Gang War: Pusher Street (2025) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3
1
[tense music playing]
[Balther] I can't tell you how many times
I've had an officer up in my face.
One day in Christiania,
I was reading the paper, drinking coffee.
JØRN BALTHER - DOCUMENTARY
FILMMAKER & CHRISTIANITE
When all of a sudden,
an officer said to me,
"Get up. You're getting searched."
He goes, "Do you have any hash
in your pants?"
Um I look at him and say, "Nope."
"Well unbutton your pants."
So I stood there in Cafe Månefiskeren
with my bare ass in long johns.
Are you a complete idiot, or what?
Do you want me to search you?
He told me to take my clothes off!
[Balther] That really got to me.
I couldn't sleep that night, at all.
I mean, I was absolutely
seething with rage.
What started out as a hippie dream,
ended up as 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,
and on the other side
are the combat-ready cops.
When we strike, we follow through.
[people shouting]
[Larsen] In the middle
are the Christianites.
I felt like a hostage
caught between drug dealers and cops.
What the hell are you doing?
They wanted to hurt each other.
[siren blaring]
It was It was war.
We thought, "Fuck them."
I've been in 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
in Pusher Street.
That killing became the final straw
in decades of fighting on Pusher Street.
GANG WAR PUSHER STREE
[moody dramatic music playing]
[Norton] After the Christmas Peace
of 1993,
there was a long period of time
with virtually zero police presence
in Christiania.
We will be initiating
a dampening of police activity.
ERLING OLSEN
MINISTER OF JUSTICE, SOC. DEM.
[Norton] This means that the merchants
of Pusher Street are left alone by police.
CARSTEN NORTON
AUTHOR & JORNALIS
A kind of golden age sets in for Pusher
Street after the Christmas Peace.
[contemplative music playing]
[Kluck] The cops were gone a long time.
TONNY KLUCK
FORMER DRUG DEALIER
Finally we could build our stalls. Slowly
but surely, the street was taking shape.
[Lykke] It was during that period that the
market took on that characteristic look
with all the stalls and the heaters.
OLE LYKKE
CHRISTIANITE
That entire Pusher Street aesthetic
that became famous.
[Tuxen] In the end,
it was a real shopping street.
Some were really nicely decorated
with colors and paint
and figurines and such.
KLAUS TUXEN - ACTIVIST & FOUNDER
OF HEMP PARTY
There were lots of different stalls.
[Bille] They became more
and more like little shanties,
like, uh, like houses with stereos,
decorations, and garlands.
KARL BILLE
ARTIST & MUSICIAN
That was a lot of fun.
People had a blast.
That was the golden age.
[upbeat music playing]
When I started going to
Christiania in the mid-nineties,
that Christiania was peaceful.
There were a few fights,
but it felt like a safe
and very pleasant place to be.
I just remember everything being open
with extremely mellow vibes.
CARLO
CHRISTIANITE
[Bille] Especially at nighttime.
The sales and trading calmed down
and all of the vendors went home.
So you could take over these shacks
with stereo equipment
and just and have your own
your own little party.
[Carlo] The cannabis dealers' shacks
were incredible,
they were all like little houses.
Some of them had a television,
PlayStation, Nintendo.
You were just like, "Wow!"
You really wanted to spend
lots of time there and just hang out.
There was all kinds of stuff, soda, and
comic books, you could have a good time.
MATHILDE
CHRISTIANITE
I remember when it was Mardi Gras
and all of the kids would go,
like, "trick-or-treating"
for money at the different stalls.
That was so fun.
You always got a lot of money there.
During that time,
police authorities estimate
that hundreds of millions
of kroner change hands
each year, on Pusher Street.
It was illegal, illicit money.
It's not money that taxes are paid on.
It was a huge, illegal market.
[quiet dramatic music playing]
During the late 1980s,
Bullshit, in particular,
were the main focus for police
in the Christiania hash trade.
After they shut down, only one faction
had the strength and capacity
to carve out a controlling stake
of Pusher Street,
and that faction was the Hells Angels.
[Sandberg] In 1996, I joined Hells Angels.
And the people I ran with,
they hung out there, in Christiania a lot.
BRIAN SANDBERG
FORMER HA MEMBER
[Norton] After Bullshit dissolved,
there was a five-year period
where, really, only the Hells Angels
had any presence on the scene.
And then, in 1993,
the Bandidos arrive in the country.
The Hells Angels tolerated their presence,
but when Bandidos started
to open new branches
in Denmark
and the other Nordic countries,
a conflict emerged that eventually
broke out into a biker war.
[Sandberg] Christiania was
a safe haven for us.
It was like wearing bulletproof
vests in the middle of a conflict.
They left us alone,
and it was easy to be armed.
Christiania, after all, is a large area.
You could hide a bag of guns.
That wasn't what the cops were after.
For those of us who were in that conflict,
we could be left alone.
[Norton] If you asked the police
at the time, they would have said
that the Hells Angels was effectively
taking over the drug dealing
that took place on Pusher Street.
The police were convinced that
the Hells Angels were in complete control
of who got to deal and that the HA
was getting a pretty large cut
of the financial profits available
in Pusher Street.
There were certainly members of HA
that were convicted of selling cannabis.
Was it organized? Definitely not.
The people who got in on it got lucky.
[tense music playing]
[Larsen] In the late 1990s, bikers really
start hanging out in Christiania.
What their role is in the cannabis
business is unclear.
But they are staking their claim,
and weed is flooding Pusher Street.
[upbeat music playing]
Pusher Street was sometimes
a bit like going to a farmers' market.
People got a much broader selection.
[dealer] That is the joint tray,
and this is the chillum tray.
Forty kroner.
- Weed's a treat but hashish is neat!
- Prime quality.
- We've got Maroc and Lebanese.
- Get over here!
It was that kind of marketplace,
where people freely sold hash.
I just thought,
"Holy shit. This is insane."
[Carlo] I mean, they had all the quality
goods that every pothead dreams of.
[Kluck] Standard, Smoker,
and Super Smoker.
[Carlo] Black Maroc, Black Lebanon,
Light Lebanon.
There's Pollen Afghan, there's Nepal,
and then there's Charas.
[Carlo] It was huge,
you could get whatever you wanted.
They had it all.
There were plenty of customers,
and plenty of cannabis to go around.
[Carlo] There was a huge,
huge flow of money.
It was just an absolutely insane amount.
It was a goldmine
to have a stall out there.
[Norton] Christiania attracted a lot
of young people from Amager
and other suburbs of Copenhagen.
It became an after-school club of sorts
for young, maladjusted misfits
who sought out the scene
in and around Pusher Street.
[contemplative music playing]
[Nikolaj] I was in living
in the suburbs at the time,
and I'd recently gotten into selling
cannabis just on the side.
NIKOLAJ
FORMER GOFER
I was thinking,
"I want to experience more."
So I went to Christiania and got a chunk.
And I saw a different world
than I was used to.
Seeing this whole group of people
standing in solidarity,
and focusing on the whole hash scene
was eye-opening for a young guy.
The way people
made you feel welcome,
they didn't look down on you.
That's what did it for me.
One day, I was offered
to make a little extra money
as a gofer.
[Norton] The cannabis trade is structured
and operates as one long
and interconnected supply chain.
