Denmark – Røde Fane: Youth in Tingbjerg Face Curfew for Protesting Police Violence
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Røde Fane of Denmark, on August 21.
Victim of Police Shooting Released – Youth in Tingbjerg Face Curfew for Protesting Police Violence
The 22-year-old man, who was shot by the police on August 1, was sentenced in absentia the following day to 18 days of detention, based on the police’s claim that he intended to drive into them, while the defendant was hospitalized and unable to speak to his attorney. This, despite the fact that videos widely circulated in the press and on social media clearly showed that he was simply trying to flee.
On August 11, a court hearing was held during which the 22-year-old defendant’s lawyer presented multiple perspectives recorded of the incident, more than what was presented by the police themselves. It is clear that the police’s and the prosecution’s central claim—that police officers’ lives were endangered—is completely without merit. The Frederiksberg District Court also found that there was no basis for detention; to avoid further humiliation, the prosecution has not appealed the case to the Eastern High Court. Thus, the 22-year-old is a free man.
The prosecution has not presented evidence of any other crimes whatsoever (the police would otherwise gladly have pinned something on him to brand him as a criminal), and clearly has no basis for bringing charges against the man, so a dismissal of the charges is highly likely. The 22-year-old says that the two local officers regularly patrol the area and that they know each other, so it seems more likely that this was a case of harassment by the police and that they felt personally provoked when they were outmaneuvered.
Local residents in the area describe how young people hanging out on benches far from people’s apartment buildings are approached by the police and asked to show identification, even though they’re just spending time in the neighborhood. After all, it’s not a crime to be in public spaces and spend time with friends, but there are politicians who now believe this is a problem! The Liberal Party and the Danish People’s Party in the Copenhagen City Council have proposed nighttime curfews for young people under 18 in “vulnerable neighborhoods” (i.e., neighborhoods on the government’s “ghetto list”), such as Tingbjerg. Curfews have otherwise been widely rejected by the public ever since the Germans imposed a curfew during the occupation. Their motivation for the bill has been precisely the riots that took place in Tingbjerg following the aforementioned shooting incident, during which, among other things, trash containers and cars were set on fire. But it is, of course, absurd to blame the rebellious youths for being angry about the police shooting at people in the neighborhood. Even the conservative legal system has had to acknowledge that the police had no basis for opening fire.
The proposed curfew is a continuation of police violence and harassment directed against young people’s right to move freely in their neighborhoods and feel that they have a right to be there, The police and politicians seek to exploit their racist hatred toward young people in the neighborhood, which is the aim of the harassment and criminalization of certain neighborhoods. This is a deliberate strategy which – like anti-liberal measures such as the “ghetto law,” search zones, double-punishment zones, curfews, and the use of vague legal provisions left to police discretion – is a way of discriminating against people in Denmark; the idea of universal civil rights has gradually become a forgotten chapter in Denmark. In Tingbjerg and the other “ghettos,” the most reactionary and oppressive measures, such as curfews, are being tested; once they have been tested and normalized, they can easily be rolled out elsewhere at the politicians’ discretion.
Once again, it must be emphasized that politicians’ attempts to strip us of our rights and undermine the entire rule of law must be condemned—especially their attempts to pit different sectors of the populations against one another and then discriminate against them accordingly.
