Gang War: Pusher Street (2025) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
1
TONNY KLUCK
FORMER DRUG DEALER
We were standing outside, on the street,
drinking coffee and smoking joints.
It was so quiet.
We weren't expecting any cops.
Then all of a sudden
[mimics gun blasts]
We heard this hissing.
It was tear gas, coming from behind.
It was raining down over Pusher Street.
[person shouting]
[Kluck] And you know,
people got pretty angry.
[person shouts]
[Kluck] Then the cops came running.
They stampeded one or two people.
So everyone started looking
for every stone they could find.
Then the fighting started.
I don't know how to explain it.
Insanity.
[Larsen] What started
as an idealistic hippie dream,
ended in a brutal nightmare.
[The Wholesaler] If there's demand
for something and there's money to make,
people like me will swoop
in and capitalize.
[Larsen] On one side are the drug dealers,
on the other side,
you have the combat-ready cops.
When we strike, we follow through.
[people shouting]
[Larsen] And in the middle
are the Christianites.
SHAME
I felt like a hostage caught
between drug dealers and cops.
[man] What the hell are you doing?!
They wanted to hurt each other.
It was It was war.
We thought, "Fuck them."
In the situations, thinking,
"You're dead. You won't survive."
We got to the point
that we had always feared.
[gun blast]
Someone was shot dead on Pusher Street.
That killing was the last straw in the
decades of fighting over Pusher Street.
GANG WAR
PUSHER STREE
[contemplative music playing]
[Balther] Christiania had created
a restricted area,
where we basically told folks
JØRN BALTHER - DOCUMENTARY
FILMMAKER & CHRISTIANITE
"Here you can sell your hash,
and only hash can be sold.
You're not allowed to sell to children.
And we won't tolerate violence
or hard drugs."
But the most important rule
was you had to live in Christiania
two years to sell hash.
Which meant we knew each other.
And that way people could be held
fully accountable for their actions.
[Lykke] We accept weed as a drug.
However, we don't accept
all the repercussions
OLE LYKKE
CHRISTIANITE
that come from it being criminalized.
One of the most severe
consequences, of course,
was that the police essentially had
free rein to operate as they pleased.
We had enormous problems
with the police.
In the early 1990s,
Pusher Street was established
JESPER VESTERGAARD LARSEN
JOURNALIS
as the official marketplace
for hash in Christiania.
That makes the police's work much harder.
They need to get to the heart
of Christiania to get to the dealers.
And not only that, the first stalls that
the police encounter on Pusher Street
were those known as
The Front of the Line.
The dealers who worked
those stalls were the tough guys.
[man] Okay. Let's go.
When I was working in The Front
I was the one
who faced the problems from outside.
You had to deal with it.
[man] You goddamn thugs!
What the hell do you think you're doing!?
[people shouting]
I ended up at The Front.
I did that for almost 40 years.
[contemplative music playing]
In the beginning, it was for unity.
To be part of something.
And to be around people, I like that.
There was always someone you knew.
You could play ping-pong,
throw some darts,
have a few beers, smoke some weed.
There were always people
who wanted to do something.
I have lots of early childhood memories
of Pusher Street.
My mother worked in a cafe, making
open-faced sandwiches and breakfast.
MATILDE
CHRISTIANITE
The cafe was up in that middle
part of Pusher Street, called Woodstock.
It would turn into a bar in the afternoon.
In the morning, it was a gathering place
where everyone stops by.
So I have a lot
of great memories of Woodstock
and sitting there looking out
through the kitchen window
of the cafe onto Pusher Street
and the life that was happening.
There was a great sense of community
among all the people who hung out there.
[Lykke] Around 1991, 1992,
we had a swell of contributing forces.
We had a very positive influx
of all kinds of people,
like activists and folks
plying their creativity in things
like graffiti and hip-hop culture.
It's was abundantly clear to me
that hip-hop culture,
like many other youth cultures really,
uh, likes to smoke weed.
[bluesy rock music playing]
[Kluck] The general public was getting
more interested in weed at that time.
My customers preferred to unwind
in the evening with a joint
instead of a glass of wine,
which makes you belligerent.
It was a common commodity.
An everyday thing, for sure.
Christiania, from day one
had been fundamentally divided.
You've got the dealers and the activists,
that's the basic schism.
[man] I'm smoking with a buddy.
When one group is doing well,
generally the other probably is too.
They really went hand in hand
all throughout the nineties.
[Kluck] I didn't see it as illegal.
Everyone was good.
No one was forced to buy anything.
People came and asked for it.
[Lykke] What was really
going on, um, underneath,
was that interest was rising
in the ever-growing weed market,
because the number of weed smokers
in Denmark was growing.
[Norton] It's also during this period
that the Christiania community
starts to see cannabis arrive
more professionally.
CARSTEN NORTON
AUTHOR & JOURNALIS
The more professionalized sales continue
to become, the greater the demand is
for the individual stalls,
the dealers, and the kingpins.
So, in every way, the cannabis
trade really does start to take on
the character of any form of retail.
We always had a steady supply
of good, standard hash.
Our connections in Holland
were important men.
THE WHOLESALER
They were businessmen, who were
powerful in a number of sectors.
They owned hotels,
and lots of enormous companies.
But they had, to put it simply,
set up a wholesaler,
which traded in, cucumbers.
And they sold
to supermarkets in Denmark.
At one point,
their fleet was up to 28 trucks,
which they used
for the hauling of cannabis
around almost all of Europe.
28 TRUCKS WITH HASH
When I met with the truck driver
for the first time,
to make sure it was the right one,
because there were several,
I had to ask him the time.
His code word was "Rolex", so if he said
"Rolex", then it was the right driver.
We had to get a dozen pallets
out at a time
and then put them in the parking lot so we
could access the back wall of the trailer,
where the cannabis was hidden.
I remember standing there with all
these moving boxes and filling them up.
You would pack them just like if
you were moving out of your house.
"There's a little more room
over there on the left."
Then we drove home
with 1,600 kilos of hash from Ruddbyhow.
[tense music playing]
The final destination was Christiania.
We also had a stash house, a warehouse,
if you will, in, um, North Zealand.
We had this guy, he was actually
a janitor at a special school.
There was good access
down into his janitor supply room.
It was great because he even
had a pallet jack we could use.
He would, uh
He took all the other stuff that came
for the school, Like paper goods.
He'd take all that away
and put it in his storage.
We were the biggest operation
in Christiania.
We delivered to about ten stalls,
and we sold, uh, about
35 to 40 kilos a day.
We sold a lot of it outside
to avoid having to move
it into Christiania.
Typically, I would go to a grocery store.
I would have a shopping cart
with 25 kilograms in a bag
and meet up with someone else
who has a cart.
They have a bag with the money,
and we swap carts.
We meshed in seamlessly
with everyday life.
[Larsen] There are importers
bringing the weed into Denmark,
and they pass it on to middlemen
who then get it into Christiania.
In Christiana, weed is distributed
in the Community Kitchen.
And the police are well aware of that.
We knew it was going on in there.
In the mornings.
FLEMMING SLOTH ANDERSEN
RIOT SQUAD
In my mind,
it was very well-organized. Absolutely.
[Norton] The Community Kitchen is known
for kingpins hanging out inside.
But, it's also a place where they sell
weed to average people and tourists
and where they sell
to their regular customers.
[Tuxen] There was a lot of variety
in the Kitchen at that time.
There were seven or eight stalls. And each
had lots of different things available.
KLAUS TUXEN
ACTIVIST & FOUND OF HEMP PARTY
You knew your dealer.
They were always friendly.
If they had something new,
they would just give you a gram.
There wasn't anyone
who forced you to buy, no obligation.
Good service through and through.
I was good at getting up early in the
morning and getting myself a good spot.
When I got the good spot, I got more
customers than the others.
KURT NIELSEN
FORMER DRUG DEALER
[Kluck] You had 10 or 15 grams on you.
Then you had your scale
and hash strapped to your stomach.
You bit off a chunk, weighed it,
and sold it to the customer.