First, you have the hemp grower,
who, of course,
is the one who produces the cannabis.
There's a kingpin, who buys the hash
and then proceeds to sell it on.
The kingpin might sell it
to individual stalls in Christiania.
At each stall, there's a separate
hierarchy with the specific vendor,
who's the one
who actually cuts the hashish.
There's a runner,
who's the person who runs to the stash
and to fetch whatever
new supplies are needed.
And then there's a person
at the very bottom of the ranks,
who's referred to as a "gofer"
or a "soldier", who simply does chores.
They take care of a variety
of simple tasks.
There's a whole hierarchy and pecking
order around each individual booth.
I accepted because
it was what I'd been striving for.
[man] I've been coming here for ten years.
[Norton] During this period when
the police were absent from Pusher Street,
there was very little friction or tension
between the cannabis dealers
and the Christianites.
There were a few isolated instances
of violent clashes or confrontations,
but that was something they were mostly
able to handle among themselves.
It would be brought up and addressed
at a community meeting,
which is the Freetown's highest
decision-making body.
JOINT MEETING
[Lykke] Every single person
has the right to speak
and participate at community meetings,
and people make decisions
collectively as a matter of principle.
[contemplative music playing]
[Kluck] There were discussions
after violent incidents.
If there was an incident where some
of kids living in Christiania got violent,
that was a matter for the meeting.
[Balther] The community meeting
was like a trial,
with a prosecutor, public defender,
and the rest of the people
of Christiania as a kind of jury.
Issues would be discussed, sometimes
resulting in disciplinary action.
[Balther] Our penal system
is either exclusion
or temporary ban from town.
And that was the way
we ran Pusher Street.
[Norton] It is perfectly
reasonable to assume
that the activity and revenue generated
on Pusher Street during this period
helped lift all of Christiania,
economically and in spirit.
[reporter] The free town of Christiania,
Once the scorn of all Denmark,
now a tourist destination.
During that time,
there were a lot of tourists,
and I also remember that the people
who were associated
with maintaining
and beautifying the streets
made extra efforts to have them
recobbled and have fresh new signs made.
[reporter] Copenhagen's third
most popular tourist destination
draws close to a million visitors
a year from around the world.
Every year, when springtime rolls around,
you get a huge influx.
It's just like, "Okay,
I can't even ride my bike anymore."
[ethereal music playing]
There is a great sense of community
among all the people who work the stalls.
They're all actively engaged
in community activities.
PRESERVE CHRISTIANIA
[Carlo] Tourists run into houses
if they need to pee.
"Can we use the bathroom?
Yeah, sure you can."
I always though that was
a pretty funny experience as a kid.
[Kluck] With some of the money
we made, we, uh,
would arrange some cool
free concerts,
as a way to give back to the people.
[man] Ladies and gentlemen,
the greatest
Danish rap legend of all time.
Give it up for
MC Einar!
[Norton] During the time when the police
stayed away from Christiania,
there was an atmosphere that cannabis,
though sure, it may be illegal,
it must not be that illegal when nobody
decides to do anything about it.
That created a shared sense
that legalization
must be just around the corner.
I had some wagers on when
it would actually become legal.
That time was a true period of calm
that was before everything exploded.
[people chanting and clapping
rhythmically] Anders! Anders!
Anders! Anders!
[quiet dramatic music playing]
All signs point to Venstre now
being Denmark's largest party.
[Lykke] We got
the first Danish government
with an absolute right-wing majority.
[Rasmussen] It is our job to drive
Danish society towards new goals.
[Lykke] The new government
was completely fixated
on revoking Christiania's
"freetown" designation.
The government intends
to bring order to Christiania.
When people want to sanitize
or normalize something
that's so beautiful and colorful,
and oozing with culture,
to me, that's a sin.
Because I've experienced Christiania
as an exuberant, embracing place.
That was very valuable to me.
So when they say "Normalize it",
I think they're a bunch of
I think it's a mortal sin.
[marching drum music playing
and people shouting]
[Norton] When you look
at the foundations of Christiania,
there's no doubt that a hippie freetown
populated by left-wing activists
could be anything but a problem
for right-wing government.
There was a sort of rebellious atmosphere.
- [people] Legalize! Legalize!
- [Tuxen] The support was massive.
420 percent.
Legalize!
Legalize! Legalize!
Legalize!
LONG LIVE DIVERSITY
Keep Christiania! Down with Fogh!
[Norton] While Anders Fogh
would prefer to see Christiania closed,
he was well aware that there wasn't
necessarily public support for that.
Many people are happy that
Christiania exists as a freetown.
But on the other hand,
I think he's also aware
that there are a lot of people
who want the law to be upheld.
It's also, for many, a point of contention
that a lawless street is allowed to exist,
where cannabis is sold openly
in Copenhagen.
It's apprehension about the drug market.
The government decided to issue
a series of ultimatums to Christiania
to shut down Pusher Street
once and for all.
POLICE
When Pusher Street still wasn't
closed as the government wanted,
they came to the conclusion that
it was time to pivot to a new strategy,
which was to fight fire with fire.
To do that, police had just the man
to lead the operation:
On-Site Commander Bjarne Christensen.
Moving forward, we will be securing newer
and more effective tools
JUNE 3, 2003
for the police to continue to fight crime.
[mysterious music playing]
I was brought in because
I was an on-site commander at the time.
BJARNE CHRISTENSEN
FORMER OPERATIONS MANAGER
I joined the riot squad and took part
in developing the training courses,
so officers could go into the community
and complete effective raids
in Christiania.
[people shouting]
[producer] Do you know
Bjarne Christensen?
All too well.
[producer] What if I say Bjarne?
Leglock?
He had a really bad reputation.
He's the cop who thought
he could shut down Christiania.
He and his gang would come out
with these rituals
where they would they would
There were these rebellious people
who needed to be taken down.
[Norton] Bjarne Christensen,
in the early 2000s,
was an on-site commander
with the Copenhagen police.
He was sometimes referred to as either
the Street General or Bjarne Leglock.
He was extremely zealous
and proactive in his work.
For example, he was known
to be at the very front of the line
when the Copenhagen police went
on raids against the anarchist community.
There are different ways to lead
and I chose to stand with my officers
whenever something happened.
I didn't have any interest
in directing forces from a distance.
I wanted to be in the action.
I'd do whatever.
Work came with it.
One time I stood with my guitar and sung
my anger right into Bjarne's face.
The only thing
That keeps the sun from shining ♪
Is all the dirt
That you've got in your head ♪
[faint dramatic music playing]
[Beier] Bjarne, or Big Bjarne,
as he's also known
to both police and the civilians
ALLAN BEIER
FORMER POLICE OFFICER
Yeah, I was under his command quite
a few times, actually, over the years.
At the time, I had a sense that
he was a true battlefield commander.
If there was trouble,
I was on the frontlines, working or not.
I'd show up, which was important,
because I wanted my team
to see that the lunatic was there.
"He won't let us down.
He's here for us."
I saw him as Alexander on his white horse.
Bjarne was the first to run in
during a raid and the last to leave.
He was the one who said,
"If they hit us once, we hit back twice."
He is evil.
I've seen him many times
grab a hold of people.
He has no morals.
He is a complete and monumental idiot.
A violent, unlikable person.
I would have gone
to incredible lengths for Bjarne.
