Mediation in the conflict between Hells Angels bikers and young ethnic minority groups seems to have succeeded for the first time.

While shots are still heard in Copenhagen at regular intervals everything seems quiet in the Amager area.

The relative peace comes following mediation in September between HA bikers and members of their support group AK 81 on the one hand and a group of ethnic minority youths from the Holmbladsgade neighbourhood on the other.

Agreed to halt shootings

The meeting came about as a result of an initiative from a full HA member who contacted local social worker Henrik Vang Nielsen in connection with a series of episodes involving the two sides and which risked escalating into a more serious conflict.

“He contacted me to see if we could arrange something. Since then I have heard that they held a meeting in which they agreed to stop the shootings,” Vang Nielsen said.

Bikers in Amager
After 19-year old Osman Nuri Dogan was shot and killed in Tingbjerg on August 14, the conflict between the ethnic minority groups and the Hells Angels has resulted in several shooting episodes in Copenhagen, Århus and Odense. Since August 1 the Copenhagen Police has recorded nearly 30 public shooting episodes but only two episodes in Amager.

“I think the HAs were content to contain the conflict to one area instead of having it also spread to Amager,” says Vang Nielsen.

Detective Constable Steffen Pedersen says there are several high-ranking HA members who live or have a history in Amager. “You can imagine that the HAs were not interested in shootings in their own back yard,” he says.