Lars Georg Jensen lives on what used to be a quiet street in Copenhagen’s Vanløse district. Things have changed since a biker gang moved in next door.
“We are constantly afraid of a conflict starting,” Jensen told BT. “There are always small scale things happening. I have found a switchblade in my garden, but the real fear is that bullets will start to fly.”
Hoping for help
A committee formed by the justice ministry to deal with gangs living in residential neighbourhoods is expected to have recommendations in early December about how the bikers can be removed.
Things like Tuesday’s shooting at the Magasin in Lyngby – which police are investigating as gang related – put Jensen on edge.
“It’s part of our everyday lives,” he said. “On the one hand, you do not want to be unnecessarily afraid, on the other, it is a reality that every time there is a new conflict between biker groups, it is close to us.”
More than bad neighbours
Jensen, who is also chairman of the local homeowners’ association, has previously tried along with the Copenhagen municipality to get the bikers to move. That effort had to be abandoned for lack of a legal basis to intervene.
READ MORE: Pay or we’ll stay, gangsters tell residential neighbourhood
Jensen said that he and his neighbours are not just dealing with a typical crowd of rowdy young people.
“When you have gangs as neighbours, there are a lot of other things going on,” he said.
“For example, the obvious trade of people coming and going, windows being rolled down and packages exchanged.”