He could have asked me for anything
and I would have said yes, no question.
[Norton] Bjarne Christensen establishes
himself as the face of the police strategy
during the conflicts in Christiania
and on Pusher Street.
His profile is high,
It's a markedly offensive strategy.
[Rasmussen] We need
a heavier presence.
We'll fight fire with fire.
At this point, we're at a stage
where our domestic policy becomes,
uh, more aligned with our foreign policy.
We're taking a harder stance on crime,
and doing something
about society's square pegs.
That's how we did it
in the early 2000s.
[woman] Cannabis stalls are set
to be closed in Christiania
and, with major police operations
MAY 6, 2003
the notorious Pusher Street
will be shut down.
[Lykke] The promised
police operations began.
That was the time when we all started
to see daily police presence,
with Bjarne Leglock
always at the forefront.
[Christensen] For the rest of my life,
I'll never forget the first raid.
A Thursday night.
I went there in plain-clothes.
[ethereal music playing]
We arrive on Pusher Street.
I'm looking around. Hash everywhere.
There are lots of people.
The stalls are bustling.
Then I call out, "Let's go!" on the radio.
"Let's go! Send in the officers."
They were so caught off guard
when we pulled out our badges.
They couldn't react at all.
Before long,
we had 11drug dealers in cuffs.
No one even attacked us.
In what was a large-scale operation,
hundreds of officers cracked down
on Pusher Street in Christiania.
MARCH 16, 2004
I felt great. It was awesome.
[Norton] If the police thought
it was going to be easy
to clear Christiania
based on their initial operations,
then they were in for a rude awakening.
It turned out there was
a tremendous drive, determination,
and collective will
to preserve Pusher Street.
- What are you doing here?
- Let us do our work.
[woman] Do you realize
you're arresting a heart patient?
Who are you to decide how we live?
[people shouting]
Calm down!
[woman] Hello?! He's an old man!
[officer] Take it easy! Do you hear me?
[Christensen]
We had zero-tolerance policy.
Zero tolerance meant that for as little
as point-zero-one grams of cannabis,
which ordinarily we would never write up,
we would make arrests.
And they also received a citation.
We stopped everybody
and searched them.
Wrote fines for everything.
Everything was black or white.
[Norton] With a zero-tolerance policy,
customers buying on Pusher Street
had to get used
to being stopped, targeted by,
and generally harassed by the police.
In the past, customers were in the habit
of turning a blind eye to the cops,
but now, they were at risk
of being arrested.
[woman] Something entirely new:
police are also taking
an interest in buyers.
[Bille] At Månefiskeren Cafe, which is one
of the places I would always hang out
POLICE CHECK TODAY
SINCE 01.11.2005: 1000
they had a sign posted on the wall,
tallying the number of police visits.
It was an extremely high,
ridiculous number.
[quiet dramatic music playing]
Often times when I was hanging out there,
I liked to smoke an occasional joint.
I had this truly, truly tiny amount on me,
and suddenly,
someone just appears out of nowhere
and scoops my mix into his hands.
Big plainclothes officer.
They drag me out and fine me
for point-five
or point-four grams of hash.
They banned me for two years.
For two years,
I was banned from my regular cafe
where all my friends were.
Of course, I went anyway.
I was in a jam band, and we played
all the time at Månefiskeren Cafe.
If we saw cops, no matter
what we were playing, we switched to,
I always feel like somebody's
Watchin' me and I got no privacy ♪
Then everyone went, "Cheese!"
[Larsen] "Cheese" is slang for "police."
It was a code word.
The thing is, if you warn others
that the police are coming,
you can be charged with acting
as an unauthorized guard.
So instead of yelling "police,"
you yell "cheese" as a warning.
Next to the cheese, there are fleas.
[Christensen] There were guards
stationed all over Christiania 24/7
They would radio out to the guard
command center when needed.
We ran the guard corps from there.
The civilians would yell "cheese," so that
everyone knew the police were coming.
Say somebody yells,
"cheese at the iron gate!"
If the dealer has contraband,
you run up to your boss,
and you take it off his hands.
Then he he just walks away. Easy.
Then you make sure you get out.
If you remove the cannabis,
the dealers just take off.
[Nikolaj] Every soldier had their own
routine for where they'd go.
I ran to Stjerneskibet.
I had some pretty good hiding
spots, for sure.
[Christensen] It just kept going.
It was tough, but we were determined.
If I didn't think we could win,
I wouldn't have gotten into it.
[Bille] People used to be able to relax
with their joints and we couldn't anymore.
Because we constantly had to keep
looking over our shoulders on high alert.
[tense music playing]
The police were everywhere.
The goal was to normalize Christiania.
That meant we had to establish
our presence, all day, every day.
We were always there,
tearing down stalls and removing them.
There's so much,
we have to make multiple trips.
We tore out anything remotely
belonging to the cannabis scene.
Burn barrels, tables,
chairs, everything
We hauled it away daily.
Whenever anything cropped up,
we would just remove it.
[Kluck] There were always police.
All the time. People couldn't breathe.
[woman] He has a pacemaker!
It was a stress tactic.
They did everything they could
to stress us as much as possible.
My friend just got arrested.
- Come on let's go.
- What the hell, man?
Tensions ran extremely high
on Pusher Street during this period,
but the vast majority of the Christianites
really didn't want violent clashes.
They are peace-loving people,
who just want to mind their own business,
and protect Christiania.
He's just standing there talking.
You are out of your mind.
Some people chose
to take on the police directly.
- Nice and easy.
- What?
What are you doing? You teenager.
[Norton] There's a very passionate
and resolute core on Pusher Street
that's willing to fight tooth and nail
for their right to be there.
[man] What's going on, man?
There are also people from out of town
who are from the left-wing
activist communities,
who are also willing
to step in and fight the police.
No, they're coming. Rocks!
[Nikolaj] We were mean.
- We went hard on the Danish police.
- [officer 1] Watch out!
[officer 2] Rocks!
They're throwing rocks! Rocks to the left!
I didn't envy the cops
in Christiania, at all.
[quiet dramatic music playing]
The first few times
I patrolled Christiania,
I had no real idea
what I was getting into.
[people shouting]
[Carlo] If officers spent more
than an hour in one place,
500 people would be there in no time,
ready to help the dealers
drive the police away.
We're retreating.
[tense music playing]
[Norton] Looking back at this period now,
it's reasonable and actually quite obvious
that the police and the authorities
underestimated the energy,
conviction, and will to fight
back on Pusher Street.
[Beier] The first time I got spat on
was in Christiania.
The first time I had rocks
thrown at me: Christiania.
The first time I got kicked
was in Christiania.
[woman] You're clearing our town!
What the hell are you doing?
SHAME
[crowd booing]
[Norton] It was difficult
for the police to move, operate,
and conduct work
in the area during that time.
They couldn't prepare
for the staggering number of people,
who could be mobilized very quickly.
A great number of the people
who flooded in
when the police arrived
on the scene, they were just kids.
They were regulars in the street
or they just found it exciting
to go to battle against the police.
[crowd shouting]
[Bille] They were put
in an impossible situation.
I understand the escalation
because I know people
who hate the police.
Take care of your own backyards!
[Nikolaj] We fought them as best we could.
We threw rocks
and did everything we could do.
We fought back.