On to the next one.
[man] It has to be mixed.
There would be a paper tray
with a chunk of hashish.
It would be called Star of David
or French Paper or Maroc.
It was 50 kroner a gram at the time.
You couldn't sell it for more.
When we came in for the bust, this weed
and cash started flying off to the sides.
There was no one to fine, so we couldn't
arrest them for possessing hash
because it was considered
found hash and money.
Ultimately, then, our main purpose,
in my view, was to get it off the street.
Both the money and the hash.
[people shouting]
The perfect scenario
was for somebody to get caught.
That way I could raise
my own prices by a lot.
Or at least I'd sell
twice as much product.
One time, I was at the bench,
with my paper trays,
and a cop came up to me
and said, "Police. You're under arrest."
I broke loose, grabbed a chair,
and I threw it in his face.
Then I ran away and jumped
out the back window.
I was afraid that I was wanted,
and they would recognize me.
So I showed up
wearing a wig the next day.
I was, like, very cool and chill.
Usually, we got a warning
because there was a whistle.
So we usually had
a little bit of time to pack up.
I'd gotten the warning, so I just went
over and sat down with all the bums.
And I hid the weed
on the bottom side of a table.
And I just sat there
with all the bums in, uh, my wig.
And they just came up to us
and said, "You guys can go."
"See ya."
It was easy.
- [people chattering]
- [rock music playing]
[Jørgensen] More and more weed
was being sold.
To me, it was a major provocation.
And it was done so overtly.
PREBEN JØRGENSEN
RIOT SQUAD
It completely offended
my sense of justice, I was irate.
I wanted the place cleared out.
[woman] There's the press.
When I tell you
to butt out of police business,
you will obey, end of conversation.
In 1992, the police set up a new patrol
to focus specifically on Christiania.
They call it Christiania Patrol.
[woman] They caught two.
Police leadership decided
they wanted an operational manager
who had a good knowledge of Christiania.
MOGENS LAURIDSEN - FORMER HEAD
OF OPERATIONS & RIOT SQUAD
And I was a shoo-in because
I had nine years with Riot Squad.
I said yes, and was out there
about six months.
[contemplative music playing]
[Lykke] They supposedly
consisted of 40 officers.
Those 40 were tasked
with shutting down Pusher Street.
And they were fierce.
[Norton] The officers
that made up Christiania Patrol,
they were, many of them,
also Riot Squad members.
They are, in a way, lone wolves:
individualists both, in some respect,
a rather anarchistic approach
to police work.
It's something that actually
has a good deal of political backing.
When Christiania Patrol started, Denmark
had a rather conservative government,
which was interested in making
an example of Christiania.
[man 1] It's gotten out of control.
The police were granted
an additional ten million kroner.
They Well, they want to dismantle
the weed trade here in Christiania.
[man 2]
What's up, Jutland? What'll it be?
Street fighting in the area
around Christiania in Copenhagen
sent five police officers
to the emergency room.
The riots began when civilian officers
were conducting checks in Christiania
on the hash trade.
[Norton] The Riot Squad attracts
a very specific type of officer,
these are guys with a different background
and a different kind of esprit de corps.
The result is a sort of, um,
combat-ready, paramilitary unit
which descends on Christiania.
The police officers were all lined up
in a row. With big shields.
Plexiglass shields, and with helmets
and visors and batons.
[Lauridsen]
It was pretty violent at first.
We respond to a lot of conflicts.
[people shouting]
[whistle blowing]
They weren't very nice. They were angry.
They were fired up. And
A lot of them really liked to draw blood.
[people shouting]
When we strike,
we're there to make arrests.
And often they would lash out at us
or put up resistance during arrest.
Things get rough.
[Jørgensen] There was a lot
of money at stake.
And when people stand
to lose a lot of money,
you know, sometimes
that can me them very angry.
[Kluck] We were always getting
in fights with the cops.
If you got arrested
you had no choice but to fight back.
No choice. You don't want to get arrested.
Go away!
Some people would get really aggressive.
[people shouting]
[Nielsen] I loved yelling
and screaming and provoking them.
I was always right out there.
I had this idea I was a freedom fighter.
I fought so we could just be left
the hell alone
and smoke our weed.
[people shouting]
[intriguing music playing]
[Norton] Christiania Patrol has a number
of different attack strategies.
They make use, in part,
of a completely overt method,
in which they park their vehicles
out on Prinsessegade,
and then they go in, and they start
thoroughly ransacking the stalls,
from one end to the other.
They would start by forming a line,
about ten guys wide
going down Pusher Street.
Then they would all just start barreling
down the street like a snowplow.
Their message was abundantly clear.
They wanted to make it known:
"We are in charge here."
They also have
slightly more cunning attempts
to surprise the Christianites
and the dealers.
[Larsen] There's an operation
in the early nineties
where two officers
use a rather creative method
to get close and personal with a dealer.
One is in a wheelchair,
and the other plays the role of an aide.
[Jørgensen] Two officers thought it might
be fun to pull up in a wheelchair
and come in undercover like that
and observe a little bit.
I'm hanging out up in the Opera, watching.
There was a guy rolling up
with another guy,
who was sitting in a wheelchair.
When all of a sudden,
the guy in the wheelchair
jumped up to his feet,
and they started making arrests.
The dealers were too slow on the uptake
to realize that it was the police.
[chuckling] That, that really
pissed them off.
[Norton] It's something that Christianites
and drug dealers complain about.
they take issue with the police using
dishonest methods to gain access,
because the police are doing everything
they can think of
to catch people off guard,
to bring them in.
[Kluck] People are yelling and screaming.
[woman] What the hell
are you doing to me?
Nobody on the street that day
realized that the guy in the wheelchair,
he was a cop.
[man shouting]
[Lykke] I walk around
to the back of the house
and see that the people on The Line
are fighting with the police,
trying to free the people that got busted.
[people screaming]
I heard something going down, and
as I ran up the street, I was thinking,
"I need to bring some rocks."
[ominous music playing]
So I quickly fill my pockets with rocks
and run back up the street
to see what's going on.
Then more cops show up and
eventually, yeah, some rocks were thrown.
It was war.
[person] Stop it!
[Jørgensen] We were completely
bombarded with rocks.
Anything they can find to throw, really.
It happened time and time again.
They came from all sides,
and there was no way to see them all.
If you get hit by a rock, that's it.
You're done for.
"Watch out!" And a rock would
come down. [mimics thud]
You're absolutely dead if you get hit
in the head by one of those.
[Andersen] We had to pull out our batons.
Things got intense and we used them.
We used them in order to assert ourselves.
[people shouting]
You don't aim for the head,
since it's a dangerous weapon.
But in the heat of battle,
a lot of things can happen.
We've had people accidentally get hit
in the head by a baton, it happens.
[man] What the hell are you doing?!
[Kluck] They were crazy.
They would force you down to the ground,
even if there was no reason for it.
They'd kneel on your back,
kick your shin, or slam you down.
I mean, it was brutal.
The rioters even sicced their dogs on us,
but they got whacked with the baton.
We couldn't lose. No way.
[man] Asshole!
They were insane, those police boys.
[man] It's legal. Stay away.
Let's go, let's go.
[Nielsen] They just cared
about their work.
They were completely obsessed with
shutting it down and taking us down too.
[people shouting]
[Andersen] The Christianites
were so preoccupied with declaring
What am I being charged with?
how violent we were.
Our best asset was their fear of us.
They knew they couldn't beat us.
That was my impression.
They knew they couldn't win.
[Jørgensen] If they offered to dance,
we accepted.
The fact that were much better dancers,
well, that was a different matter.
[people shouting]
[Lauridsen] One day, no matter
which way I turned my head,
there were police officers engaged
in a fight with the Christiania people.
On our way out, some of the Christianites
would shout after us,
"Don't come back here today."
You can't say that to police.
It's an invitation you just can't refuse.
Of course we went back in.
[man] We're allowed to go
wherever the fuck we want, man!
We're allowed to go where we want!
