Denmark: 11 shot by police
01 January 1991
Denmark: 11 shot by police
artdoc July=1993
On the night of 18 May just after the announcement of the result
of the Danish referendum on the Maastricht Treaty (56.8% to 43.2%
in favour) police shot at anti-Maastricht demonstrators, injuring
at least 11 people, in the N?rrebro district of Copenhagen.
In the run up to the events of the night of 18 May police had
twice fired `warning shots' in the air above demonstrators. The
week before the police had intervened in a confrontation between
young immigrants and a group of drunk young people - warning
shots were fired. The next day they again fired warning shots
during an anti-racist demonstration 500 strong. At one point the
police shot out the tyre of a car carrying people who were trying
to locate police reinforcements - they then searched the street
for the bullet.
When the referendum result was given out people in N?rrebro
declared it an `EC free zone' and blockaded the main bridge into
the area with piles of wood and lit fires in the road. Some time
later the police and fire brigade appeared - most of the police
were engaged in monitoring a large, peaceful, gathering outside
the parliament building. The events of the evening were
graphically recorded by two video cameras from the alternative
television channel TV STOP.
A single line of police, no more than 25-30 with shields and
dressed in riot gear with gas masks, advanced down the main road,
N?rrebrogade. Tear gas of the kind used in Israel and South
Africa was fired over the police line - during the evening more
gas was used than at any other single incident. The demonstrators
numbering between 200-250 people, many with scarves on their
faces to counter the gas, threw brick after brick at the police
line. This bizarre scene continued for over an hour with the
police very slowly moving down the road. The street was full of
tear gas and smoke from the fires. The riot police were backed
by the plainclothes URO-patruljen, a specialist squad very active
in N?rrebro where many young people and migrants live. The squad,
estimated to number between 50 and 80, was formed in 1966 at the
time of `flower power' and its name literally means `noise
police'. Now their main task is to tackle drugs which leads them
to place many in the `youth milieux' under surveillance coupled
with stop and search on the streets. Little love is lost between
the young people and the URO-patruljen.
Members of the URO-patruljen were openly picking up the bricks
thrown by the demonstrators and throwing them back over the
police line. They were also egging on the police to fire at
particular people. These officers made no attempt to disguise
themselves and were clearly identifiable.
To the outside observer it was clear: 1] that the police should
have withdrawn and waited for reinforcements before trying to
clear the streets; 2] that there was no clear police command
structure. At this point, with no apparent order given, the
police, or rather some of them at random, drew their guns and
fired - most in the air, but at least two or three into the
crowd. Some ten to fifteen minutes later the police split into
two groups on either side of the street and fired again. Around
80-90 shots were fired into the crowd and into the air. It was
clear that most of the demonstrators did not realise in the
confusion and smoke what was happening, some thought people had
been hit with rubber bullets. The final confrontation happened
in the main Square in the heart of N?rrebro where bricks for a
new pavement provided ammunition for the demonstrators. Across
the square, with a statue in the middle, the police, now backed
openly by 20 plus plainclothes officers fired another 100 plus
shots into the air and crowd. The shootings seemed almost casual
and it was hard to see how they could know what they were firing
at. In the melee some of those hit were many yards behind the
front line of stone-thro