- Hey! What are you doing?
- All right, get back!
We didn't cower. Or take their shit.
[man] Whore!
[people screaming]
[Larsen] I have been witness to some
very intense incidents on Pusher Street,
where both the cops and the people
of Christiania were really fired up.
For some individuals,
the hatred for police is so great
that you actually
fear for the safety the cops.
[ethereal music playing]
[Beier] We were doing a show of force,
and as a routine part of it,
we went to the Communal Kitchen.
Right beside the door, there's a man,
and he's in the process
of lighting a joint.
I put my hand on his shoulder,
and I say to him, "I wouldn't do that."
He turns to me and says, "Fuck you."
And then, he puts his hands
on my chest and shoves me,
so we had to arrest him.
I sense this sudden shift in mood.
- [people shouting]
- Get back!
[Beier] I remember the first rock
striking right next to my face.
[intriguing music playing]
Shortly after, another rock falls
and another and another.
It's chaotic, I can hear rocks falling
everywhere, and I get struck on my body.
I didn't dawn on me
until I got hit by rocks
how aggressive, violent,
and dangerous it was.
[people shouting]
I realized that they had
no compassion for me.
[objects clattering]
- [officer 1] Rocks!
- [officer 2] Rocks from over here, too.
[explosion]
[objects clattering]
[dramatic music playing]
When the lines get drawn up like that,
the hate is bound to get out of control.
We have the politicians to thank for that.
Because the police
are just there to enforce the law.
[Norton] When the police did
what they did during this period,
it wasn't of their own accord.
They had been ordered
to shut down Pusher Street. Ordered.
There was a zero-tolerance
policy for cannabis,
both the buying and selling.
As a result, the individual officers
became an instrument
of the government's intended policies.
[man 1] What are you doing?
Get a hold of yourself!
[man 2] Hey, man, what's the problem.
[man 3] What are you doing?
[people shouting]
I clearly recall that internal fire
starting to build in me.
There are bad people
who want to harm me,
and they need to be handled
with harshness.
When they throw one rock,
I have to hit twice with my baton.
There's this escalating approach
to the whole situation.
[person screaming]
There's no good to be salvaged,
just evil to be fought.
[Larsen] It was striking
the way that provocations
between police and the Christianites
would turn into riots in a split second.
We got out there,
and someone made a comment at us.
- What'd you say?
- What'd I say? What are you going to do?
We stop him and we lash out verbally.
And he responds in exactly the same way.
What are you doing?
What? If you call us names,
you get arrested.
We said things like, "Bastard cops",
and we'd tell them, "Get a real job."
You said I said something.
- Don't you dare get smart with me.
- What? [scoffs] All right, man, whatever.
I would give it back like,
"Your mother got it last night?"
That was a big shift, for sure,
for me and my colleagues.
- Did I say anything to you? No.
- Yeah.
[Beier] It really took over us
and got worse and escalated more,
You know, we, as an authority,
our job is to de-escalate
and calm things down.
We didn't practice that
at all in Christiania.
We absolutely added fuel to the fire,
and it turned into more and more
confrontations and violence.
If they want confrontation,
that's what they'll get.
[shouting]
[Kluck] No one wants to see
their friends get hurt,
whether it's the police or anyone else.
You guys are racists.
- Come with us.
- Okay, I will.
- Come on, let's go.
- You guys have no authority here.
[people shouting]
[Christensen] Yeah.
No, I didn't just stand there and take it.
If I issued a warning once,
the next time I would strike back.
The one with the black scarf
kicked me. I want her arrested.
They had their fun throwing rocks,
but at the end of the day,
they had to pay the piper.
[Kluck] One time,
I was just talking to a girl.
We were behind Bjarne.
And he grabbed me.
I didn't do anything, just said his name.
And he dragged me to Stjerneskibet.
I was under arrest and blah, blah, blah.
[crowd shouting and whistling]
While I was there,
people started getting riled up.
He forced me to sit on the ground.
And I wasn't having it, so I called out
to the others to throw rocks.
[Christensen] Sometimes, the person we
were in the process of arresting
would go, "Throw rocks. Hit the pigs."
I wanted to get the party started.
[all shouting]
[ominous music playing]
[all shouting]
I always told my guys,
"When we strike, we follow through.
They have to feel it."
[all shouting]
There were instances where I hit people
so hard that their lungs collapsed.
[muted screaming]
[all shouting]
Hey, hey! Hey!
Hey, back! Back!
Chill out, man!
[Larsen] The hatred, the resistance,
and the acts of violence
that the officers are subjected to
on a daily basis in Christiania,
it's so intense, the situation
is getting more and more heated.
You get the sense
that some of the police officers
are starting to take it almost personally
and, you know, react as such.
[people screaming]
I was looking for confrontation, I was.
I was full of contempt for them.
[man groans]
My hatred for that place grew.
And every time I had to go back
and work there,
I went home even more fed up with it.
Every chance I got, I hit a little harder.
That was the thought
running through my head.
We got harder, too.
We absolutely refused to cower.
We wouldn't take their shit.
If they're tough, we're tough.
You have to adapt.
[Carlo] They wanted to hurt each other,
there was a real hatred.
For us Christiania kids,
it became completely normal.
My parents were always upset.
They were feeling really unsafe.
All the adults around me had this
perception that the police are the enemy.
They were bullies and did us no good.
There were no good guys
or bad guys in Christiania.
The minute I arrived, everybody
was a categorical enemy of one another.
[dramatic music playing]
[Mathilde] I don't smoke cannabis
and wasn't involved in sales,
but I felt like a hostage caught
between drug dealers and cops.
I didn't feel like the police
were protecting me as a civilian.
[man] I wasn't doing anything!
I thought that since the Christianites
had so enthusiastically opened the door
to drugs dealers and then there were
people throwing rocks at police,
that they all were our enemies.
[people shouting]
In this period of daily raids,
no expense was ever spared.
It's true that there were
countless arrests made,
but those who are arrested,
they are small fish,
they're just the customers
on Pusher Street.
And regardless of all these raids,
the situation
is actually completely unchanged,
and police, over time,
come to realize they're ineffective.
Even though there are
all these ongoing police raids,
still, Pusher Street functions
relatively well.
It is still an extremely
lucrative business.
And that means that there are
various groups from outside of town
who begin to turn their attention
towards Christiania and Pusher Street
and think about how they too
can get a piece of the cake.
[Lykke] It was all about immigrant groups
getting into the cannabis market.
Especially Hells Angels
which fought back hard.
Soon, Christiania came under
even more intense pressure.
ON THE NEXT EPISODE
[Beier] They fight
for the cannabis market.
There are shootings
and killings all the time.
[gunfire]
[Lykke] We ended up in a situation
with gang warfare.
[rapid gunfire]
[Sandberg] There's always
competition in crime.
There's never a lone ruler.
[engine revs]
[Christensen]
We needed to normalize Christiania.
That meant demolishing illegal buildings.
Seemed easy enough.
Boy, were we wrong.
Fires, burned-out automobiles,
and lots of tear gas.
[man] What do you think you're doing?
They got to Pusher Street,
and that's when the shit hit the fan.
[explosions]
We were under attack,
and I couldn't see from where.
[Nikolaj] Now Nemoland
is full of cops with shields.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Hit them!"
