Early Saturday evening, two men dressed in black were seen walking on Pusher Street, known for its hashish stalls, in the Christiania Free City in Copenhagen. Both were wearing scarves, hoods, caps and gloves.
– They looked as if they were going to rob a bank, said an anonymous eyewitness for Danish TV2.
Moments later, several shots rang out from the street and the house along it. One person died from six hits. Four others were wounded. It was 19:25.
The execution-style murder has put gang violence and the future of Pusher Street in the headlines in Denmark. The Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang has dominated Pusher Street’s weed trade, but in recent years, rival gangs have sought the same market – and they don’t follow the old unwritten rules of the free city.
– Sellers had to be over 18 years old, hard drugs could not be sold, and gang vests or firearms could not be carried, Simon Hansen Copenhagen from the police says for Aftonbladet.
– In recent years, we have noticed that the stalls have sellers as young as 13 years old.
The same phenomenon has been noticed by a Danish criminologist, assistant professor of sociology David Sausdal from Lund University. However, he points out that there is nothing new about it.
– In Denmark, the limit of criminal responsibility was lowered from 15 years to 14 years ten years ago. It was done precisely because there were children and early teenagers in the gangs, Sausdal tells on the phone.
However, he has a feeling that the number of children and early teenagers in gangs has increased.
– The sad and tragic thing is that children are not just hangouts. They don’t just commit burglaries or burglaries. They kill other people.
Gangs commit crimes with children precisely because they are not held criminally responsible for them.
A showdown between two gangs
On Pusher Street, guns weren’t carried by kids, although there was a Loyal to Familia (LTF) street gang involved. According to the Danish police, it was showdown Between LTF and the motorcycle gang Hell’s Angels.
LTF was founded in 2013, and according to Sausdal, from the beginning it has built an organization based on rules and hierarchy, behaved aggressively and resorted to conflict.
– It’s a street gang, but it wants to be like the Hell’s Angels or the Bandidos. It wanted to be a real gang, says Sausdal.
It has also been aiming for the drug market since the beginning, and has not shunned illegal means to get there. of Denmark the Supreme Court banned the Loyal to Familia gang two years ago because the goal of its activities was deemed illegal.
Broadcasting company DR stated at the time that the gang had wanted to become the biggest in Denmark, and it had grown to become one. The leader of the gang Shuaib Khan had been ordered deported, and more than 370 gang members had received prison terms for their crimes.
– A gang doesn’t suddenly stop being a gang and committing crimes just because it’s illegal, says David Sausdal.
On the other hand, mapping and numbering LTF members has become more difficult, as gang members are no longer allowed to publicly wear gang symbols, such as shirts, jackets or vests.
Sausdal also notes that the ethnic background of Danish street gangs is often mixed, unlike in Sweden, where, for example, Somali clans have their own gangs.
The motive is not necessarily the hashish trade
Pusher Street showdown, according to police did not necessarily join to the hash shop.
The shot man was a member of the street gang NNV before Hell’s Angels, which is active in the same immigrant-dominated suburb of Nørrebro in Copenhagen as Loayl to Familia. The man had previous convictions for violence, and he had had a falling out with LTF.
Previous grudges could therefore be the motive for the shooting.
Criminologist David Sausdal believes that the Hell’s Angels can react to the man’s shooting in two ways. It can either determine that the man’s problems were his own and not the Hell’s Angels’, or decide that the Pusher Street shooting was an attack on the Hell’s Angels organization.
– Then it is almost 100 percent certain that the attack will be retaliated, Sausdal says.
Two have been arrested for the shooting
The Danish police have arrested the 18- and 28-year-old men from the shooting incident.
18 years old is not suspected of being the shooter, but is believed to have participated in the planning of the murder. 28 years old A member of Loyal to Familia is suspected of murder and attempted murder. The police continue to search for the second shooter.
– We still have a huge job ahead of us, but it is of course satisfactory that we have arrested two people, Knus Hvass Copenhagen from the police said to DR last Friday.
Pusher Street wants to be closed
In any case, the measure of Christiania’s residents has been met. The Christiania residents’ association meeting has unanimously decided that Pusher Street and its hashish market must be closed.
– What we feared would happen has happened. Again, the residents’ association wrote in a press release.
Check out the video below to see what the residents of Christania think about the violence on Pusher Street.
– We are ordinary people and we are really, really scared. We want someone to take care of us because we can no longer do it ourselves, Marie Danos says.
Christiania has been described Denmark’s most dangerous city. According to a report by Iltapäivälehti BT, 20 murders have been committed there in about 50 years.
The residents’ association’s decision to close Pusher Street has been described as historic, but in practice it will be difficult to implement. There have been several attempts to close the street before. Recently, the gangs just removed the barriers and continued to deal drugs, as before.
Now the police have taken over of the so-called inspection zone in Christiania. In the zone, the police can randomly check people, vehicles and objects. By Monday about 200 people had been checked.
– The police and society cannot accept what happened in Christiania, Søren Thomassen Copenhagen police said at a press conference a week ago.
– They require extraordinary measures. Copenhagen will see significantly more policemen than usual in the short term.