[Lauridsen] It's crude,
but we have no choice
but to show strength
when the situation proves it necessary.
Once we've started, we have to finish.
Because we're the police.
What the hell are you doing?
You're agitating us!
I'll say something that some people
might take the wrong way.
It was a playground.
It was exciting,
and the adrenaline was pumping.
We knew there'd be trouble
when we showed up.
You can get addicted to that.
[man] Mommy's calling.
Go home to Mommy.
[Kluck] We thought, "Fuck them."
Plain and simple.
We had no respect for them
or their games.
[people shouting]
I know, I have been told
by former police officers
these guys got each other all worked up
to fight the people of Christiania.
They'd get good and ready
to go beat up on Christianites.
This is tear gas used by the police today.
This affected
and hurt innocent people, too.
[Lykke] All of Christiania, and even the
surrounding areas, were shrouded in gas.
You couldn't get around.
[people shouting]
It was really extremely ugly.
[man] We see your faces! Remember that!
[man] You guys are so cool!
You're so cool!
Go home, you idiots!
At one point during all this,
a cop opened up his coveralls.
Underneath, he had on this T-shirt.
I got a good look at that shit.
It said "Christiania Rangers."
A T-shirt they had made.
They They were so proud of themselves.
[contemplative music playing]
The police only saw
the bad side of Christiania.
Combatting crime: that's what the police
are put in the world for.
So it's understandable that
that was why we only saw the bad.
There were lots of nice,
cozy places and very kind people.
A lot of cops never got the opportunity
to experience those aspects of it.
Their impression
was influenced by the fact
that there was always so much trouble.
It's dangerous
and you get rocks thrown at you,
and you end up in conflict every time.
That makes you think, "Wow, this place
is awful, this place sucks."
A whole lot of officers
were seriously injured
while they were doing their jobs
in Christiania, that's for sure.
So it's not like it was without perils.
I get stopped at all hours.
I go get food, what happens?
I get stopped, searched,
and stripped down.
That's something I've come to expect.
I accept that, okay.
You wanna criminalize me
as a Christianite, that's your problem.
You all are small to me.
I've noticed that each of you guys
love to say, "See my patch here.
It says "police", and it releases me
from accountability.
I'm just doing my job."
Yes? Yes? Okay, wait.
You guys all act like robots,
like you have one mind.
But I know you're not,
I know that, I know you're not.
You know, I have never once heard
a police officer say, "I'm wrong."
But we've both heard
the Christianites say that many times.
They're tougher than we're used to.
But they can't bring us down.
[playing lively music]
[people chanting]
I'm telling you,
I made fun of those cops a lot.
We did this several times, from the roofs,
Woodstock, the Community Kitchen.
There were milk crates
with month-old yogurt and rotten eggs.
And when they came, they got all of it.
[Nielsen] I never threw rocks,
not even one time.
And I really don't like violence at all.
So I threw, uh, eggs and yogurt,
aiming for their shields,
so they couldn't see through them.
They definitely got pretty mad,
they really didn't like that.
[The Wholesaler] That turned out
to be a much more effective system.
Turns out smelling like rotten eggs was,
um, worse than a rock caving your head in.
Much of the Christianites'
teasing seemed harmless and comical.
There was a sense of humor to it.
But there were also personal attacks
and insults leveled
at individual officers.
[people shouting and chanting]
They used tricks
to ridicule us in all kinds of places.
[Andersen] There was a picture of me
that was displayed around the city.
All over Christiania.
Myself, along with
10 to 15 of my colleagues.
[Jørgensen] There were also officers who
were approached where they lived,
their residences,
and their children were approached.
So, yes the threats were extremely real.
[intriguing music playing]
[Andersen] I knew
I could get shot. [chuckles]
I know that sounds very intense,
but that was my job.
I'd made my peace with the reality of it.
I could risk it, for my part.
It's what came along
with working in that department.
What scared me was when the threats
started to come against my family.
Yeah, they received threats as well.
My daughter who wasn't
even one year old.
That scared me.
It really wasn't fun anymore.
For long periods I went around always
carrying a pistol, tucked away.
They knew, I was
an undercover cop, you know.
If that led to a dangerous situation,
I was ready.
[Jørgensen] It put you at ease, you know?
You never knew when things
would get out of hand.
- [whistle blowing]
- [people shouting]
[man] You're a joke.
[Lykke] It was a horrific period.
There were some really tough Christianites
who were deeply involved with
and vigilant about the hash market,
some preparing rather extreme
and violent counterattacks.
I witnessed some riot cops who were
all ransacking a children's sandbox.
They found a pile of iron pipes,
70 to 80 centimeters long.
Someone must have
hidden them presumably.
[people shouting]
[Larsen] The violence and hatred between
dealers and police got worse and worse.
Among all of the peaceful Christianites,
which were in the majority,
concern was growing
that this could end up being disastrous.
We were afraid that if it escalated,
it was a matter of time
before we had a murder on our hands.
We didn't know what side would suffer.
It didn't take long.
It was the 18th of May, on Nurrebro.
[reporter] Pushed to the limit,
police opened fire on a civilian crowd
for the first time since World War Two.
The events of that day marked the
beginning of the end for the Riot Squad.
The Riot Squad is being met
with a great deal of opposition.
The police unit has often been criticized,
but it's never been closer
to being shut down than now.
In mid 1993,
there were two major incidents
that were particularly prominent
in the news cycles
throughout the whole country of Denmark.
The first, were the riots at Nørrebro
on the 18th of May 1993,
after Danes voted yes
on the Maastricht Treaty.
There had been a great deal
of anger in left-wing circles,
and following the outcome of the vote,
it triggered major riots at Nørrebro.
The riots became quite violent,
and 11 protesters were injured,
as well as several police officers,
who were sent there to keep the peace.
The second was the Benjamin case.
A violent arrest that took place
at Rådhuspladsen
on New Year's Eve of '91, '92,
where a young man
was placed in a so-called "leg lock".
[quiet dramatic music playing]
The arrest ultimately ended fatally
with the young man being fully crippled
and subsequently losing his life,
due to the injuries he sustained.
In a leg lock,
you're handcuffed behind your back.
And then your legs are attached
to the handcuffs,
so you're lying like a taut bow.
[Norton] Being held in that position
can make it impossible to breathe,
and the excessive use of it
sparks major concerns
about the methods and practices police
are using among the general public.
Danish police are heavily criticized
for using the leg-lock,
which was known to be dangerous.
This controversy
made its way to Christiania.
[Andersen] Public sentiment
about our work was drastically changing.
The Riot Squad as a group,
an organization, if you will,
created this atmosphere.
That's how it was.
Except we were just doing our jobs.
When they attacked us,
we had to fight back.
And that looked violent.
My most violent arrest was probably
the day that I was leg-locked.
And then, I was carried
by my arms to their van.
I was put in the van, in the leg lock,
and then taken to Horhoosvi
where they held me.
My wrists were bleeding like crazy.
They finally released me after an hour,
because I was shouting
for a doctor.
Fixed leg lock. It wasn't, you know,
because we thought it was fun.
But because when you're dealing
with an arrest on the ground,
you have to be able to keep an eye out
in case somebody's throwing rocks at you.
When you're in plain clothes,
you don't have any protection.
So it's true
that we used the fixed leg lock often,
but then after this controversy
is was banned.
[man] I need to take off my shoes.
[Norton] After the Christiania Patrol
has been active a year and a half,
the residents decide, after
consulting with their lawyer,
to write a letter to the justice
minister who, in '93,
is Social Democrat Erling Olsen.
Justice minister Erling Olsen
has urged police to be less aggressive
with the marijuana trade on Christiania.
He banned the Christiania Patrol
from using tear gas.
[man] All right, Erling! All right!
Justice Minister Erling
took the matter so seriously
that he paid Christiania a visit.
It culminated with the police showing up
and barging into Pusher Street.
They made quite a violent appearance.
He was at the Opera when suddenly,
all these officers showed up.
[people shouting]
He went and looked out the window.
He saw Christianites being hit by batons.