[tense dramatic music playing]
[tense music playing]
[Balther] I can't tell you how many times
I've had an officer up in my face.
One day in Christiania,
I was reading the paper, drinking coffee.
JØRN BALTHER - DOCUMENTARY
FILMMAKER & CHRISTIANITE
When all of a sudden,
an officer said to me,
"Get up. You're getting searched."
He goes, "Do you have any hash
in your pants?"
Um I look at him and say, "Nope."
"Well unbutton your pants."
So I stood there in Cafe Månefiskeren
with my bare ass in long johns.
Are you a complete idiot, or what?
Do you want me to search you?
He told me to take my clothes off!
[Balther] That really got to me.
I couldn't sleep that night, at all.
I mean, I was absolutely
seething with rage.
What started out as a hippie dream,
ended up as 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,
and on the other side
are the combat-ready cops.
When we strike, we follow through.
[people shouting]
[Larsen] In the middle
are the Christianites.
I felt like a hostage
caught between drug dealers and cops.
What the hell are you doing?
They wanted to hurt each other.
[siren blaring]
It was It was war.
We thought, "Fuck them."
I've been in 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
in Pusher Street.
That killing became the final straw
in decades of fighting on Pusher Street.
GANG WAR PUSHER STREE
[moody dramatic music playing]
[Norton] After the Christmas Peace
of 1993,
there was a long period of time
with virtually zero police presence
in Christiania.
We will be initiating
a dampening of police activity.
ERLING OLSEN
MINISTER OF JUSTICE, SOC. DEM.
[Norton] This means that the merchants
of Pusher Street are left alone by police.
CARSTEN NORTON
AUTHOR & JORNALIS
A kind of golden age sets in for Pusher
Street after the Christmas Peace.
[contemplative music playing]
[Kluck] The cops were gone a long time.
TONNY KLUCK
FORMER DRUG DEALIER
Finally we could build our stalls. Slowly
but surely, the street was taking shape.
[Lykke] It was during that period that the
market took on that characteristic look
with all the stalls and the heaters.
OLE LYKKE
CHRISTIANITE
That entire Pusher Street aesthetic
that became famous.
[Tuxen] In the end,
it was a real shopping street.
Some were really nicely decorated
with colors and paint
and figurines and such.
KLAUS TUXEN - ACTIVIST & FOUNDER
OF HEMP PARTY
There were lots of different stalls.
[Bille] They became more
and more like little shanties,
like, uh, like houses with stereos,
decorations, and garlands.
KARL BILLE
ARTIST & MUSICIAN
That was a lot of fun.
People had a blast.
That was the golden age.
[upbeat music playing]
When I started going to
Christiania in the mid-nineties,
that Christiania was peaceful.
There were a few fights,
but it felt like a safe
and very pleasant place to be.
I just remember everything being open
with extremely mellow vibes.
CARLO
CHRISTIANITE
[Bille] Especially at nighttime.
The sales and trading calmed down
and all of the vendors went home.
So you could take over these shacks
with stereo equipment
and just and have your own
your own little party.
[Carlo] The cannabis dealers' shacks
were incredible,
they were all like little houses.
Some of them had a television,
PlayStation, Nintendo.
You were just like, "Wow!"
You really wanted to spend
lots of time there and just hang out.
There was all kinds of stuff, soda, and
comic books, you could have a good time.
MATHILDE
CHRISTIANITE
I remember when it was Mardi Gras
and all of the kids would go,
like, "trick-or-treating"
for money at the different stalls.
That was so fun.
You always got a lot of money there.
During that time,
police authorities estimate
that hundreds of millions
of kroner change hands
each year, on Pusher Street.
It was illegal, illicit money.
It's not money that taxes are paid on.
It was a huge, illegal market.
[quiet dramatic music playing]
During the late 1980s,
Bullshit, in particular,
were the main focus for police
in the Christiania hash trade.
After they shut down, only one faction
had the strength and capacity
to carve out a controlling stake
of Pusher Street,
and that faction was the Hells Angels.
[Sandberg] In 1996, I joined Hells Angels.
And the people I ran with,
they hung out there, in Christiania a lot.
BRIAN SANDBERG
FORMER HA MEMBER
[Norton] After Bullshit dissolved,
there was a five-year period
where, really, only the Hells Angels
had any presence on the scene.
And then, in 1993,
the Bandidos arrive in the country.
The Hells Angels tolerated their presence,
but when Bandidos started
to open new branches
in Denmark
and the other Nordic countries,
a conflict emerged that eventually
broke out into a biker war.
[Sandberg] Christiania was
a safe haven for us.
It was like wearing bulletproof
vests in the middle of a conflict.
They left us alone,
and it was easy to be armed.
Christiania, after all, is a large area.
You could hide a bag of guns.
That wasn't what the cops were after.
For those of us who were in that conflict,
we could be left alone.
[Norton] If you asked the police
at the time, they would have said
that the Hells Angels was effectively
taking over the drug dealing
that took place on Pusher Street.
The police were convinced that
the Hells Angels were in complete control
of who got to deal and that the HA
was getting a pretty large cut
of the financial profits available
in Pusher Street.
There were certainly members of HA
that were convicted of selling cannabis.
Was it organized? Definitely not.
The people who got in on it got lucky.
[tense music playing]
[Larsen] In the late 1990s, bikers really
start hanging out in Christiania.
What their role is in the cannabis
business is unclear.
But they are staking their claim,
and weed is flooding Pusher Street.
[upbeat music playing]
Pusher Street was sometimes
a bit like going to a farmers' market.
People got a much broader selection.
[dealer] That is the joint tray,
and this is the chillum tray.
Forty kroner.
- Weed's a treat but hashish is neat!
- Prime quality.
- We've got Maroc and Lebanese.
- Get over here!
It was that kind of marketplace,
where people freely sold hash.
I just thought,
"Holy shit. This is insane."
[Carlo] I mean, they had all the quality
goods that every pothead dreams of.
[Kluck] Standard, Smoker,
and Super Smoker.
[Carlo] Black Maroc, Black Lebanon,
Light Lebanon.
There's Pollen Afghan, there's Nepal,
and then there's Charas.
[Carlo] It was huge,
you could get whatever you wanted.
They had it all.
There were plenty of customers,
and plenty of cannabis to go around.
[Carlo] There was a huge,
huge flow of money.
It was just an absolutely insane amount.
It was a goldmine
to have a stall out there.
[Norton] Christiania attracted a lot
of young people from Amager
and other suburbs of Copenhagen.
It became an after-school club of sorts
for young, maladjusted misfits
who sought out the scene
in and around Pusher Street.
[contemplative music playing]
[Nikolaj] I was in living
in the suburbs at the time,
and I'd recently gotten into selling
cannabis just on the side.
NIKOLAJ
FORMER GOFER
I was thinking,
"I want to experience more."
So I went to Christiania and got a chunk.
And I saw a different world
than I was used to.
Seeing this whole group of people
standing in solidarity,
and focusing on the whole hash scene
was eye-opening for a young guy.
The way people
made you feel welcome,
they didn't look down on you.
That's what did it for me.
One day, I was offered
to make a little extra money
as a gofer.
[Norton] The cannabis trade is structured
and operates as one long
and interconnected supply chain.
First, you have the hemp grower,
who, of course,
is the one who produces the cannabis.
