Denmark: 11 shot by police (feature)
01 May 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 Norrebro 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, Norrebrogade. 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 Norrebro 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-throwers.
The official figures said 45 people were arrested and 11 people injured with gun wounds - though other