vans where there were no witnesses, refusing to
give their name and badge number when asked,
(as they are required to by law), harassing anyone
who looked remotely suspicious, videotaping and
photographing everyone walking the streets to build
a database of possible suspects, arresting people for
commenting on their, (the Police), behaviour, putting
up posters or other harmless activities’, end of quote
by Vilhelm Vilhelmsson, is just ridiculous and shows
how little he actually knows of what is going on.
It is just stupid and primitive when people like
Vilhelm Vihelmsson claims that this is the way the
Danish Police is and this is how they work. Maybe
it is a surprise to you, but that is NOT the fact. The
Danish Police are actually highly respected both
nationwide as well as internationally. The Danish
Police Force got a lot of positive feed back from the
general population, from the politicians and from
other sides as well, for the eviction of Ungdomshu-
set. Maybe a few cases about police brutality in the
aftermaths of the riots, will end in court - nobody
knows - time will tell.
This was my comment on Vilhelm Vilhelmsson’s
article about the, now former, Ungdomshus. I am
most certain that if Vilhelm Vilhelmsson read his
article once again and having read my article, he
might agree with me, when I say his article was very
one-sided and not very neutral, which is a wrong
approach in any article to be printed in a news
paper.
Afterall the readers of ‘The Grapevine’ deserve to
get another point of view of the whole Ungdomshus
case and not just a one-sided and partial view from
Vilhelm Vilhelmsson. It is not fair that the readers
of The Grapevine might think that what Vilhelm
Vilhelmsson wrote in his article are the facts! Its
not facts – far from – and I truly think many of The
Grapevines readers also know that.
But NOT all !
That is the reason, I wrote my article. One might
say that my article is one-sided too, but it is most
certain more in accordance to the facts compared
to the article written by Vilhelm Vilhelmsson.
Reykjavik, the 14th of May 2007.

Klaus W. Andreasson
Danisk police Officer
wallbergvip@hotmail.com
Editor’s Response
Dear Klaus,
I believe your letter is the best possible confirma-
tion of why Vilhelmsson’s article needed to appear.
Of course, Vilhelmson’s article was by no means a
neutral account of what happened in Norrebro in
the days leading up to, and continuing after, the
closing of Ungdomshuset. The thing that strikes me
as odd is that I have yet to see a neutral account of
what happened.
Every mainstream media outlet’s coverage of
the events I watched, read, or heard, was extremely
one-sided. The people protesting the closing of the
Ungdomshuset were badly represented in these
segments, if at all. Your letter is full of blatant over-
simplifications, erroneous statements and false ac-
cusations. But, it is entirely possible that none of
this is your fault, since the media did a terrible job
of presenting both sides of the struggle.
You state: “The article is written like the people
connected to Ungdomshuset are a group of nice
innocent kindergarden kids playing with their toys.
Sorry, but that is not the fact. […] The vast majority
of those people are notorious cold blooded criminals
trying to reach their goals with primitive methods,
such as violence and vandalism.” Your statement
shows an incredible lack of respect for logic and
contradicts your desire for a neutral discussion of
what actually happened. Claiming that the thousands
who marched in support of the Ungdomshuset are
cold-blooded criminals is not only false, it is down-
right stupid.
Your claim that “they hate everybody else that do
not share their views upon the world” and your state-
ment: “they have taken away their own membership
card to the civilized, democratic world where most of
us belong” are incredibly contradictory statements,
be that as it may, the fact remains protesters have
human rights like the rest of us.
You decide to add insult to injury by claiming that
never during this entire period did the Danish Police
overstep their boundaries. You act as though police
brutality is entirely acceptable, if it ever happened.
Obviously, it remains to be seen how much will
come out of the forthcoming trials over the Police
officers in Copenhagen who have already been
charged with brutality. You may recall the 2001
protests in Gothenburg, Sweden where a young
protestor was shot in the back while running away
from the Police. I fail to see how Danish Police
officers should differ so tremendously from their
colleagues around Scandinavia when it comes to
Police brutality.
I could go on and on… and on, pointing out all
the ways in which your letter is wrong, but sadly I
don’t have the space to do it. Let it suffice to say
that you have proven exactly why people need to
read the Grapevine.
Reader’s Response
It could have been a scene from a Jam
es Bond
movie. Cops in bullet-proof vests de
scended
from a helicopter above onto the roo
f of the
building, while below others shot tear
gas into
the house before entering it from a
ll sides.