There's a kingpin, who buys the hash
and then proceeds to sell it on.
The kingpin might sell it
to individual stalls in Christiania.
At each stall, there's a separate
hierarchy with the specific vendor,
who's the one
who actually cuts the hashish.
There's a runner,
who's the person who runs to the stash
and to fetch whatever
new supplies are needed.
And then there's a person
at the very bottom of the ranks,
who's referred to as a "gofer"
or a "soldier", who simply does chores.
They take care of a variety
of simple tasks.
There's a whole hierarchy and pecking
order around each individual booth.
I accepted because
it was what I'd been striving for.
[man] I've been coming here for ten years.
[Norton] During this period when
the police were absent from Pusher Street,
there was very little friction or tension
between the cannabis dealers
and the Christianites.
There were a few isolated instances
of violent clashes or confrontations,
but that was something they were mostly
able to handle among themselves.
It would be brought up and addressed
at a community meeting,
which is the Freetown's highest
decision-making body.
JOINT MEETING
[Lykke] Every single person
has the right to speak
and participate at community meetings,
and people make decisions
collectively as a matter of principle.
[contemplative music playing]
[Kluck] There were discussions
after violent incidents.
If there was an incident where some
of kids living in Christiania got violent,
that was a matter for the meeting.
[Balther] The community meeting
was like a trial,
with a prosecutor, public defender,
and the rest of the people
of Christiania as a kind of jury.
Issues would be discussed, sometimes
resulting in disciplinary action.
[Balther] Our penal system
is either exclusion
or temporary ban from town.
And that was the way
we ran Pusher Street.
[Norton] It is perfectly
reasonable to assume
that the activity and revenue generated
on Pusher Street during this period
helped lift all of Christiania,
economically and in spirit.
[reporter] The free town of Christiania,
Once the scorn of all Denmark,
now a tourist destination.
During that time,
there were a lot of tourists,
and I also remember that the people
who were associated
with maintaining
and beautifying the streets
made extra efforts to have them
recobbled and have fresh new signs made.
[reporter] Copenhagen's third
most popular tourist destination
draws close to a million visitors
a year from around the world.
Every year, when springtime rolls around,
you get a huge influx.
It's just like, "Okay,
I can't even ride my bike anymore."
[ethereal music playing]
There is a great sense of community
among all the people who work the stalls.
They're all actively engaged
in community activities.
PRESERVE CHRISTIANIA
[Carlo] Tourists run into houses
if they need to pee.
"Can we use the bathroom?
Yeah, sure you can."
I always though that was
a pretty funny experience as a kid.
[Kluck] With some of the money
we made, we, uh,
would arrange some cool
free concerts,
as a way to give back to the people.
[man] Ladies and gentlemen,
the greatest
Danish rap legend of all time.
Give it up for
MC Einar!
[Norton] During the time when the police
stayed away from Christiania,
there was an atmosphere that cannabis,
though sure, it may be illegal,
it must not be that illegal when nobody
decides to do anything about it.
That created a shared sense
that legalization
must be just around the corner.
I had some wagers on when
it would actually become legal.
That time was a true period of calm
that was before everything exploded.
[people chanting and clapping
rhythmically] Anders! Anders!
Anders! Anders!
[quiet dramatic music playing]
All signs point to Venstre now
being Denmark's largest party.
[Lykke] We got
the first Danish government
with an absolute right-wing majority.
[Rasmussen] It is our job to drive
Danish society towards new goals.
[Lykke] The new government
was completely fixated
on revoking Christiania's
"freetown" designation.
The government intends
to bring order to Christiania.
When people want to sanitize
or normalize something
that's so beautiful and colorful,
and oozing with culture,
to me, that's a sin.
Because I've experienced Christiania
as an exuberant, embracing place.
That was very valuable to me.
So when they say "Normalize it",
I think they're a bunch of
I think it's a mortal sin.
[marching drum music playing
and people shouting]
[Norton] When you look
at the foundations of Christiania,
there's no doubt that a hippie freetown
populated by left-wing activists
could be anything but a problem
for right-wing government.
There was a sort of rebellious atmosphere.
- [people] Legalize! Legalize!
- [Tuxen] The support was massive.
420 percent.
Legalize!
Legalize! Legalize!
Legalize!
LONG LIVE DIVERSITY
Keep Christiania! Down with Fogh!
[Norton] While Anders Fogh
would prefer to see Christiania closed,
he was well aware that there wasn't
necessarily public support for that.
Many people are happy that
Christiania exists as a freetown.
But on the other hand,
I think he's also aware
that there are a lot of people
who want the law to be upheld.
It's also, for many, a point of contention
that a lawless street is allowed to exist,
where cannabis is sold openly
in Copenhagen.
It's apprehension about the drug market.
The government decided to issue
a series of ultimatums to Christiania
to shut down Pusher Street
once and for all.
POLICE
When Pusher Street still wasn't
closed as the government wanted,
they came to the conclusion that
it was time to pivot to a new strategy,
which was to fight fire with fire.
To do that, police had just the man
to lead the operation:
On-Site Commander Bjarne Christensen.
Moving forward, we will be securing newer
and more effective tools
JUNE 3, 2003
for the police to continue to fight crime.
[mysterious music playing]
I was brought in because
I was an on-site commander at the time.
BJARNE CHRISTENSEN
FORMER OPERATIONS MANAGER
I joined the riot squad and took part
in developing the training courses,
so officers could go into the community
and complete effective raids
in Christiania.
[people shouting]
[producer] Do you know
Bjarne Christensen?
All too well.
[producer] What if I say Bjarne?
Leglock?
He had a really bad reputation.
He's the cop who thought
he could shut down Christiania.
He and his gang would come out
with these rituals
where they would they would
There were these rebellious people
who needed to be taken down.
[Norton] Bjarne Christensen,
in the early 2000s,
was an on-site commander
with the Copenhagen police.
He was sometimes referred to as either
the Street General or Bjarne Leglock.
He was extremely zealous
and proactive in his work.
For example, he was known
to be at the very front of the line
when the Copenhagen police went
on raids against the anarchist community.
There are different ways to lead
and I chose to stand with my officers
whenever something happened.
I didn't have any interest
in directing forces from a distance.
I wanted to be in the action.
I'd do whatever.
Work came with it.
One time I stood with my guitar and sung
my anger right into Bjarne's face.
The only thing
That keeps the sun from shining ♪
Is all the dirt
That you've got in your head ♪
[faint dramatic music playing]
[Beier] Bjarne, or Big Bjarne,
as he's also known
to both police and the civilians
ALLAN BEIER
FORMER POLICE OFFICER
Yeah, I was under his command quite
a few times, actually, over the years.
At the time, I had a sense that
he was a true battlefield commander.
If there was trouble,
I was on the frontlines, working or not.
I'd show up, which was important,
because I wanted my team
to see that the lunatic was there.
"He won't let us down.
He's here for us."
I saw him as Alexander on his white horse.
Bjarne was the first to run in
during a raid and the last to leave.
He was the one who said,
"If they hit us once, we hit back twice."
He is evil.
I've seen him many times
grab a hold of people.
He has no morals.
He is a complete and monumental idiot.
A violent, unlikable person.
I would have gone
to incredible lengths for Bjarne.
