A 30-year-old man was killed, and four others were injured in a shooting in a Copenhagen district famous for its counterculture ambiance and thriving hashish trade, according to Danish police.
According to a report, Poul Kjeldsen, a spokesman for the Copenhagen police, told Danish media that two masked shooters had opened fire in a building in the Christiania suburb. Kjeldsen indicated that criminal gangs were suspected in the shooting. Police continued their hunt for the criminals.
On Saturday, police took an 18-year-old suspect into custody. The police haven’t stopped looking for further suspects.
Kjeldsen said that most of the injuries were minor, but one person was in a critical but stable condition.
Since the 1970s, when hippies took over a disused naval facility, Christiania has functioned as an anarchist commune. Until police began cracking down on the drug trade in 2004, hashish sales were tolerated there.
According to a report, the government caved to public pressure and permitted the community to keep operating as an experiment in social living. Despite being autonomous and generally tolerant, Christianians eventually realized they needed to adjust their “anything goes” mentality.
Heroin and cocaine dealers were kicked out after a new policy banned their trade. Despite this, the hashish traffic has persisted, with violence associated with criminal gangs occasionally erupting.
In a joint statement published on Christiania’s blog on Sunday, inhabitants warned that as long as there is a significant illegal hashish business, there will always be violent competition for the market.
The police sometimes tear down the hashish booths, but they always pop back up again.
Sophie Haestorp Andersen, mayor of Copenhagen, expressed similar sentiments to the media, saying that she would want to see Pusher Street permanently blocked.
Christiania locals attempted to block the entry for a couple of hours weeks ago to stop the illegal behavior on the street but were unsuccessful.
Although Copenhagen does not recognize the enclave as an independent municipality, its residents have established their own set of regulations by which they live. More than half a million people visit it every year, making it a popular tourist hotspot.
