Copenhagen in (relative) chaos

So, I'm sure many of you are worried about the riots in Copenhagen. In fact, they have been pretty violent, according to a friend of mine who lives in the middle of it. She also has quite a bit to say about the police brutality and the general violent attitude of the protesters to the casual passer-by. They are pretty much confined to Nørrebro, the next town over from Østerbro where I live. In general I have been quite far removed from the whole thing, but yesterday evening I think we saw some of the more peaceful protesters in an organized bicycle ride down the main street near me:


No, I don't yet know what the signs mean - I'll have to ask some friends...

For the background to the riots, I'm probably not the best person to ask, but the gist of it is that there has been a group of left-wing youth activits squatting in a big house for the past few decades. This house used to be owned by the city and they kind of ignored the squatting issue. They then sold the building to a fundamentalist Christian organization, who have been trying to evict the youth for the past 15 years or so. The city threatened to throw everybody out and was scheduled to do so in December, but there were massive protests then so it didn't go through. So, 4 days ago, a helicopter dropped a special SWAT-like team of police onto the roof of this building and they attempted to arrest everyone in the house and clear it out. Riots ensued, and they got reinforcement from other left-wing activists from around Europe. Mostly the riots involved the usual burning bonfires, throwing trash cans around, hurling stones at people, and clashing with police. On Saturday and Sunday during my jogs there was a relatively constant presence of ambulances and police vans (which were covered in paint) driving around. Today apparently the house was razed down. I do wish I understood a bit more Danish to be able to understand the newspapers. If your Danish is any better than mine, you can read the main local paper here.

But, fear not, the riots are quieting down, and they are quite far from where I am. It's pretty much business-as-usual in the rest of Copenhagen...