[Lykke] Since they used tear gas
in his presence, he said, "That's it."
He shut down the Christiania Patrol.
We will, in any case,
initiate a scaling-down and dampening
of invasive police activity
in Christiania.
[Norton] By the end of December, 1993,
what was referred to
as the "Christmas peace" was brokered
and put into full effect.
From that point forward,
the police had officially been ordered
to completely stop patrolling
Pusher Street indefinitely.
It was like we'd won a victory.
We celebrated
by sharing a bottle of vodka.
We were all relieved that what had
happened with the tragedy in Nørrebro
didn't happen in Christiania.
It was all about the Christiania Patrol.
It was that organization
that really fucked things up out there.
[man] Across the street,
we have our bakery.
[chuckles]
With Erling Olsen, we all thought he caved
and that he was weak and wimpy.
But we knew there were
all kinds politics involved in it.
To me it was just one of those times.
I wasn't impressed at all.
I don't know if I'm allowed
to say bullshit, but it was.
It was just talk.
Like many times before.
[Jørgensen] It was a betrayal, simply put.
We were taking care of things
for a whole year
and we confiscated so much weed.
Then he came and interfered,
and I think it's a betrayal.
I think it was inappropriate
interference. Absolutely.
[Lauridsen] It's a difficult place
to be in because you don't get praise
when you're there as a police officer.
It's a tough environment.
The officers felt it was a really
ungrateful way of ending things.
They felt they had invested a lot
of their time and energy into this job
with not much recognition.
But I'll say it, they did one hell
of a job out there. That much is for sure.
[Jørgensen] The only way to handle it: you
had to grab the dealers by their balls.
They should have kept going,
and Christiania would've closed down.
[Lauridsen] I think we had
a good handle on the weed trade.
It was minimal compared to what
it had previously been in Christiania.
I'll probably be alone on that.
If you were to ask the Christianites,
they'd say nothing changed.
But the cannabis dealers always told us,
"If things keep up like this
and don't change, we'll move along.
It's more trouble than it's worth."
So we definitely hurt them a little bit.
They closed the Community Kitchen.
When the dust settled
it never really restarted.
Um
Other than that,
they didn't achieve much.
[Kluck] They didn't get shit out of it.
Nothing.
Whether they were winning or not,
is not the point.
The cops were there to do
what they thought their job was.
But the weed trade in Christiania
was always most heavily, um
under pressure by the major players
in the market
or a potential drought in Morocco.
There was no real threat there
from the police.
[dramatic music playing]
[Norton] For Pusher Street,
the Christmas Peace of 1993
was the beginning of what is referred
to as the "police-free period".
The police only really came
when there was a case outside Christiania
that lead into Christiania.
[Norton] That also means that the people
who had stalls on Pusher Street
started adopting a new kind of confidence
in what they were doing.
So, Pusher Street transformed
into a kind of supermarket,
a real weed supermarket.
A far cry from just being
a more haphazard, makeshift marketplace.
[melodic dramatic music playing]
We didn't see the cops much.
So people relaxed.
There was peace.
Oh, that's why I was so flush with cash
in '94. I was doing well.
I'll tell you this much.
I had a gold chain that weighed 450 grams.
It was cool.
I had a car and a motorcycle, a boat.
Jet skis and scooters
I had saved up for all that
with my welfare checks. Yeah.
[The Wholesaler]
On a typical cannabis deal, I, uh,
I think I got 350,000.
The money was everywhere
and it was extremely easy to make.
We did a great job of rewarding ourselves
with booze and cocaine and women.
Whatever else we wanted
because the sky was the limit.
But suddenly, the bikers got involved.
The bikers had caught the scent
of how big our business had grown.
[Norton] So now,
during this police-free period,
Pusher Street saw some much bigger
and much stronger players emerge
on the weed market.
As for the Hells Angels,
if you asked the Copenhagen Police
through the nineties,
the Hells Angels were starting
to have a larger presence as well,
including taking over stalls.
That is to say, there were some people
who demanded a cut of the earnings
from some of the stalls out there,
through no small amount of intimidation.
[tense music playing]
[Lauridsen] Some of the dealers
at that time,
they definitely had ties
and connections to the Hells Angels.
We suspected that one of the guys
that was selling had a stash of sorts
not far from Multimediehuset.
And when we conducted a search,
we found 25 kilos in a box.
We confiscated the box as found hash
and kept up surveillance.
The day after we brought in the 25 kilos,
two very prominent Hells Angels members
came out and grabbed the dealer
on Pusher Street.
They dragged him into the back
of the Opera, and, well,
we don't know exactly
what they discussed.
So then he came back
and started selling nonstop,
especially at night when we weren't there.
He was trying to scrape some money
together, it was all very telling.
It was clear that he had a relationship
with the Hells Angels.
He was obviously
getting his drugs from them.
[The Wholesaler] The bikers
were always pretty persistent,
and it created a lot of disruption.
So we said, "We need to have a meeting."
My people and this, uh, yeah, biker gang.
That was when Mister Big, um,
he decided to set up the meeting
at Kongs Newtow Restaurant Bali.
Restaurant Bali was run by a, um,
man from Singapore.
Ethnically Chinese.
Named Roland Tan Tong Meng,
he was in the Copenhagen underworld,
known as Mr. Big.
I've heard people
from the underworld describe him
as some kind of criminal mediator.
He was the guy you could turn to
if you were in trouble
or if you had problems
that couldn't be resolved any other way.
What the biker gangs said to the dealers,
and the wholesalers who were working
the stalls on Pusher Street,
was, "All right, for every single gram
of weed sold on Pusher Street,
we need to get a cut of that sale."
It's not something the dealers
were particularly interested in doing.
[The Wholesaler] Not long after,
there was a knock at my door.
I answered.
Outside, I saw someone in a hoodie,
and then I got hit by a baseball
bat right to the head.
Another one.
The second blow knocked me out.
That was just one instance.
Then let's see, well, at some other
point, my partner and I get a message.
We're on Refshalalevej,
around the back of Christiania,
near Løvehuset, the two of us.
As we stop there, somebody,
um, pulls up in an Opel Astra.
Flashes their lights, and I think
they're trying to tell us something.
We had pistols because we'd
been exposed to all kinds of crazy stuff.
So when we saw that car, we threw our
guns under our own car and I walked over.
A guy gets out and he says
"It's the police."
"Good day," I say to him,
and I turn to go inside.
But now I can see my partner
is going over to them.
I'm inside and then my partner
comes in, and he says,
"They heard that there's a hit out,
so they have to inform us."
I'm like, "Well, that sucks."
The cops told my partner,
"Those guns you threw under the car,
you better take them.
You probably need them
a whole lot more than we do."
So at that point,
I was thinking to myself,
I was thinking
"Okay, the police let us keep our guns.
There may be some merit to this."
We
thought we knew who was behind it.
They wanted to make a point.
To say loud and clear, "We are in charge."
You, uh
You get scared when you're told
you're going to, um,
be assassinated, of course you do.
Yeah. Um and
And anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
Full stop, I'm telling you.
I think it became sort of a way out
for me. To turn my back.
You know, people die over this. Yeah.
But this was just the very beginning
of all the violence surrounding weed.
ON THE NEXT EPISODE
[man] We need heavier intervention.
he government is founded on revoking
Christiania's freetown designation.
[man 1] We'll fight fire with fire.
[producer] If I say "Bjarne"?
Leglock?
He's the cop who thought
he could shut down Christiania.
[Beier] I saw him as Alexander
on his stallion.
I mean I would have done
anything for him.
[Christensen]
The goal was to "normalize" Christiania.
So naturally that meant we were
in Christiania 24 seven.
I was furious.
Police were everywhere.
For us Christiania kids,
you know, it became normal.
I always said,
"When we strike, we follow through."
They have to feel it.
We won't take their shit.
If they're tough, we're tough.
[people shouting]
I felt great. It was a pleasure.
