The Murmur – A Danish newspaper in English | 19. Dec 2017 | ~ New laws threaten to shift the balance of power between citizens and the state ~ | .. Protestors are being prosecuted using new, stricter laws designed to protect public servants from violence. But the latest increase in police power won't necessarily protect the police from demonstrators, and may instead be merely a means for politicians to signal that they are "tough on crime" .. |

Police corral aggressive football fans on the way to the stadium in Copenhagen, last February. The police have paid compensation in the past for illegally detaining football fans. Photo: Peter Stanners

A decade after the Youth House was torn down in Nørrebro, the conflict between its former anarchist residents and the police still festers. The riots that followed its demolition in 2007 brought Nørrebro to its knees, resulted in the arrests of 714 people, and cost 40 million kroner in police overtime. This March, at a demonstration marking the ten-year anniversary of the demolition, businesses were vandalised and anarchist sympathisers threw projectiles at the police.

In prosecuting this behaviour, the authorities have a new tool at their disposal, The Respect Act (Respektpakken), a set of laws designed to protect the police and other public servants from assault. The laws were passed by Parliament last year following a decade that saw a steady rise in violence and threats against public servants – from 47 cases in 2007 to 98 in 2016....READ MORE

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