C's version of riot events

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Geo: 55.6763, 12.5681

1st March 07 around 6pm

This -

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0301/breaking 34.htm

is going on right now on my doorstep. It's been building all day before kicking off seriously about an hour ago. I was out in the thick of it with my camera but it's quite hairy and easy to get caught in the crossfire especially as the riot vans have taking to barrelling through the crowd at speed to avoid the missiles and impromptu road barricades. This means that you have to watch the vans, the people dodging the vans and the missiles that miss the vans. One brave hoodie got carried away in a Tiananmen moment and came with in millimetres of being carried away in an ambulance as he severely tested the braking reflexes of riot van man.

The extremely direct action margin keep melting into the side alleys and reappearing further away, re-erecting barriers with pre-stored material. They're doing a good job of running the cops - who are well mannered apart from the drivers - ragged, they've been running from burning pillar to duty post all day, with the extremely expensive helicopter logging up serious and ineffectual hours. They're aiming at getting the cops to squander their riot budget, which already has to cope with harassing Christiania on an almost daily basis.

Most of the random pedestrians - buses have been stopped - are mostly behind the protesters though not necessarily the rioters, one commenting that they were glad that a) something was happening in Copenhagen and b) at least the students have the energy to protest at the turn of events in the country i.e. the embracing of fundamentalist monetarism. The sale of the student cultural centre, squatted since 1982, to of all things a conservative religious group, has prompted this the latest of a series of protest and riots.

Anyways, my hearing is fully restored in my right ear - I was a bit too close to a detonator going off when caught up in the first police press - and I can discern that the front line has passed my apartment again, so it's time to venture forth and escort my fair maiden safely home past blue clad ogres and assorted n'aer-do-wells. It's gonna be a party night in Norrebro tonight.


Later ...
After Midnight

Getting B back home was mad shit, as soon as I walked out the door, I found riot cops taking a breather on the doorstep and barricades in flames along the main street - but there seem to be rules for it all. And the cops were very patient, happy to contain and disperse continuously rather than beat heads, earlier I was caught right at the front, when the fires were started and half sticks of dynamite had been chucked at them and the cops were still just directing us down past the new police lines. I had ducked into an alley leading into a courtyard, but that was where the masked warriors were ducking and diving, I doubled back to be greeting by a grinning female riot cop who had clocked what I was about, she made room for me to be shepherded between the compacted police lines.

So I had to go by the back roads to get to the metro station for B, everything had escalated again, the main street was ablaze with bonfires and there were two major cop lines, one being pelted, to negotiate, so I went by the side streets. Again continuous cop lines countered by blazing barricades, but there was a precariously peaceful standoff. Until I got to what we call Blagardsgade where plenty of blaggarding was afoot. Getting closer to the end of the street, where it hooked up to the main drag and was the scene of the main conflagration and street bonfire, I got caught up in a tear gas charge. I think. A fizzing object thrown from the cop's area landed and started a stampede. Enough of this, another side street, riot vans squealing up the road, thud, riot vans violated, rapid reverse riot van really wants revenge, cue inane grin and holding up of camera. Everyone, especially those that I've told I'm not, thinks I'm a journo, it holds, fuck this, over the bridge past the very relaxed reserves, get B and go for beers.

Coming back, it was back to standoff time and B was able to savour her first riot. There was no sense of personal danger really. All of the local scobies had willingly joined in the riot, but unlike Dublin scobies there was no sense that they might take advantage of this temporary breakdown of order to go seriously apeshit. This is Denmark.

Our street turns out to be at the strategic junction for the cops, where the line must hold. The friendly Indian on the corner is open, we get window seats and watch the ebb and flow. A drunken Dane rocker likes my camera and with the siege mentality joins us with his girlfriend. At one stage I pop out to catch the cops charging down OUR street, the first time that's happened. Two cops reverse, not looking too pleased so I duck back inside while the ladies go outside. Belinda is sharply told in Danish, then politely told in English, to get back inside. The Dansih woman intervenes - the cops say we're not helping, she says it's a free country. He says get back inside and don't come out. Then she tells us that the cops were taking advantage of our cul-de-sac to duff some people up. The Indian owner, who turns out to be Iranian, joins us for an increasingly bizarre conversation, sporadically interrupted by the drunken Dane insisting on someone listening to his Scandinavian Metal mp3s or worse, bellowing along to them. His girlfriend expounds on the brutality of Danish police while I look incredulous and the Iranian tries not to laugh in her face. Rocker gets up abruptly, rocks, falls flat on his face but doesn't roll. Time to go home.

I'm not sure I'd blame the cops to tell you the truth. The first protest started at 8 am. All day there were small protests forming in side streets, not doing anything but forcing the cops to respond. By the time in the Indian there had been serious action popping up all over for 7 hours and there was still more to go. They were knackered, had been run ragged and while prevailing never had a chance to dispel that frustration. They're human. - Actually a nice thing about Danish riot cops is that they have transparent face masks, so you can see their faces until the gas masks go on. I heard reports of excessive force happening earlier, but having seen what Danes describe as traffic chaos, I'd take it with a pinch of salt. Though the lack of pinches of salt did cause commuter chaos recently as the late onset of serious winter weather caught the council offguard. They decided winter wasn't happening this year (which it wasn't) and spent the salary on playgrounds, bless 'em.

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