HELLS ANGELS MC HAS NO
COMMENTED ON THE ALLEGATIONS
[tense dramatic music playing]
TONNY KLUCK
FORMER DRUG DEALER
We were standing outside, on the street,
drinking coffee and smoking joints.
It was so quiet.
We weren't expecting any cops.
Then all of a sudden
[mimics gun blasts]
We heard this hissing.
It was tear gas, coming from behind.
It was raining down over Pusher Street.
[person shouting]
[Kluck] And you know,
people got pretty angry.
[person shouts]
[Kluck] Then the cops came running.
They stampeded one or two people.
So everyone started looking
for every stone they could find.
Then the fighting started.
I don't know how to explain it.
Insanity.
[Larsen] What started
as an idealistic hippie dream,
ended in a brutal nightmare.
[The Wholesaler] If there's demand
for something and there's money to make,
people like me will swoop
in and capitalize.
[Larsen] On one side are the drug dealers,
on the other side,
you have the combat-ready cops.
When we strike, we follow through.
[people shouting]
[Larsen] And in the middle
are the Christianites.
SHAME
I felt like a hostage caught
between drug dealers and cops.
[man] What the hell are you doing?!
They wanted to hurt each other.
It was It was war.
We thought, "Fuck them."
In the situations, thinking,
"You're dead. You won't survive."
We got to the point
that we had always feared.
[gun blast]
Someone was shot dead on Pusher Street.
That killing was the last straw in the
decades of fighting over Pusher Street.
GANG WAR
PUSHER STREE
[contemplative music playing]
[Balther] Christiania had created
a restricted area,
where we basically told folks
JØRN BALTHER - DOCUMENTARY
FILMMAKER & CHRISTIANITE
"Here you can sell your hash,
and only hash can be sold.
You're not allowed to sell to children.
And we won't tolerate violence
or hard drugs."
But the most important rule
was you had to live in Christiania
two years to sell hash.
Which meant we knew each other.
And that way people could be held
fully accountable for their actions.
[Lykke] We accept weed as a drug.
However, we don't accept
all the repercussions
OLE LYKKE
CHRISTIANITE
that come from it being criminalized.
One of the most severe
consequences, of course,
was that the police essentially had
free rein to operate as they pleased.
We had enormous problems
with the police.
In the early 1990s,
Pusher Street was established
JESPER VESTERGAARD LARSEN
JOURNALIS
as the official marketplace
for hash in Christiania.
That makes the police's work much harder.
They need to get to the heart
of Christiania to get to the dealers.
And not only that, the first stalls that
the police encounter on Pusher Street
were those known as
The Front of the Line.
The dealers who worked
those stalls were the tough guys.
[man] Okay. Let's go.
When I was working in The Front
I was the one
who faced the problems from outside.
You had to deal with it.
[man] You goddamn thugs!
What the hell do you think you're doing!?
[people shouting]
I ended up at The Front.
I did that for almost 40 years.
[contemplative music playing]
In the beginning, it was for unity.
To be part of something.
And to be around people, I like that.
There was always someone you knew.
You could play ping-pong,
throw some darts,
have a few beers, smoke some weed.
There were always people
who wanted to do something.
I have lots of early childhood memories
of Pusher Street.
My mother worked in a cafe, making
open-faced sandwiches and breakfast.
MATILDE
CHRISTIANITE
The cafe was up in that middle
part of Pusher Street, called Woodstock.
It would turn into a bar in the afternoon.
In the morning, it was a gathering place
where everyone stops by.
So I have a lot
of great memories of Woodstock
and sitting there looking out
through the kitchen window
of the cafe onto Pusher Street
and the life that was happening.
There was a great sense of community
among all the people who hung out there.
[Lykke] Around 1991, 1992,
we had a swell of contributing forces.
We had a very positive influx
of all kinds of people,
like activists and folks
plying their creativity in things
like graffiti and hip-hop culture.
It's was abundantly clear to me
that hip-hop culture,
like many other youth cultures really,
uh, likes to smoke weed.
[bluesy rock music playing]
[Kluck] The general public was getting
more interested in weed at that time.
My customers preferred to unwind
in the evening with a joint
instead of a glass of wine,
which makes you belligerent.
It was a common commodity.
An everyday thing, for sure.
Christiania, from day one
had been fundamentally divided.
You've got the dealers and the activists,
that's the basic schism.
[man] I'm smoking with a buddy.
When one group is doing well,
generally the other probably is too.
They really went hand in hand
all throughout the nineties.
[Kluck] I didn't see it as illegal.
Everyone was good.
No one was forced to buy anything.
People came and asked for it.
[Lykke] What was really
going on, um, underneath,
was that interest was rising
in the ever-growing weed market,
because the number of weed smokers
in Denmark was growing.
[Norton] It's also during this period
that the Christiania community
starts to see cannabis arrive
more professionally.
CARSTEN NORTON
AUTHOR & JOURNALIS
The more professionalized sales continue
to become, the greater the demand is
for the individual stalls,
the dealers, and the kingpins.
So, in every way, the cannabis
trade really does start to take on
the character of any form of retail.
We always had a steady supply
of good, standard hash.
Our connections in Holland
were important men.
THE WHOLESALER
They were businessmen, who were
powerful in a number of sectors.
They owned hotels,
and lots of enormous companies.
But they had, to put it simply,
set up a wholesaler,
which traded in, cucumbers.
And they sold
to supermarkets in Denmark.
At one point,
their fleet was up to 28 trucks,
which they used
for the hauling of cannabis
around almost all of Europe.
28 TRUCKS WITH HASH
When I met with the truck driver
for the first time,
to make sure it was the right one,
because there were several,
I had to ask him the time.
His code word was "Rolex", so if he said
"Rolex", then it was the right driver.
We had to get a dozen pallets
out at a time
and then put them in the parking lot so we
could access the back wall of the trailer,
where the cannabis was hidden.
I remember standing there with all
these moving boxes and filling them up.
You would pack them just like if
you were moving out of your house.
"There's a little more room
over there on the left."
Then we drove home
with 1,600 kilos of hash from Ruddbyhow.
[tense music playing]
The final destination was Christiania.
We also had a stash house, a warehouse,
if you will, in, um, North Zealand.
We had this guy, he was actually
a janitor at a special school.
There was good access
down into his janitor supply room.
It was great because he even
had a pallet jack we could use.
He would, uh
He took all the other stuff that came
for the school, Like paper goods.
He'd take all that away
and put it in his storage.
We were the biggest operation
in Christiania.
We delivered to about ten stalls,
and we sold, uh, about
35 to 40 kilos a day.
We sold a lot of it outside
to avoid having to move
it into Christiania.
Typically, I would go to a grocery store.
I would have a shopping cart
with 25 kilograms in a bag
and meet up with someone else
who has a cart.
They have a bag with the money,
and we swap carts.
We meshed in seamlessly
with everyday life.
[Larsen] There are importers
bringing the weed into Denmark,
and they pass it on to middlemen
who then get it into Christiania.
In Christiana, weed is distributed
in the Community Kitchen.
And the police are well aware of that.
We knew it was going on in there.
In the mornings.
FLEMMING SLOTH ANDERSEN
RIOT SQUAD
In my mind,
it was very well-organized. Absolutely.
[Norton] The Community Kitchen is known
for kingpins hanging out inside.
But, it's also a place where they sell
weed to average people and tourists
and where they sell
to their regular customers.
[Tuxen] There was a lot of variety
in the Kitchen at that time.
There were seven or eight stalls. And each
had lots of different things available.
KLAUS TUXEN
ACTIVIST & FOUND OF HEMP PARTY
You knew your dealer.
They were always friendly.
If they had something new,
they would just give you a gram.
There wasn't anyone
who forced you to buy, no obligation.
Good service through and through.
I was good at getting up early in the
morning and getting myself a good spot.
When I got the good spot, I got more
customers than the others.
KURT NIELSEN
FORMER DRUG DEALER
[Kluck] You had 10 or 15 grams on you.
Then you had your scale
and hash strapped to your stomach.
You bit off a chunk, weighed it,
and sold it to the customer.
