I've spent a lot of the last day or so hearing about last year's youth riots, which have carried over somewhat until today. I've put together the story from parts relayed by Nitte, my Survival Danish teacher from earlier in the week; Nina, my Danish teacher for the rest of the semester; and a random guy with a bike and a red scarf in the street this afternoon. It's kind of an interesting and still-ongoing saga, and given our proximity to several of the pertinent locations and events, I was interested in what the deal was.
It transpires that a year or so ago, the Danish government decided to sell a youth house that it owned in the Nørrebro neighborhood of København. The place was full of "subculture" types who had habits like serving alcohol to teenagers and not allowing firefighters to enter the premises, even though it was government-owned. The government worried more than a bit about the place burning to the ground with 200 kids inside of it (and receiving the blame), so they put it up for sale, which the lefty students weren't happy about. The property was bought and later torn down by a Christian group headed up by a woman called Ruth who was quite unpopular, which the lefties were even less happy about it. Crazy riots ensued; the protesters threw bricks at policemen and covered their faces, which is apparently illegal here. Of course, in true Danish fashion, they still stopped at red lights when crossing streets (true story).
In any case, the rioters settled down somewhat, but they still protest weekly in the square at Gammel Torv, which is conveniently on my block. I'd spent a chunk of the afternoon reading about the EU and man's historical views on dominance over the environment for tomorrow's classes, and I heard serious shouting as I walked out of the Baresso to head home around 5.
According to the aforementioned man in the red scarf, they're demanding a new youth house, which the government is likely to provide, if only to get them to stop protesting. There are two locations pending approval, but the subculture folks don't like either, and it's not clear what the next step is. In the meantime, the weekly protest seems (based on this week's) to consist of shouting chants in Danish, blaring loud music, and then proceeding in a semi-orderly fashion to what I think the man in the red scarf said was a City Hall meeting. The police presence at these things is major, given their history, and I was told to get away if/when the police said to start moving (not that I was planning on doing otherwise). The scarf guy said that, essentially, they want society's rights without being part of society.
And Nina suggested the social violence was a newer thing in Danish society, just like the immigrant population. My class on Migrants, Minorities, and Multiculturalism starts tomorrow, and I'm thinking it's going to be interesting for more reasons than just the Mohammed cartoon incident that happened here a few years ago, particularly if the professor considers subculturists a minority.
I'm not really sure what to make of all this. I know American students spend plenty of time getting angry (come on, I go to Brown!), but it's hard to envision a context in which people would take to brick-throwing to demand government issued housing back home (particularly when you think of the government housing Katrina victims ended up with). The scarf guy said the people who had been evicted from the original house had all settled elsewhere, so it's not an issue of homelessness, but the whole incident has opened up several more questions I'd like to ask whatever Danish government workers we'll get to meet with through the EPS program. Like, to what extent does a socialist government create the legal expectation for the provision of something like this? Or are the protesters simply demanding it because they had it previously? And does the government have reasons for attempting to recreate the housing beyond wanting to shut up a bunch of subculturists with speakers? Things to probe in the near future.
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