He could have asked me for anything
and I would have said yes, no question.
[Norton] Bjarne Christensen establishes
himself as the face of the police strategy
during the conflicts in Christiania
and on Pusher Street.
His profile is high,
It's a markedly offensive strategy.
[Rasmussen] We need
a heavier presence.
We'll fight fire with fire.
At this point, we're at a stage
where our domestic policy becomes,
uh, more aligned with our foreign policy.
We're taking a harder stance on crime,
and doing something
about society's square pegs.
That's how we did it
in the early 2000s.
[woman] Cannabis stalls are set
to be closed in Christiania
and, with major police operations
MAY 6, 2003
the notorious Pusher Street
will be shut down.
[Lykke] The promised
police operations began.
That was the time when we all started
to see daily police presence,
with Bjarne Leglock
always at the forefront.
[Christensen] For the rest of my life,
I'll never forget the first raid.
A Thursday night.
I went there in plain-clothes.
[ethereal music playing]
We arrive on Pusher Street.
I'm looking around. Hash everywhere.
There are lots of people.
The stalls are bustling.
Then I call out, "Let's go!" on the radio.
"Let's go! Send in the officers."
They were so caught off guard
when we pulled out our badges.
They couldn't react at all.
Before long,
we had 11drug dealers in cuffs.
No one even attacked us.
In what was a large-scale operation,
hundreds of officers cracked down
on Pusher Street in Christiania.
MARCH 16, 2004
I felt great. It was awesome.
[Norton] If the police thought
it was going to be easy
to clear Christiania
based on their initial operations,
then they were in for a rude awakening.
It turned out there was
a tremendous drive, determination,
and collective will
to preserve Pusher Street.
- What are you doing here?
- Let us do our work.
[woman] Do you realize
you're arresting a heart patient?
Who are you to decide how we live?
[people shouting]
Calm down!
[woman] Hello?! He's an old man!
[officer] Take it easy! Do you hear me?
[Christensen]
We had zero-tolerance policy.
Zero tolerance meant that for as little
as point-zero-one grams of cannabis,
which ordinarily we would never write up,
we would make arrests.
And they also received a citation.
We stopped everybody
and searched them.
Wrote fines for everything.
Everything was black or white.
[Norton] With a zero-tolerance policy,
customers buying on Pusher Street
had to get used
to being stopped, targeted by,
and generally harassed by the police.
In the past, customers were in the habit
of turning a blind eye to the cops,
but now, they were at risk
of being arrested.
[woman] Something entirely new:
police are also taking
an interest in buyers.
[Bille] At Månefiskeren Cafe, which is one
of the places I would always hang out
POLICE CHECK TODAY
SINCE 01.11.2005: 1000
they had a sign posted on the wall,
tallying the number of police visits.
It was an extremely high,
ridiculous number.
[quiet dramatic music playing]
Often times when I was hanging out there,
I liked to smoke an occasional joint.
I had this truly, truly tiny amount on me,
and suddenly,
someone just appears out of nowhere
and scoops my mix into his hands.
Big plainclothes officer.
They drag me out and fine me
for point-five
or point-four grams of hash.
They banned me for two years.
For two years,
I was banned from my regular cafe
where all my friends were.
Of course, I went anyway.
I was in a jam band, and we played
all the time at Månefiskeren Cafe.
If we saw cops, no matter
what we were playing, we switched to,
I always feel like somebody's
Watchin' me and I got no privacy ♪
Then everyone went, "Cheese!"
[Larsen] "Cheese" is slang for "police."
It was a code word.
The thing is, if you warn others
that the police are coming,
you can be charged with acting
as an unauthorized guard.
So instead of yelling "police,"
you yell "cheese" as a warning.
Next to the cheese, there are fleas.
[Christensen] There were guards
stationed all over Christiania 24/7
They would radio out to the guard
command center when needed.
We ran the guard corps from there.
The civilians would yell "cheese," so that
everyone knew the police were coming.
Say somebody yells,
"cheese at the iron gate!"
If the dealer has contraband,
you run up to your boss,
and you take it off his hands.
Then he he just walks away. Easy.
Then you make sure you get out.
If you remove the cannabis,
the dealers just take off.
[Nikolaj] Every soldier had their own
routine for where they'd go.
I ran to Stjerneskibet.
I had some pretty good hiding
spots, for sure.
[Christensen] It just kept going.
It was tough, but we were determined.
If I didn't think we could win,
I wouldn't have gotten into it.
[Bille] People used to be able to relax
with their joints and we couldn't anymore.
Because we constantly had to keep
looking over our shoulders on high alert.
[tense music playing]
The police were everywhere.
The goal was to normalize Christiania.
That meant we had to establish
our presence, all day, every day.
We were always there,
tearing down stalls and removing them.
There's so much,
we have to make multiple trips.
We tore out anything remotely
belonging to the cannabis scene.
Burn barrels, tables,
chairs, everything
We hauled it away daily.
Whenever anything cropped up,
we would just remove it.
[Kluck] There were always police.
All the time. People couldn't breathe.
[woman] He has a pacemaker!
It was a stress tactic.
They did everything they could
to stress us as much as possible.
My friend just got arrested.
- Come on let's go.
- What the hell, man?
Tensions ran extremely high
on Pusher Street during this period,
but the vast majority of the Christianites
really didn't want violent clashes.
They are peace-loving people,
who just want to mind their own business,
and protect Christiania.
He's just standing there talking.
You are out of your mind.
Some people chose
to take on the police directly.
- Nice and easy.
- What?
What are you doing? You teenager.
[Norton] There's a very passionate
and resolute core on Pusher Street
that's willing to fight tooth and nail
for their right to be there.
[man] What's going on, man?
There are also people from out of town
who are from the left-wing
activist communities,
who are also willing
to step in and fight the police.
No, they're coming. Rocks!
[Nikolaj] We were mean.
- We went hard on the Danish police.
- [officer 1] Watch out!
[officer 2] Rocks!
They're throwing rocks! Rocks to the left!
I didn't envy the cops
in Christiania, at all.
[quiet dramatic music playing]
The first few times
I patrolled Christiania,
I had no real idea
what I was getting into.
[people shouting]
[Carlo] If officers spent more
than an hour in one place,
500 people would be there in no time,
ready to help the dealers
drive the police away.
We're retreating.
[tense music playing]
[Norton] Looking back at this period now,
it's reasonable and actually quite obvious
that the police and the authorities
underestimated the energy,
conviction, and will to fight
back on Pusher Street.
[Beier] The first time I got spat on
was in Christiania.
The first time I had rocks
thrown at me: Christiania.
The first time I got kicked
was in Christiania.
[woman] You're clearing our town!
What the hell are you doing?
SHAME
[crowd booing]
[Norton] It was difficult
for the police to move, operate,
and conduct work
in the area during that time.
They couldn't prepare
for the staggering number of people,
who could be mobilized very quickly.
A great number of the people
who flooded in
when the police arrived
on the scene, they were just kids.
They were regulars in the street
or they just found it exciting
to go to battle against the police.
[crowd shouting]
[Bille] They were put
in an impossible situation.
I understand the escalation
because I know people
who hate the police.
Take care of your own backyards!
[Nikolaj] We fought them as best we could.
We threw rocks
and did everything we could do.
We fought back.
- Hey! What are you doing?