On to the next one.
[man] It has to be mixed.
There would be a paper tray
with a chunk of hashish.
It would be called Star of David
or French Paper or Maroc.
It was 50 kroner a gram at the time.
You couldn't sell it for more.
When we came in for the bust, this weed
and cash started flying off to the sides.
There was no one to fine, so we couldn't
arrest them for possessing hash
because it was considered
found hash and money.
Ultimately, then, our main purpose,
in my view, was to get it off the street.
Both the money and the hash.
[people shouting]
The perfect scenario
was for somebody to get caught.
That way I could raise
my own prices by a lot.
Or at least I'd sell
twice as much product.
One time, I was at the bench,
with my paper trays,
and a cop came up to me
and said, "Police. You're under arrest."
I broke loose, grabbed a chair,
and I threw it in his face.
Then I ran away and jumped
out the back window.
I was afraid that I was wanted,
and they would recognize me.
So I showed up
wearing a wig the next day.
I was, like, very cool and chill.
Usually, we got a warning
because there was a whistle.
So we usually had
a little bit of time to pack up.
I'd gotten the warning, so I just went
over and sat down with all the bums.
And I hid the weed
on the bottom side of a table.
And I just sat there
with all the bums in, uh, my wig.
And they just came up to us
and said, "You guys can go."
"See ya."
It was easy.
- [people chattering]
- [rock music playing]
[Jørgensen] More and more weed
was being sold.
To me, it was a major provocation.
And it was done so overtly.
PREBEN JØRGENSEN
RIOT SQUAD
It completely offended
my sense of justice, I was irate.
I wanted the place cleared out.
[woman] There's the press.
When I tell you
to butt out of police business,
you will obey, end of conversation.
In 1992, the police set up a new patrol
to focus specifically on Christiania.
They call it Christiania Patrol.
[woman] They caught two.
Police leadership decided
they wanted an operational manager
who had a good knowledge of Christiania.
MOGENS LAURIDSEN - FORMER HEAD
OF OPERATIONS & RIOT SQUAD
And I was a shoo-in because
I had nine years with Riot Squad.
I said yes, and was out there
about six months.
[contemplative music playing]
[Lykke] They supposedly
consisted of 40 officers.
Those 40 were tasked
with shutting down Pusher Street.
And they were fierce.
[Norton] The officers
that made up Christiania Patrol,
they were, many of them,
also Riot Squad members.
They are, in a way, lone wolves:
individualists both, in some respect,
a rather anarchistic approach
to police work.
It's something that actually
has a good deal of political backing.
When Christiania Patrol started, Denmark
had a rather conservative government,
which was interested in making
an example of Christiania.
[man 1] It's gotten out of control.
The police were granted
an additional ten million kroner.
They Well, they want to dismantle
the weed trade here in Christiania.
[man 2]
What's up, Jutland? What'll it be?
Street fighting in the area
around Christiania in Copenhagen
sent five police officers
to the emergency room.
The riots began when civilian officers
were conducting checks in Christiania
on the hash trade.
[Norton] The Riot Squad attracts
a very specific type of officer,
these are guys with a different background
and a different kind of esprit de corps.
The result is a sort of, um,
combat-ready, paramilitary unit
which descends on Christiania.
The police officers were all lined up
in a row. With big shields.
Plexiglass shields, and with helmets
and visors and batons.
[Lauridsen]
It was pretty violent at first.
We respond to a lot of conflicts.
[people shouting]
[whistle blowing]
They weren't very nice. They were angry.
They were fired up. And
A lot of them really liked to draw blood.
[people shouting]
When we strike,
we're there to make arrests.
And often they would lash out at us
or put up resistance during arrest.
Things get rough.
[Jørgensen] There was a lot
of money at stake.
And when people stand
to lose a lot of money,
you know, sometimes
that can me them very angry.
[Kluck] We were always getting
in fights with the cops.
If you got arrested
you had no choice but to fight back.
No choice. You don't want to get arrested.
Go away!
Some people would get really aggressive.
[people shouting]
[Nielsen] I loved yelling
and screaming and provoking them.
I was always right out there.
I had this idea I was a freedom fighter.
I fought so we could just be left
the hell alone
and smoke our weed.
[people shouting]
[intriguing music playing]
[Norton] Christiania Patrol has a number
of different attack strategies.
They make use, in part,
of a completely overt method,
in which they park their vehicles
out on Prinsessegade,
and then they go in, and they start
thoroughly ransacking the stalls,
from one end to the other.
They would start by forming a line,
about ten guys wide
going down Pusher Street.
Then they would all just start barreling
down the street like a snowplow.
Their message was abundantly clear.
They wanted to make it known:
"We are in charge here."
They also have
slightly more cunning attempts
to surprise the Christianites
and the dealers.
[Larsen] There's an operation
in the early nineties
where two officers
use a rather creative method
to get close and personal with a dealer.
One is in a wheelchair,
and the other plays the role of an aide.
[Jørgensen] Two officers thought it might
be fun to pull up in a wheelchair
and come in undercover like that
and observe a little bit.
I'm hanging out up in the Opera, watching.
There was a guy rolling up
with another guy,
who was sitting in a wheelchair.
When all of a sudden,
the guy in the wheelchair
jumped up to his feet,
and they started making arrests.
The dealers were too slow on the uptake
to realize that it was the police.
[chuckling] That, that really
pissed them off.
[Norton] It's something that Christianites
and drug dealers complain about.
they take issue with the police using
dishonest methods to gain access,
because the police are doing everything
they can think of
to catch people off guard,
to bring them in.
[Kluck] People are yelling and screaming.
[woman] What the hell
are you doing to me?
Nobody on the street that day
realized that the guy in the wheelchair,
he was a cop.
[man shouting]
[Lykke] I walk around
to the back of the house
and see that the people on The Line
are fighting with the police,
trying to free the people that got busted.
[people screaming]
I heard something going down, and
as I ran up the street, I was thinking,
"I need to bring some rocks."
[ominous music playing]
So I quickly fill my pockets with rocks
and run back up the street
to see what's going on.
Then more cops show up and
eventually, yeah, some rocks were thrown.
It was war.
[person] Stop it!
[Jørgensen] We were completely
bombarded with rocks.
Anything they can find to throw, really.
It happened time and time again.
They came from all sides,
and there was no way to see them all.
If you get hit by a rock, that's it.
You're done for.
"Watch out!" And a rock would
come down. [mimics thud]
You're absolutely dead if you get hit
in the head by one of those.
[Andersen] We had to pull out our batons.
Things got intense and we used them.
We used them in order to assert ourselves.
[people shouting]
You don't aim for the head,
since it's a dangerous weapon.
But in the heat of battle,
a lot of things can happen.
We've had people accidentally get hit
in the head by a baton, it happens.
[man] What the hell are you doing?!
[Kluck] They were crazy.
They would force you down to the ground,
even if there was no reason for it.
They'd kneel on your back,
kick your shin, or slam you down.
I mean, it was brutal.
The rioters even sicced their dogs on us,
but they got whacked with the baton.
We couldn't lose. No way.
[man] Asshole!
They were insane, those police boys.
[man] It's legal. Stay away.
Let's go, let's go.
[Nielsen] They just cared
about their work.
They were completely obsessed with
shutting it down and taking us down too.
[people shouting]
[Andersen] The Christianites
were so preoccupied with declaring
What am I being charged with?
how violent we were.
Our best asset was their fear of us.
They knew they couldn't beat us.
That was my impression.
They knew they couldn't win.
[Jørgensen] If they offered to dance,
we accepted.
The fact that were much better dancers,
well, that was a different matter.
[people shouting]
[Lauridsen] One day, no matter
which way I turned my head,
there were police officers engaged
in a fight with the Christiania people.
On our way out, some of the Christianites
would shout after us,
"Don't come back here today."
You can't say that to police.
It's an invitation you just can't refuse.
Of course we went back in.
[man] We're allowed to go
wherever the fuck we want, man!
We're allowed to go where we want!
