About This Episode
"On the Brink of Bloodshed – The Battle of Ryesgade, Part 3" is an episode of the Danish true crime podcast Danske Kriminalsager, and the third instalment in the series' account of the Battle of Ryesgade. It examines how police tried to regain control of an area of Copenhagen that was, in practice, outside the authorities' control.
The central problem facing the police was stark: storming the barricades could leave people seriously injured, and possibly dead. The episode follows the authorities as they worked to gather detailed knowledge about the occupied area while simultaneously planning how a clearance operation could actually be carried out.
At one point, the episode recounts, officials went as far as to consider calling in assistance from the Danish armed forces and deploying military vehicles against the barricades. As the risk of a violent conclusion grew, politicians, the media and mediators were working in parallel to find other ways out of the conflict before the situation escalated further.
The episode is part of Danske Kriminalsager, a Danish true crime podcast that examines significant criminal cases and what they meant for police investigative methods and the Danish justice system. Historian Anders Brandt Lundager hosts. The guest in this episode is Frederik Strand, director of Politimuseet, the Danish police museum.
The show is produced by the team behind "Danske Drabssager", and its regular hosts include Stine Bolther, Bent Isager-Nielsen and Frederik Strand. The episode runs 30 minutes and is episode number 7 in the series. It can be heard on Apple Podcasts and on radioplay.dk, a Danish audio streaming service.