- All right, get back!
We didn't cower. Or take their shit.
[man] Whore!
[people screaming]
[Larsen] I have been witness to some
very intense incidents on Pusher Street,
where both the cops and the people
of Christiania were really fired up.
For some individuals,
the hatred for police is so great
that you actually
fear for the safety the cops.
[ethereal music playing]
[Beier] We were doing a show of force,
and as a routine part of it,
we went to the Communal Kitchen.
Right beside the door, there's a man,
and he's in the process
of lighting a joint.
I put my hand on his shoulder,
and I say to him, "I wouldn't do that."
He turns to me and says, "Fuck you."
And then, he puts his hands
on my chest and shoves me,
so we had to arrest him.
I sense this sudden shift in mood.
- [people shouting]
- Get back!
[Beier] I remember the first rock
striking right next to my face.
[intriguing music playing]
Shortly after, another rock falls
and another and another.
It's chaotic, I can hear rocks falling
everywhere, and I get struck on my body.
I didn't dawn on me
until I got hit by rocks
how aggressive, violent,
and dangerous it was.
[people shouting]
I realized that they had
no compassion for me.
[objects clattering]
- [officer 1] Rocks!
- [officer 2] Rocks from over here, too.
[explosion]
[objects clattering]
[dramatic music playing]
When the lines get drawn up like that,
the hate is bound to get out of control.
We have the politicians to thank for that.
Because the police
are just there to enforce the law.
[Norton] When the police did
what they did during this period,
it wasn't of their own accord.
They had been ordered
to shut down Pusher Street. Ordered.
There was a zero-tolerance
policy for cannabis,
both the buying and selling.
As a result, the individual officers
became an instrument
of the government's intended policies.
[man 1] What are you doing?
Get a hold of yourself!
[man 2] Hey, man, what's the problem.
[man 3] What are you doing?
[people shouting]
I clearly recall that internal fire
starting to build in me.
There are bad people
who want to harm me,
and they need to be handled
with harshness.
When they throw one rock,
I have to hit twice with my baton.
There's this escalating approach
to the whole situation.
[person screaming]
There's no good to be salvaged,
just evil to be fought.
[Larsen] It was striking
the way that provocations
between police and the Christianites
would turn into riots in a split second.
We got out there,
and someone made a comment at us.
- What'd you say?
- What'd I say? What are you going to do?
We stop him and we lash out verbally.
And he responds in exactly the same way.
What are you doing?
What? If you call us names,
you get arrested.
We said things like, "Bastard cops",
and we'd tell them, "Get a real job."
You said I said something.
- Don't you dare get smart with me.
- What? [scoffs] All right, man, whatever.
I would give it back like,
"Your mother got it last night?"
That was a big shift, for sure,
for me and my colleagues.
- Did I say anything to you? No.
- Yeah.
[Beier] It really took over us
and got worse and escalated more,
You know, we, as an authority,
our job is to de-escalate
and calm things down.
We didn't practice that
at all in Christiania.
We absolutely added fuel to the fire,
and it turned into more and more
confrontations and violence.
If they want confrontation,
that's what they'll get.
[shouting]
[Kluck] No one wants to see
their friends get hurt,
whether it's the police or anyone else.
You guys are racists.
- Come with us.
- Okay, I will.
- Come on, let's go.
- You guys have no authority here.
[people shouting]
[Christensen] Yeah.
No, I didn't just stand there and take it.
If I issued a warning once,
the next time I would strike back.
The one with the black scarf
kicked me. I want her arrested.
They had their fun throwing rocks,
but at the end of the day,
they had to pay the piper.
[Kluck] One time,
I was just talking to a girl.
We were behind Bjarne.
And he grabbed me.
I didn't do anything, just said his name.
And he dragged me to Stjerneskibet.
I was under arrest and blah, blah, blah.
[crowd shouting and whistling]
While I was there,
people started getting riled up.
He forced me to sit on the ground.
And I wasn't having it, so I called out
to the others to throw rocks.
[Christensen] Sometimes, the person we
were in the process of arresting
would go, "Throw rocks. Hit the pigs."
I wanted to get the party started.
[all shouting]
[ominous music playing]
[all shouting]
I always told my guys,
"When we strike, we follow through.
They have to feel it."
[all shouting]
There were instances where I hit people
so hard that their lungs collapsed.
[muted screaming]
[all shouting]
Hey, hey! Hey!
Hey, back! Back!
Chill out, man!
[Larsen] The hatred, the resistance,
and the acts of violence
that the officers are subjected to
on a daily basis in Christiania,
it's so intense, the situation
is getting more and more heated.
You get the sense
that some of the police officers
are starting to take it almost personally
and, you know, react as such.
[people screaming]
I was looking for confrontation, I was.
I was full of contempt for them.
[man groans]
My hatred for that place grew.
And every time I had to go back
and work there,
I went home even more fed up with it.
Every chance I got, I hit a little harder.
That was the thought
running through my head.
We got harder, too.
We absolutely refused to cower.
We wouldn't take their shit.
If they're tough, we're tough.
You have to adapt.
[Carlo] They wanted to hurt each other,
there was a real hatred.
For us Christiania kids,
it became completely normal.
My parents were always upset.
They were feeling really unsafe.
All the adults around me had this
perception that the police are the enemy.
They were bullies and did us no good.
There were no good guys
or bad guys in Christiania.
The minute I arrived, everybody
was a categorical enemy of one another.
[dramatic music playing]
[Mathilde] I don't smoke cannabis
and wasn't involved in sales,
but I felt like a hostage caught
between drug dealers and cops.
I didn't feel like the police
were protecting me as a civilian.
[man] I wasn't doing anything!
I thought that since the Christianites
had so enthusiastically opened the door
to drugs dealers and then there were
people throwing rocks at police,
that they all were our enemies.
[people shouting]
In this period of daily raids,
no expense was ever spared.
It's true that there were
countless arrests made,
but those who are arrested,
they are small fish,
they're just the customers
on Pusher Street.
And regardless of all these raids,
the situation
is actually completely unchanged,
and police, over time,
come to realize they're ineffective.
Even though there are
all these ongoing police raids,
still, Pusher Street functions
relatively well.
It is still an extremely
lucrative business.
And that means that there are
various groups from outside of town
who begin to turn their attention
towards Christiania and Pusher Street
and think about how they too
can get a piece of the cake.
[Lykke] It was all about immigrant groups
getting into the cannabis market.
Especially Hells Angels
which fought back hard.
Soon, Christiania came under
even more intense pressure.
ON THE NEXT EPISODE
[Beier] They fight
for the cannabis market.
There are shootings
and killings all the time.
[gunfire]
[Lykke] We ended up in a situation
with gang warfare.
[rapid gunfire]
[Sandberg] There's always
competition in crime.
There's never a lone ruler.
[engine revs]
[Christensen]
We needed to normalize Christiania.
That meant demolishing illegal buildings.
Seemed easy enough.
Boy, were we wrong.
Fires, burned-out automobiles,
and lots of tear gas.
[man] What do you think you're doing?
They got to Pusher Street,
and that's when the shit hit the fan.
[explosions]
We were under attack,
and I couldn't see from where.
[Nikolaj] Now Nemoland
is full of cops with shields.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Hit them!"
[tense dramatic music playing]