[Lauridsen] It's crude,
but we have no choice
but to show strength
when the situation proves it necessary.
Once we've started, we have to finish.
Because we're the police.
What the hell are you doing?
You're agitating us!
I'll say something that some people
might take the wrong way.
It was a playground.
It was exciting,
and the adrenaline was pumping.
We knew there'd be trouble
when we showed up.
You can get addicted to that.
[man] Mommy's calling.
Go home to Mommy.
[Kluck] We thought, "Fuck them."
Plain and simple.
We had no respect for them
or their games.
[people shouting]
I know, I have been told
by former police officers
these guys got each other all worked up
to fight the people of Christiania.
They'd get good and ready
to go beat up on Christianites.
This is tear gas used by the police today.
This affected
and hurt innocent people, too.
[Lykke] All of Christiania, and even the
surrounding areas, were shrouded in gas.
You couldn't get around.
[people shouting]
It was really extremely ugly.
[man] We see your faces! Remember that!
[man] You guys are so cool!
You're so cool!
Go home, you idiots!
At one point during all this,
a cop opened up his coveralls.
Underneath, he had on this T-shirt.
I got a good look at that shit.
It said "Christiania Rangers."
A T-shirt they had made.
They They were so proud of themselves.
[contemplative music playing]
The police only saw
the bad side of Christiania.
Combatting crime: that's what the police
are put in the world for.
So it's understandable that
that was why we only saw the bad.
There were lots of nice,
cozy places and very kind people.
A lot of cops never got the opportunity
to experience those aspects of it.
Their impression
was influenced by the fact
that there was always so much trouble.
It's dangerous
and you get rocks thrown at you,
and you end up in conflict every time.
That makes you think, "Wow, this place
is awful, this place sucks."
A whole lot of officers
were seriously injured
while they were doing their jobs
in Christiania, that's for sure.
So it's not like it was without perils.
I get stopped at all hours.
I go get food, what happens?
I get stopped, searched,
and stripped down.
That's something I've come to expect.
I accept that, okay.
You wanna criminalize me
as a Christianite, that's your problem.
You all are small to me.
I've noticed that each of you guys
love to say, "See my patch here.
It says "police", and it releases me
from accountability.
I'm just doing my job."
Yes? Yes? Okay, wait.
You guys all act like robots,
like you have one mind.
But I know you're not,
I know that, I know you're not.
You know, I have never once heard
a police officer say, "I'm wrong."
But we've both heard
the Christianites say that many times.
They're tougher than we're used to.
But they can't bring us down.
[playing lively music]
[people chanting]
I'm telling you,
I made fun of those cops a lot.
We did this several times, from the roofs,
Woodstock, the Community Kitchen.
There were milk crates
with month-old yogurt and rotten eggs.
And when they came, they got all of it.
[Nielsen] I never threw rocks,
not even one time.
And I really don't like violence at all.
So I threw, uh, eggs and yogurt,
aiming for their shields,
so they couldn't see through them.
They definitely got pretty mad,
they really didn't like that.
[The Wholesaler] That turned out
to be a much more effective system.
Turns out smelling like rotten eggs was,
um, worse than a rock caving your head in.
Much of the Christianites'
teasing seemed harmless and comical.
There was a sense of humor to it.
But there were also personal attacks
and insults leveled
at individual officers.
[people shouting and chanting]
They used tricks
to ridicule us in all kinds of places.
[Andersen] There was a picture of me
that was displayed around the city.
All over Christiania.
Myself, along with
10 to 15 of my colleagues.
[Jørgensen] There were also officers who
were approached where they lived,
their residences,
and their children were approached.
So, yes the threats were extremely real.
[intriguing music playing]
[Andersen] I knew
I could get shot. [chuckles]
I know that sounds very intense,
but that was my job.
I'd made my peace with the reality of it.
I could risk it, for my part.
It's what came along
with working in that department.
What scared me was when the threats
started to come against my family.
Yeah, they received threats as well.
My daughter who wasn't
even one year old.
That scared me.
It really wasn't fun anymore.
For long periods I went around always
carrying a pistol, tucked away.
They knew, I was
an undercover cop, you know.
If that led to a dangerous situation,
I was ready.
[Jørgensen] It put you at ease, you know?
You never knew when things
would get out of hand.
- [whistle blowing]
- [people shouting]
[man] You're a joke.
[Lykke] It was a horrific period.
There were some really tough Christianites
who were deeply involved with
and vigilant about the hash market,
some preparing rather extreme
and violent counterattacks.
I witnessed some riot cops who were
all ransacking a children's sandbox.
They found a pile of iron pipes,
70 to 80 centimeters long.
Someone must have
hidden them presumably.
[people shouting]
[Larsen] The violence and hatred between
dealers and police got worse and worse.
Among all of the peaceful Christianites,
which were in the majority,
concern was growing
that this could end up being disastrous.
We were afraid that if it escalated,
it was a matter of time
before we had a murder on our hands.
We didn't know what side would suffer.
It didn't take long.
It was the 18th of May, on Nurrebro.
[reporter] Pushed to the limit,
police opened fire on a civilian crowd
for the first time since World War Two.
The events of that day marked the
beginning of the end for the Riot Squad.
The Riot Squad is being met
with a great deal of opposition.
The police unit has often been criticized,
but it's never been closer
to being shut down than now.
In mid 1993,
there were two major incidents
that were particularly prominent
in the news cycles
throughout the whole country of Denmark.
The first, were the riots at Nørrebro
on the 18th of May 1993,
after Danes voted yes
on the Maastricht Treaty.
There had been a great deal
of anger in left-wing circles,
and following the outcome of the vote,
it triggered major riots at Nørrebro.
The riots became quite violent,
and 11 protesters were injured,
as well as several police officers,
who were sent there to keep the peace.
The second was the Benjamin case.
A violent arrest that took place
at Rådhuspladsen
on New Year's Eve of '91, '92,
where a young man
was placed in a so-called "leg lock".
[quiet dramatic music playing]
The arrest ultimately ended fatally
with the young man being fully crippled
and subsequently losing his life,
due to the injuries he sustained.
In a leg lock,
you're handcuffed behind your back.
And then your legs are attached
to the handcuffs,
so you're lying like a taut bow.
[Norton] Being held in that position
can make it impossible to breathe,
and the excessive use of it
sparks major concerns
about the methods and practices police
are using among the general public.
Danish police are heavily criticized
for using the leg-lock,
which was known to be dangerous.
This controversy
made its way to Christiania.
[Andersen] Public sentiment
about our work was drastically changing.
The Riot Squad as a group,
an organization, if you will,
created this atmosphere.
That's how it was.
Except we were just doing our jobs.
When they attacked us,
we had to fight back.
And that looked violent.
My most violent arrest was probably
the day that I was leg-locked.
And then, I was carried
by my arms to their van.
I was put in the van, in the leg lock,
and then taken to Horhoosvi
where they held me.
My wrists were bleeding like crazy.
They finally released me after an hour,
because I was shouting
for a doctor.
Fixed leg lock. It wasn't, you know,
because we thought it was fun.
But because when you're dealing
with an arrest on the ground,
you have to be able to keep an eye out
in case somebody's throwing rocks at you.
When you're in plain clothes,
you don't have any protection.
So it's true
that we used the fixed leg lock often,
but then after this controversy
is was banned.
[man] I need to take off my shoes.
[Norton] After the Christiania Patrol
has been active a year and a half,
the residents decide, after
consulting with their lawyer,
to write a letter to the justice
minister who, in '93,
is Social Democrat Erling Olsen.
Justice minister Erling Olsen
has urged police to be less aggressive
with the marijuana trade on Christiania.
He banned the Christiania Patrol
from using tear gas.
[man] All right, Erling! All right!
Justice Minister Erling
took the matter so seriously
that he paid Christiania a visit.
It culminated with the police showing up
and barging into Pusher Street.
They made quite a violent appearance.
He was at the Opera when suddenly,
all these officers showed up.
[people shouting]
He went and looked out the window.
He saw Christianites being hit by batons.
