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Neighbourhood wants action after beating death

By The Copenhagen Post

Published 25.03.08   00:00 

The horrific killing of a 16-year-old paperboy by three teens has got Amager residents to stand together in protest of increasing youth violence

Last Wednesday's gruesome beating death of a 16-year-old paperboy has got residents from the neighbourhood up in arms and wanting solutions for curbing the youth violence that is becoming more brazen and increasingly common.

The episode last week was especially audacious, as the three teens arrested for the murder committed their attack with baseball bats in the middle of the afternoon.

Hundreds of neighbourhood residents have gathered daily at the scene of the crime to lay flowers for the victim, Deniz Özgür Ozun, and many have held group protests against the ever-increasing violent behaviour of the area's young people. A larger anti-violence torchlight procession will be held downtown on Thursday, starting at City Hall.

Police believe that although Ozun was of Turkish descent and the attackers white Danes, the incident resulted from a heated verbal exchange and was not racially motivated. Another theory is that the three teens mistakenly believed Ozun was a member of a rival gang.

Politicians, including the justice minister, spoke out against the crime and promised to seek a toughening of weapon laws and stiffer punishment for youths committing violence.

Jette Bergenholz Bautrup, a city council member who works as a social counsellor on Amager, said the shortage of police on the streets is the main problem.

'When there were police patrols sent out exclusively to take care of young troublemakers, the neighbourhood was peaceful,' Bautrup told public broadcaster DR. 'So it could well be that we need to get those patrols going again.'

Supporters of youth programmes to steer young people away from gangs and violence also had their say in the media, and included the mother of one of the attackers.

'This could have been avoided if my children had got the help they needed,' she told TV2 News. 'I've fought for nearly five years to get the authorities attention and gone to meeting after meeting, only to be told that they didn't have the resources.'

Henrik Vang, member of youth programme Projektbasen, said an intensification of the rivalry between gangs in the neighbourhood was bound to result in tragedy sooner or later.

'Those three young men seemed as if they were tired of everything and everyone. They had been extremely threatening in their behaviour recently and drove around the neighbourhood pretending they were going to run down pedestrians with their car,' said Vang.

Although the loss of their son is inconsolable to Ozun's parents, three Pakistani men are doing their part to try and ease the couple's pain. The men, who in 2005 organised a support concert for earthquake victims in Pakistan, have set up a fund for the parents through their social website project, Abros.dk.

'We hope that the fund will at least have some symbolic value for the mother, who is dealing with the worst possible situation - losing an only child,' said one of the brothers. (RC)

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