After serving as a user-run communit
y centre
for almost 25 years, Ungdomshuset a
t Jagtvej
69 in Copenhagen was cleared on T
hursday
morning, March 1. As a regular use
r of the
house and a supporter of its residents’ s
truggle,
I was angry at the sale and ultimate ev
iction of
people from the house as well as the
efforts
of local authorities to homogenise cul
ture and
eliminate unwanted social elements
such as
punks and anarchists. So I joined the p
rotests.
March 1, at 10 pm, I joined aroun
d 2000
people gathered at Radhuspladsen in
central
Copenhagen before marching into N
ørrebro,
the neighbourhood where Ungdomsh
uset was
situated. We carried coffins emblazon
ed with
slogans such as “diversity” and “fr
eedom”,
we sang songs and shouted sloga
ns and
you could sense a lot of anger in the
group.
There had been protests all day, some
of them
violent, and more than 100 people had
already
been arrested so I really did not know
what to
expect.
The march ended in Folkets Park in Nør
rebro
where a few speeches were made,
a large
bonfire was lit and people began ming
ling and
drinking beer. At some point a barric
ade was
built in the street and lit on fire and
shortly
thereafter came the teargas.
I still don’t know which came first
, the
throwing of stones at the police
or the
teargas canisters, but either way I ra
n a safe
distance away with the majority of the
crowd,
tears running down my face and a
burning
sensation in my eyes, nose, throat an
d lungs.
The crowd gathered again, more ba
rricades
were built and subsequently set on
fire and
then the sequence repeated itsel
f. More
teargas and flying rocks and bottles
and this
time a teargas canister hit me in the le
g giving
me a limp for the rest of the weeke
nd. This
continued for a while and I ended up
hiding in
a churchyard together with a couple
of other
protesters while the police swept thro
ugh the
area arresting everyone in their way. T
he riots
were still in full swing when I decided
to call it
a night and go home.
Two days later – as I marched down a
street in
central Copenhagen and looked aroun
d at the
thousands of demonstrators marching
against
the eviction of Ungdomshuset – I could
n’t help
but think how much our view of the
world is
distorted by the mainstream media. A
lthough
the rioting had stopped, the demon
strations
and protests continued. But since the
re were
no burning fires or flying Molotov c
ocktails,
the media was disinterested.
They would rather have everyone be
lieve
that the activists and supporters
of this
controversial house were all stone-th
rowing,
troublemaking teenagers with Moha
wks and
piercings in the strangest places. Bl
ack clad
anarchist extremists with their faces
covered
and their backpacks filled with de
structive
devices. Violent psychopaths hell b
ent on
destruction.
Yet as I looked around I saw only dive
rsity.
There were Mohawk-sporting punk
s, bead-
wearing hippies, leather-clad met
alheads,
baggy pants-wearing hip-hop crews
, ravers,
senior citizens, middle-aged paren
ts with
their children and a whole bunch o
f people
that were impossible to categorise, t
hey just
looked “normal” (whatever that is
!). And
the demonstration was a success. N
ot only
was it peaceful and enjoyable, it w
as also
huge, with up to 5000 people marc
hing for
Ungdomshuset, diversity and freedo
m from
police control.
Later that day I was again in Nør
rebro
trying to find a demonstration that h
ad been
announced. There were a lot of people
walking
down the main street. It was a Saturd
ay night
and people were on their way to p
arties or
clubs. When I reached an intersectio
n about
50 metres from where Ungdomshus
et used
to be, several police vans were lined u
p across
the street, stopping people from going
further
into the neighbourhood. All of a sudd
en their
sirens began to wail, the vans charge
d ahead
full speed and those unlucky enoug
h to be
there had to run for their lives.
This is a tactic that was frequently
used
during the demonstrations and at le
ast one
person had been run over by a po
lice car.
After that, everyone walking away f
rom the
area was stopped by police, search
ed and
questioned and ordered to go hom
e. The
policeman told me that if the police
stopped
me again anywhere in the city that
night, I
would be arrested.
This was how the police attempte
d to
control the situation: threats and intim
idation;
systematically breaking the laws t
hey are
supposed to uphold; beating up
arrested
individuals inside police vans wher
e there
were no witnesses; refusing to give th
eir name
and badge number when asked (as
they are
required to by law); harassing anyo
ne who
looked remotely suspicious; videotap
ing and
photographing everyone walking the s
treets to
build a database of possible suspects; a
rresting
people for commenting on their be
haviour,
putting up posters or other harmless a
ctivities;
the list is endless.