[Lykke] Since they used tear gas
in his presence, he said, "That's it."
He shut down the Christiania Patrol.
We will, in any case,
initiate a scaling-down and dampening
of invasive police activity
in Christiania.
[Norton] By the end of December, 1993,
what was referred to
as the "Christmas peace" was brokered
and put into full effect.
From that point forward,
the police had officially been ordered
to completely stop patrolling
Pusher Street indefinitely.
It was like we'd won a victory.
We celebrated
by sharing a bottle of vodka.
We were all relieved that what had
happened with the tragedy in Nørrebro
didn't happen in Christiania.
It was all about the Christiania Patrol.
It was that organization
that really fucked things up out there.
[man] Across the street,
we have our bakery.
[chuckles]
With Erling Olsen, we all thought he caved
and that he was weak and wimpy.
But we knew there were
all kinds politics involved in it.
To me it was just one of those times.
I wasn't impressed at all.
I don't know if I'm allowed
to say bullshit, but it was.
It was just talk.
Like many times before.
[Jørgensen] It was a betrayal, simply put.
We were taking care of things
for a whole year
and we confiscated so much weed.
Then he came and interfered,
and I think it's a betrayal.
I think it was inappropriate
interference. Absolutely.
[Lauridsen] It's a difficult place
to be in because you don't get praise
when you're there as a police officer.
It's a tough environment.
The officers felt it was a really
ungrateful way of ending things.
They felt they had invested a lot
of their time and energy into this job
with not much recognition.
But I'll say it, they did one hell
of a job out there. That much is for sure.
[Jørgensen] The only way to handle it: you
had to grab the dealers by their balls.
They should have kept going,
and Christiania would've closed down.
[Lauridsen] I think we had
a good handle on the weed trade.
It was minimal compared to what
it had previously been in Christiania.
I'll probably be alone on that.
If you were to ask the Christianites,
they'd say nothing changed.
But the cannabis dealers always told us,
"If things keep up like this
and don't change, we'll move along.
It's more trouble than it's worth."
So we definitely hurt them a little bit.
They closed the Community Kitchen.
When the dust settled
it never really restarted.
Um
Other than that,
they didn't achieve much.
[Kluck] They didn't get shit out of it.
Nothing.
Whether they were winning or not,
is not the point.
The cops were there to do
what they thought their job was.
But the weed trade in Christiania
was always most heavily, um
under pressure by the major players
in the market
or a potential drought in Morocco.
There was no real threat there
from the police.
[dramatic music playing]
[Norton] For Pusher Street,
the Christmas Peace of 1993
was the beginning of what is referred
to as the "police-free period".
The police only really came
when there was a case outside Christiania
that lead into Christiania.
[Norton] That also means that the people
who had stalls on Pusher Street
started adopting a new kind of confidence
in what they were doing.
So, Pusher Street transformed
into a kind of supermarket,
a real weed supermarket.
A far cry from just being
a more haphazard, makeshift marketplace.
[melodic dramatic music playing]
We didn't see the cops much.
So people relaxed.
There was peace.
Oh, that's why I was so flush with cash
in '94. I was doing well.
I'll tell you this much.
I had a gold chain that weighed 450 grams.
It was cool.
I had a car and a motorcycle, a boat.
Jet skis and scooters
I had saved up for all that
with my welfare checks. Yeah.
[The Wholesaler]
On a typical cannabis deal, I, uh,
I think I got 350,000.
The money was everywhere
and it was extremely easy to make.
We did a great job of rewarding ourselves
with booze and cocaine and women.
Whatever else we wanted
because the sky was the limit.
But suddenly, the bikers got involved.
The bikers had caught the scent
of how big our business had grown.
[Norton] So now,
during this police-free period,
Pusher Street saw some much bigger
and much stronger players emerge
on the weed market.
As for the Hells Angels,
if you asked the Copenhagen Police
through the nineties,
the Hells Angels were starting
to have a larger presence as well,
including taking over stalls.
That is to say, there were some people
who demanded a cut of the earnings
from some of the stalls out there,
through no small amount of intimidation.
[tense music playing]
[Lauridsen] Some of the dealers
at that time,
they definitely had ties
and connections to the Hells Angels.
We suspected that one of the guys
that was selling had a stash of sorts
not far from Multimediehuset.
And when we conducted a search,
we found 25 kilos in a box.
We confiscated the box as found hash
and kept up surveillance.
The day after we brought in the 25 kilos,
two very prominent Hells Angels members
came out and grabbed the dealer
on Pusher Street.
They dragged him into the back
of the Opera, and, well,
we don't know exactly
what they discussed.
So then he came back
and started selling nonstop,
especially at night when we weren't there.
He was trying to scrape some money
together, it was all very telling.
It was clear that he had a relationship
with the Hells Angels.
He was obviously
getting his drugs from them.
[The Wholesaler] The bikers
were always pretty persistent,
and it created a lot of disruption.
So we said, "We need to have a meeting."
My people and this, uh, yeah, biker gang.
That was when Mister Big, um,
he decided to set up the meeting
at Kongs Newtow Restaurant Bali.
Restaurant Bali was run by a, um,
man from Singapore.
Ethnically Chinese.
Named Roland Tan Tong Meng,
he was in the Copenhagen underworld,
known as Mr. Big.
I've heard people
from the underworld describe him
as some kind of criminal mediator.
He was the guy you could turn to
if you were in trouble
or if you had problems
that couldn't be resolved any other way.
What the biker gangs said to the dealers,
and the wholesalers who were working
the stalls on Pusher Street,
was, "All right, for every single gram
of weed sold on Pusher Street,
we need to get a cut of that sale."
It's not something the dealers
were particularly interested in doing.
[The Wholesaler] Not long after,
there was a knock at my door.
I answered.
Outside, I saw someone in a hoodie,
and then I got hit by a baseball
bat right to the head.
Another one.
The second blow knocked me out.
That was just one instance.
Then let's see, well, at some other
point, my partner and I get a message.
We're on Refshalalevej,
around the back of Christiania,
near Løvehuset, the two of us.
As we stop there, somebody,
um, pulls up in an Opel Astra.
Flashes their lights, and I think
they're trying to tell us something.
We had pistols because we'd
been exposed to all kinds of crazy stuff.
So when we saw that car, we threw our
guns under our own car and I walked over.
A guy gets out and he says
"It's the police."
"Good day," I say to him,
and I turn to go inside.
But now I can see my partner
is going over to them.
I'm inside and then my partner
comes in, and he says,
"They heard that there's a hit out,
so they have to inform us."
I'm like, "Well, that sucks."
The cops told my partner,
"Those guns you threw under the car,
you better take them.
You probably need them
a whole lot more than we do."
So at that point,
I was thinking to myself,
I was thinking
"Okay, the police let us keep our guns.
There may be some merit to this."
We
thought we knew who was behind it.
They wanted to make a point.
To say loud and clear, "We are in charge."
You, uh
You get scared when you're told
you're going to, um,
be assassinated, of course you do.
Yeah. Um and
And anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
Full stop, I'm telling you.
I think it became sort of a way out
for me. To turn my back.
You know, people die over this. Yeah.
But this was just the very beginning
of all the violence surrounding weed.
ON THE NEXT EPISODE
[man] We need heavier intervention.
he government is founded on revoking
Christiania's freetown designation.
[man 1] We'll fight fire with fire.
[producer] If I say "Bjarne"?
Leglock?
He's the cop who thought
he could shut down Christiania.
[Beier] I saw him as Alexander
on his stallion.
I mean I would have done
anything for him.
[Christensen]
The goal was to "normalize" Christiania.
So naturally that meant we were
in Christiania 24 seven.
I was furious.
Police were everywhere.
For us Christiania kids,
you know, it became normal.
I always said,
"When we strike, we follow through."
They have to feel it.
We won't take their shit.
If they're tough, we're tough.
[people shouting]
I felt great. It was a pleasure.
HELLS ANGELS MC HAS NO
COMMENTED ON THE ALLEGATIONS
[tense dramatic music playing]