Residents fight back against biker gang

Neighbours to a Bandidos clubhouse complain against harassment and noise, but local authorities may have found a way to shut it down

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Oct 7, 2013

A large concrete rock crashed through the window in Lars Georg Jensen’s home on Tudskærvej in the Copenhagen suburb of Vanløse last Thursday.

Jensen, the head of a local homeowner’s association, lives next door to a Bandidos gang clubhouse and he immediately suspected that the reason for the vandalism was connected to his anti-gang comments on national television the night before, when he shared the story of declining the gang’s offer to move out of the neighbourhood if they were paid 500,000 kroner.

“I saw that the police’s bloodhounds [investigating the rock-throwing incident] went straight into the club house,” Jensen told Politiken newspaper the morning after.

The neighbours have complained over noise from parties that have lasted until noon the following day, but the City Council has been inactive and said that Jensen should take care of the situation himself.

“They wanted me, a small man weighing 68 kilos, to knock on the door at the bikers' house," Jensen told Politiken. "There are 20 gang members in there with tattoos going all the way up their necks, and I am supposed to tell them to turn down the music?”

“Sometimes I have been angrier with the City Council than with the bikers,” he added.

S and K may have found law to deal with Bandidos

Yesterday, local politicians Jakob Hougaard (Socialdemokraterne) and Jakob Næsager (Konservative) arranged a torchlight procession in sympathy with the residents, who perceive the clubhouse as a ticking bomb that could move a gang war into their own backyards. House prices in the area have also dropped considerably since the gang moved in more than a year ago.

Today, the two politicians presented a plan to Copenhagen’s city planning council Teknik- og Miljøudvalget that could deal with the situation through a nearly century-old clause in housing regulations.

Although the clubhouse is officially registered as the owner’s private home, a clause from 1918 states that property in a residential area can only be used to house families.

“The restrictive clause was made exactly for such a situation to protect the neighbours against people like Bandidos," Næsager told DR Nyheder. “It clearly says that the house cannot be used for business or other activities that create noise or are an inconvenience to the neighbours. And that is exactly what a gang clubhouse is.”

The police will eventually decide if the bikers can be moved out, but according to Hougaard the gang cannot just claim that they meet in private at their leader’s address.

“It is clever, but it won’t help them. The clubhouse has annoyed the neighbours for months with parties and noise. That has to stop now,” he told DR Nyheder.

Bandidos gangster makes comparison with Nazi Germany

While residents and politicians were protesting on Tudskærvej, Brian Sandberg, a former leading member of the Hells Angels who defected to rival group Bandidos, wrote on Facebook that gang members have the right to stay and are being persecuted like the Jews in Nazi Germany.

“I understand why people don't want to be neighbours to a gang clubhouse. But what is going on right now reminds me of the persecution of Jews before World War II” Sandberg wrote in his statement. "We have the same constitutional rights as every other citizen in this country. History has shown that the more pressure you put on us, the stronger we will become."

But the threats from the biker gang will not stop Lars Georg Jensen from trying to get his unwanted neighbours to move.

“I guess you can only understand how it feels if you try having the safety of your own home taken away from you. When I turn into my street, I don’t think that I am home. I think about what could happen today,” he told Politiken. “I am calmer when I am away than when I am in my house.”