The large house on Jagtvej 69 was o
riginally
built in the 1890s by the Danish
labour
movement, financed by donations f
rom the
Danish working class at a time when
salaries
barely covered basic needs. It wa
s called
Folkets Hus – The People’s House – a
nd there
they held political meetings, fundrais
ing balls
and so on.
The house was abandoned in the 1
950s
and stood empty for the better part of
30 years
until 1981 when a large squatting mo
vement
rose up in Copenhagen, seizing empt
y houses
all over the city, including the one a
t Folkets
Hus. It was there that the Initiative G
roup for
More Youth Houses was formed and d
rafted a
document with four basic demands to
present
to the authorities. After several e
victions
and riots, the city council finally gave
up and
agreed to give the house at Jagtvej 6
9 to the
group. The mayor handed them the
keys to
the house at an official ceremony in
October
1982.
The agreement between them was th
at, in
return for control of the house, the
Initiative
Group would run it for public use,
holding
concerts, art exhibitions, seminars, wo
rkshops
and so on – a duty the occupants
of the
house have fulfilled non-stop for t
he past
25 years. The house was promptly r
enamed
Ungdomshuset, or The Youth House.
Ever since, the users themselves have
been
responsible for operating the house,
without
assistance or interference from
outside.
Ungdomshuset was run on the
principle
of consensus democracy, where a
ll major
decisions are taken at collective m
eetings
open to everyone, and the issues are d
iscussed
until everyone is satisfied, as opp
osed to
conventional majority rule democracy
whereby
an unsatisfied minority has to accept
the will
of the majority.
In the house itself there was a
small
bookshop, two concert halls, practic
e spaces
for bands, meeting rooms for political
groups,
a large kitchen which served chea
p vegan
food once a week and probably othe
r things
that I am unaware of. There were c
oncerts,
raves, art exhibitions, seminars and wo
rkshops
teaching everything from bicycle
building
to self defence for women, alon
g with
more ambitious projects, like how to
start a
revolution.
Eventually, the authorities were fed up
with
the radical activities of the users of th
e house
and since, legally, the house was
still the
property of the Municipality of Cope
nhagen
it was sold to a fundamentalist Chris
tian sect
called Faderhuset in the year 200
0. Since
then, the activists at Ungeren – as th
e house
was lovingly called by its users – have
fought
three court battles and countless aw
areness
campaigns and peaceful demonstratio
ns to try
to keep their beloved house, but to no
avail.
Faderhuset, the religious organisation
that
bought the house, is a tiny fundam
entalist
Christian sect led by Ruth Evensen wh
o claims
she is in direct contact with God. Th
e sect is
very controversial in Denmark. Thei
r school
was closed down last year since they
refused
to teach certain obligatory subjects
such as
Darwin’s theory of evolution, opting
instead
to teach the children that the biblica
l tale of
creation was in fact how the world
began.
The sect has attacked toy manuf
acturers
for manufacturing “satanic” toys
. They
have been accused of brainwashing
young
people attending their schools and
religious
sermons and Ruth Evensen declared
during
the Sunday sermon on March 4, that
after the
satanic influence of Ungdomshuset ha
d finally
been defeated, their next targets w
ould be
homosexuals and abortion.
Ungdomshuset meant a lot to ma
ny very
different people. It was a meetin
g place
for political groups, it was a place
where
homeless people could occasionally
get free
meals, a place where bands could
rehearse
and play gigs, where thousands of
people
went to meet friends and party. It wa
s a safe
haven for homosexuals and others wh
o often
feel threatened out in the “real wor
ld.” But
ultimately, the house isn’t the real issue
. The real
issue at hand is to protect cultural dive
rsity: the
right to think, live and be different. It
’s about
being able to be free to maintain,
operate
and define our own culture without
outside
interference or having to ask for per
mission.
It’s about finding your own identity in
a world
that is becoming increasingly hom
ogenous
and monotonous.
This is not possible in a society where p
eople
are refused the autonomous space n
ecessary
for the realisation of such projects. A
society
that sends its storm troopers to evic
t houses
and beat up citizens in the streets w
henever
their existence threatens the status q
uo. The
house was a symbol for that freedo
m, that
diversity.
The thousands of people demonstr
ating
feel that the authorities are system
atically
trying to wipe out anything that do
esn’t fit
into their idea of culture and socie
ty. That
they are trying to eliminate a politica
l culture
of resistance: the anarchists and s
ocialists,
or, as they are more commonly ca
lled, the
“autonomer.” Most people I talke
d to at
demonstrations weren’t regular u
sers of
Ungdomshuset – some had never ev
en been
there – but rather people tired of this
ongoing
homogenising and culture-destroying
process
that has been dubbed the “norm
alisation
process.”
