Danish 'Youths': Police Made Us Riot

Tue, Feb 19, 2008 at 9:13:44 am PST

The “youths” who have been rioting in Copenhagen for 9 days have written a letter explaining that they were forced to smash windows and burn cars, by the “brutal, racist, insulting” Danish police: Youths say police harassment triggered unrest in Denmark.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - A group of youths who have been torching cars and waste containers in the Danish capital said Tuesday the wave of unrest started as a protest against police harassment.

In a letter published in Copenhagen newspaper Politiken, the youths accused police of “brutal, racist” behavior.

It was the first time that rioting juveniles had offered any explanation for the fires that have raged for nine consecutive nights mostly in immigrant neighborhoods across the country. The authors of the letter said they would now stop rioting.

“Basically the unrest is about the way we are treated by the police, who are brutal, racist and totally unacceptably insulting,” the group said in the letter.

The authors called themselves “Boys of inner Noerrebro,” referring to the immigrant neighborhood in Copenhagen where the unrest started on Feb. 10.