---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 16:39:52 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Politicians threaten Christiania
Politicians threaten Christiania
<http://cphpost.periskop.dk/default.asp?id=19388>
By Howard R. Knowles
18. januar 2002
The government has lost patience with the amount of criminal activity in
Copenhagen's
squatter community, Christiania - but is divided as to how to clean up
thirty years of neglect.
An alternative society or a haven for drugs- a free state or a squatters
paradise? However
one characterises Christiania, the new government is making a concerted
effort to rid the
crime ridden 'alternative society' of the biker gangs, drug dealers and
stolen goods
merchants who illegally contribute to an annual 'tax-free' turnover of over
DKK 200m - but
are split as to whether to use bulldozers or kid gloves.
After years of turning a blind eye to the activities on 'Pusher Street',
the main thoroughfare
through Christiania, where hash dealers openly display and sell thousands
of grams of
hash every day, politicians have now targetted the so-called Info
House. Info House is a building constructed last year and suspected of
being a haven for organised crime controlled by biker gangs.
Despite initial demands to bulldoze the building, which is virtually
isolated from the rest of
Christiania by a three metre high fence topped with barbed wire and video
surveillance, the
Conservative Party has seemingly backed down this week and has now stated
it is willing
to tolerate Christiania's existence - as long as residents adhere to
'...the normal law and order
of the rest of society' - that is, pay for electricity, water, services and
get rid of the drug
dealers.
However, even law-abiding residents of the 'alternative society' are
divided as to how to
tackle the Info House problem, which, as a principal supplier of drugs to
dealers on Pusher
Street, is a major contributor to the illegal economy that keeps the
Christiania wheels
turning - including the unlicensed bars and restaurants that are willing
recipients of drug
money.
After being a virtual no-go area for the police, whose infrequent visits
have often ended in
retreat under a hail of stones from disgruntled 'Christianites', residents
are now looking to
the authorities to clean up the mess.
'This Info House has become a thorn in our side,' says long time resident
Mette Prag. 'It
must be up to the police to get rid of it, if they are convinced it
shelters criminals and
organised crime.' However, she refused to entertain the Conservative Party
proposition that
Christiania should become totally 'drug-free' and legal if it wishes to
survive.
'There will always be hash in Christiania, because the majority of us out
here like to smoke
it. If the government really wants to get rid of the criminal element, let
it legalise hash. When
the illegal proceeds disappear, the idiots will follow.'
Minister of Defence, Svend Aage Jensby, has given Christiania's 'contact'
group one week
to propose a solution to the 'Info House' problem.
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