Families living in the libertarian Christiana neighborhood of Copenhagen, a former hippie paradise contaminated in recent years by drug violence, have vented their anger against the local cannabis trade by vandalizing the street used by dealers.
Young children, elderly residents and even the city’s mayor and Denmark’s Justice Minister were among those present as the cobblestones were ripped up from Christiana’s famous Pusher Street on Saturday.
Under the spring sun, locals got to work with wheelbarrows, shovels and crowbars, while police cleared the old merchant stalls, where cannabis was once freely sold.
In late August, so-called Christians decided to close the street, known for its hashish stands, after the fourth murder in three years shattered the image of a peaceful, free-spirited community.
Pusher Street “has deteriorated into a really not very nice place,” said Hulda Mader, a community spokeswoman. “They fight with each other, they fight with people and they are violent.”
Young children and elderly people were among those who broke the cobblestones of Pusher Street.
Under the spring sun, locals got to work with wheelbarrows, shovels and crowbars.
A small boy in wellies watches as locals vandalize the street of the former hippie community, which is home to around 250 children.
On Saturday, some nostalgic locals came to take souvenir paving stones
This graffiti-covered community in central Copenhagen is home to about 1,000 residents
A pile of cobblestones on Pusher Street in Copenhagen, Denmark, on April 6.
Visiting Christiana last week, the BBC reported that there were around 20 vendors operating in the area. Police have said they clean stores there “100 times a year.”
“If there is a conflict between groups in Copenhagen, they will most likely find themselves on Pusher Street, where they can shoot each other,” Deputy Police Inspector Simon Hansen, who oversees the police operation in Christiania, told the broadcaster. .
In one incident last summer, a 30-year-old man was killed and others were injured in a shooting linked to organized crime, with three more fatal shootings since 2020.
Now many, including the city’s government and mayor, have declared enough is enough.
Mayor Sophie Haestorp Andersen said: “As a city, we cannot live with [the violence]and the local Christians have not been able to live with this either, but were afraid to do something radical about it.
‘I told them I would support them. “Now we have a plan and we are taking the first step.”
On Saturday, some nostalgic locals came to take souvenir paving stones.
“It’s a reminder of Christiana, of what she used to be and what she is no longer,” said Adam Hovgaard, a 23-year-old Copenhagen resident.
While the shops have always reappeared after being destroyed by the police, this time the removal of the cobblestones is aimed at preventing them from being resurrected again.
‘We will take the paving stones and give them to the people who want. “This is just a sign that the dealer street is changing from a dealer street to something else,” Mader explained.
Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Haestorp Andersen (left) and Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard arrive as Christiania residents unearth the cobblestones of Pusher Street together.
Families flocked to the scene on Saturday. The ‘free city’ is a major tourist attraction
Dozens of people gathered in the street to participate in the excavation or watch the spectacle unfold.
A resident of the Christiania neighborhood knocks down a neon lamp on a building on Pusher Street
For Mader, 70 years old and resident in the area since 1994, the support of the majority of the area’s residents is essential.
Despite the “free city’s” long history of resistance towards the establishment, the dismantling of the street architecture is being carried out in cooperation with the police and the city of Copenhagen.
“Your commitment is crucial,” said Mayor Andersen. ‘This is the first time they have come together and agreed to take a stand against the rise in crime and insecurity in their neighbourhood.
‘Digging up the street and turning it into a construction site will inevitably make it very difficult to sell. But it’s just the beginning,” he said.
In 1971, a group of hippies founded the ‘Free City of Christiania’ in an abandoned military barracks to create a municipality that, according to its statutes, ‘belongs to everyone and no one’ and where all decisions are made collectively.
Residents of the Christiania neighborhood jointly excavate the cobblestones of Pusher Street
Children participate as residents of the Christiania neighborhood unearth the cobblestones of Pusher Street.
The dismantling of the street architecture is carried out in collaboration with the police and the city of Copenhagen.
In this 34-hectare (84-acre) coastal enclave, the sale and use of cannabis is illegal but tolerated, making it a hotspot for drug trafficking.
‘About five or ten years ago, they were mainly local. But now we see that it is mainly gangs and motorcycle gangs that drive this drug market,” explained Copenhagen police officer Simon Hansen.
Since Christiania, contrary to urban legend, is part of Denmark, police raids in the area have become more frequent.
“For too long we have accepted that traffickers were selling marijuana and drugs like freshly harvested strawberries and peas on the market,” said Haestorp Andersen.
In August, locals blocked access to the free city to non-residents for a day “in the hope of freeing Christiania from the tyranny of the gangs.” The neighborhood usually receives around half a million tourists a year.
Residents of the Christiania neighborhood walk over a cobblestone unearthed on Pusher Street
Along with the desire to end drug trafficking, the community wants to capitalize on the postcard image and artistic vitality of the neighborhood.
Residents used crowbars to lift the paving stones one by one, before moving them away from the site.
Police arrested around 900 people in 2023 in connection with drug trafficking in the area. No figures were given on the quantities of drugs seized.
But with this ‘new chapter’, the neighbors want to ‘clean (the street) and make it beautiful,’ Mader said.
‘We’ll paint the buildings and rebuild them and all kinds of things.
“We want to be associated with what we were associated with before… art, culture and gaming,” he continued, making it “a nice place for people to come and relax.”
Christiania is located on an island full of vegetation and full of birdsong.
A band of women parades on Pusher Street in Copenhagen, Denmark, on April 6, after residents of the Christiania neighborhood dug up cobblestones to officially mark the closure of the street.
It is home to 1,000 people, including around 250 children, and their families live in graffiti-covered barracks and wooden shacks.
Along with the desire to end drug trafficking, the community wants to capitalize on the neighborhood’s postcard image and artistic vitality.
It also intends to begin construction of homes for about 300 new residents.
Although the details of the project have not yet been decided, residents hope it will attract families with children, as currently a quarter of the population is over 60 years old.