Nørrebro

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Nørrebro seen from one of the lakes (Søerne) that separate the area from the inner city center.

Nørrebro is the common name for an area in Copenhagen, Denmark located beyond the historic city center (the Indre By), and beyond the location of the old Northern Gate (Nørreport), which was near the current Nørreport station until dismantled in 1856.

The Nørrebro area consists of two of the 15 administrative, statistical, and tax city districts (bydele) comprising the municipality of Copenhagen:

Indre Nørrebro (lit. English, "Inner Nørrebro")
Ydre Nørrebro (lit. English, "Outer Nørrebro")

The dynamic, multi-ethnic main street Nørrebrogade runs through the area, with a multitude of shops and restaurants. One of the main points of interest in the area is historic Assistens Cemetery (Assistens Kirkegård).

Nørrebrogade is known as the site of many riots over the years. During the 1980s, it often provided the settings for violent clashes between riot police and militant squatters. The battles were of a very vicious nature, often involving molotov-cocktails and pipe bombs being used by the squatters.

On May 18, 1993 it was the scene of the Nørrebro riot following the Danish "yes"-vote to the European Union. The police were unprepared for the rioters who threw paving stones from a nearby city construction site. 113 shots were subsequently fired into the mass of protesters and several demonstrators were wounded, some severely. Though none were killed instantly, the fight left 13 demonstrators and 92 policemen injured. One young man died later from his injuries. Whether the police were to blame for his death or not became the main point of a public debate in Denmark that would last years after. The riot was the worst since World War II, but no accurate account of why the policemen were unprepared or what exactly happened has ever been given. Following the riot the Danish police upgraded their hand-carried weapons to modern standards and began a process towards becoming a professional and modern police force.

In late December 2006 a riot,took place, regarding the fate of the squatted social centre Ungdomshuset ("The Youth House"). A demonstration in support of the house was blocked by the police and a fullface streetfight broke out. The demonstraters hurled stones and fireworks at the police, who in response drove their amoured cars in to the demonstrators and fired teargas in to the crowd. The fight grew into a full scale riot with fires burning over night in the streets. 4 police and 2 demonstraters were injured. The riot have been compared in intensity to the riot on 18 of may 13 years previous.

On march 1 2007, the biggest riot in recent danish history broke out when the police moved in and evicted Ungdomshuset. It is estimated that up to 4000 young people participated in the riot. The police moved in on the house at 7.00 pm. One hour later streetfighting broke out on Nørrebrogade when people tried to break the police roadblock and reclaim the house. Barricades were build on Nørrebrogade and protesters hurled stones and bottles at the police. The police fired teargas and tried to break the barricades with their armoured cars. After two hours of fighting the police managed to clear the streets, but only after they called in bulldozers to clear the protesters bariicades. The fighting broke out again in the evening, when a demonstration of several thousand people tried to force their way up to the house. This time the fighting lasted overnight and in to the small hours of the morning. The rioters blocked several streets, including Nørrebrogade, with burning barricdes and tore up large amounts of cobblestones to use as missiles. In some streets it was impossible for the police to come out of their amoured cars, due to the large number of stones being hurled at them.Large amounts of powerful fireworks were also used against the police.The riot spreed to the freetown of Christiania, where local youths took to the streets in soldarity with the rioters at Nørrebro. The police used a huge amount of teargas in an attempt to control the rioters. It is estimated that the police on March 1 fired 500 cannisters of CS gas on Nørrebro. The next day, on friday march 2 the riots broke out again, when a large demonstration, protesting the eviction of the house, turned violent. The demonstraters had asembeld in the evening at a local square at Nørrebro. Altough the demonstration was peacefull to begin with, tensions were high between the demonstraters and the police. Around midnight the police moved in and tried to break up the protesters. The protesters reponded by bombarding the police with stones and petrolbombs. Two policeofficers were set on fire when a petrolbomb exploded by their feet. One of the polices amoured cars also caught fire. The rioting then spreed to the rest of Nørrebro where barricades where build and a large amount of cars was burned.The police have later stated that they lost control of the situation. It is estimated that the eviction of Ungdomshuset and the damaged done by the following riots, has cost the city and the state around 100 million danish crowns( around 17 million US dollars)