The official response from polit
icians
after the uproar began when the
people
were evicted from the house on M
arch 1
has been one of denial and a naive re
fusal to
find a common solution to the probl
em they
created when they sold the house. Th
ey have
mostly been interested in finding som
eone to
blame. The police response has been
random
violence and extreme violations of hum
an and
civil rights, all sanctioned by the Mi
nister of
Justice, Lene Espersen, who put the b
lame for
the riots on “bad parenting.”
As of March 12, over 700 peop
le have
been arrested and 200 of those ha
ve been
sentenced to custody for up to 4
weeks.
33 of those are minors (children u
nder 18
years) including a 15-year-old girl acc
used of
digging stones up from the street. A
ll these
people were sentenced without any e
vidence
being presented against them oth
er than
police reports. A 64-year-old retired
doctor
was arrested along with a group of a
bout 40
people who had been at a demonstra
tion but
were fleeing away after the stones b
egan to
fly and teargas filled the air. The gro
up was
held for 24 hours in a crowded cell a
nd then
brought in front of a judge, five at a
time, all
accused of violence against the pol
ice. She
says the only reason she wasn’t sente
nced to
custody like everybody else in the gr
oup was
her old age.
Two days after the people were evicte
d the
police raided ten more houses in Cope
nhagen
with only one warrant – including th
e offices
of legal political organisations – loo
king for
foreign activists. More than 100 peop
le were
arrested and every foreigner in th
e group
deported without any evidence o
f illegal
activities. In at least one of these ra
ids, at a
collective in Baldersgade, the police
started
the process by firing teargas canisters
into the
house where most occupants were s
leeping,
then promptly kicked down the doo
r, locked
the house owners’ two dogs in a roo
m filled
with teargas for the duration of the tw
o-hour
raid, arrested everybody and then pr
oceeded
to destroy furniture and personal be
longings
in the house.
The evening after the eviction, a young
man
by the name of Alex was going do
wntown
with a group of friends to celebrate
his 17th
birthday. As the group was walking
down a
street an unmarked car began raci
ng after
them and they started running aw
ay. The
car caught up with young Alex an
d three
plainclothes policemen jumped on h
im and
beat him with batons. He was then
thrown
into the backseat of the car and it w
as only
then that he realised they were po
licemen
because he heard them give reports
on their
radio. In the car he was questioned ab
out the
rest of the group and what they wer
e up to,
receiving beatings whenever the po
licemen
didn’t like his response. He was the
n driven
to a jail where he was held until the
next day
when he was again questioned. He w
as never
told what he was accused of or why
he had
been arrested, but he did receive a
fine for
“disturbing the peace” and was subs
equently
released.
Another man shouted, “go home, this
isn’t
your fight” at a few policemen as he
walked
by on his way home. He was jumped
by three
policemen in riot gear, beaten a fe
w times
with the policemen’s helmets and,
when a
search of his pockets revealed nothin
g illegal,
he was forced to take off his clothe
s so the
policemen could search them thorou
ghly. He
was eventually allowed to go home.
They’ve
also arrested members of the prisoner
support
network ABC and the Street’s First A
id group
who were attending an injured p
rotester
when the police arrested them, even
though
they were clearly marked as a neutral
first aid
team.
These are just a few examples of how
the
police “protected and served” the com
munity
in Copenhagen during the period. If y
ou even
looked like an “autonom” you could
expect
to be stopped in the street, questio
ned and
searched, possibly arrested or be
aten. If
you happened to be at the wrong
place at
the wrong time, if you complaine
d about
police behaviour or if you dared to a
ttend a
demonstration you risked being arres
ted and
detained in custody.
The house at Jagtvej 69 is now gone. I
t was
demolished just a few days after the
eviction.
A lot of people loved that house, an
d I saw
many people cry as it was being dem
olished.
At the time of writing, the empty sit
e where
the house once stood is filled with th
ousands
of flowers, candles, goodbye no
tes and
poems.
But we are not giving up. The demonstra
tions
and protest actions will continue until
another
house will be available to us, u
ntil the
authorities stop threatening Christia
nia with
eviction, until we are recognised as a
part of
this society, no better and no worse
than the
rest. They can tear down all our house
s but not
our convictions, our beliefs and our o
pinions.
We will not be shut up, locked out or
pushed
away. The struggle for free, autonomo
us space
continues.
Text by Vilhelm Vilhelmsson Photo
by Ali André Nabulsi
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