Police sirens wailed as patrol cars started to arrive at the scene of a fatal shooting already lit by the camera flashes of eager reporters. Officers began to collect forensic evidence and question a crowd of onlookers for witnesses.This crime scene did not take place on the streets of New York City or Chicago but Copenhagen, the Danish capital, where such incidents have been occurring with increasing frequency.Like many of the other shootings, this one happened in Norrebro, an ethnically-mixed part of the capital where a violent gang war has recently raged.
The scene was tense as young immigrants watched police reinforcements descend on the area; three young men were arrested. They had allegedly shot a man in his car, believing him to be a member of a rival gang.The word on the street about the gang violence mirrors that on the front pages of Denmark's newspapers. They say a war between groups of bikers and ethnic minority youths is being fought out on Copenhagen's streets.Some say the shootings are part of a turf war over the lucrative hashish trade in the city. Others say it has been inflamed by feelings of alienation and marginalisation among ethnic minority youngsters.While few seem to know just who is shooting whom or why, the sense of danger has become so severe that the National Night Owls Association, a voluntary public safety group that patrols the streets, has decided to pull out of the area."This is the first time the organisation has had to give up on an area," Erik Thorsted, from the association, said. Norrebro members of the Blaagaards gang - a group of ethnic minority youths associated with some of the recent violence.In the week we were there, at least two people were killed in drive-by shootings but as we wrapped up our visit, the situation seemed to take a dramatic turn at the ministry of justice.A proposed anti-gang bill aims to double and triple jail terms for some offences, such as weapon possession, gang violence and witness intimidation, among others.
"If you are a criminal with a foreign background then there is only one way - that is out of Denmark and back to the country where you came from"
Brian Mikkelsen, the Danish justice minister
"We'll give police almost anything they ask for. We need extraordinary steps. We won't give the gangs a moment's rest. We want these criminals off the streets," Brian Mikkelsen, Denmark's justice minister, told a packed news conference.
"We have to come down hard on the obtuseness and brutality of the gang environment. If you are a criminal with a foreign background then there is only one way - that is out of Denmark and back to the country where you came from. I think these measures will have an effect on the gang members. It will make them think twice," Mikkelsen said.If passed, it will be some of the most sweeping anti-crime legislation Denmark has ever seen.Filmmaker and journalist Khaled Ramadan shares his views on Denmark's gang war debate However, others say that these gang tensions have been simmering for years and that the authorities have been too slow to react.Morten Frich, a journalist with the daily Berlingske, says: "The police only recently tried to get on top of this. We have seen this coming for about 10 years."
A 2007 police report was the first official attempt to gauge the extent of the problem.It concluded that what the Danish media had for years referred to as 'street groups' were actually fully-fledged gangs and that 14 of them, with about 1,000 members between them, existed.Khaled Ramadan, an academic based in Copenhagen, says race and integration are at the root of the problem."Unfortunately, Denmark didn't learn from other Western countries' immigration experience. Immigrants have become the politician's and media's scapegoat," he said.
Since Denmark's centre-right opposition won its biggest victory in 80 years in November 2001 following a campaign that focused largely on immigration, relations between immigrants and the Danish authorities have grown increasingly tense.
They were further strained when Denmark's largest newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in September 2005, which the Muslim community said were offensive and insensitive.Ritt Bjerregaard, the mayor of Copenhagen, recently said he believes the conflict carries an ethnic dimension. He told local media that there are fears Copenhagen may become polarised as a large group of citizens are made to feel alienated.
Now gang violence threatens to escalate these tensions further.
