Latest news with #CopenhagenPolice
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- The Guardian
US college students detained in Denmark after alleged Uber driver dispute
Two American college students traveling for spring break were arrested in Copenhagen, charged with assault, and held in a Danish prison for two weeks following an alleged dispute with an Uber driver, Danish police said. The family of Owen Ray, a 19-year-old studying at Miami University in Ohio, said he and an unnamed friend have been forced to forfeit their passports and remain in the country. Ray and his friend were visiting Denmark in March when they entered the wrong address for their destination on the Uber app, his family and attorney said. An altercation allegedly occurred when the driver refused to take them to the alternate destination, and the two students exited the car, they said. They said the driver threatened the boys and assaulted Ray. 'A scuffle ensued, culminating in the boys fleeing due to fear. This is all captured via the Uber's dash cam video, which is now part of the legal proceedings in Denmark,' according to Erin Pelton, a PR manager representing Ray's family. The two students were detained at Copenhagen airport the next day while trying to return home to the US, she said. Danish police confirmed that two US citizens were charged with common assault. A Copenhagen police spokesperson told multiple outlets: 'The Copenhagen Police can confirm, that on March 31, two American citizens were arrested in Copenhagen, and on March 31 they were brought before the court charged with common assault. 'They were sentenced to 10 days pre-trial detention. This verdict has since extended until April 24.' Ray has been released from a Danish prison but authorities will not allow him to return to the US, his family said on Monday. The status of the other student is unclear. 'We are relieved that Owen has been released from a Danish prison following the unprovoked assault he and his friend suffered at the hands of an Uber driver on March 31,' a statement by Ray's parents, Andy Ray and Sara Buchen-Ray, said. 'However, we remain deeply concerned that Danish authorities have confiscated his passport and will not allow him to return to the United States – something we understand is unusual in Danish court proceedings. 'The facts make clear that Owen is the victim in this case, and we urge Danish officials to allow him to return home to the United States without delay.' The US state department said it is aware of the situation and is providing the citizens with consular assistance. 'The Department has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad,' it said. A spokesperson for Uber told outlets that the company 'take reports of violence very seriously'. 'Any additional questions about the investigation should be directed to the Danish police,' the statement added. The arrests took place amid heightened political tensions between Denmark and the US over ownership of Greenland. Relations between the two traditionally close Nato allies have soured since Donald Trump's repeated threats to acquire Greenland, a resource-rich, semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Yahoo
US college students detained in Denmark over alleged Uber dispute
Two American college students have been in Danish custody for more than two weeks after an alleged altercation with their Uber driver, Copenhagen Police confirmed Monday. The mother of Owen Ray, who remains behind bars with an unnamed friend, talked to NewsNation about the situation. #Denmark #US #Chicago
New York Times
04-03-2025
- New York Times
Piglets Left to Die in Art Exhibition Are Stolen in Denmark
Three piglets were stolen from an art exhibition in Copenhagen over the weekend after a provocative artist said they would be allowed to starve to death in a commentary about animal welfare in Denmark, one of the world's largest pork exporters. The artist, Marco Evaristti, said in an interview on Monday that his exhibition, 'And Now You Care?,' was meant to 'wake up the Danish society' to the mistreatment of pigs, pointing to statistics that tens of thousands of pigs die each day because of poor conditions. 'I have some kind of voice as an artist to talk about the issue,' Evaristti, 62, said. 'So I will share my thoughts about what I think about the treatment of the animals in Denmark.' The exhibition, which opened on Friday inside a former butcher's warehouse in the Meatpacking District of Copenhagen, included three live piglets that were caged by two shopping carts on a pile of straw. Large-scale paintings of the Danish flag and slaughtered pigs hung on the walls. The pigs, which were given water but no food, were expected to live up to five days. Evaristti said he also would not eat or drink until the exhibition came to an end. But the pigs did not die. They disappeared. Evaristti, who was born in Chile, said that while the exhibition space was being cleaned on Saturday morning, members of an animal rights organization came to check on the piglets. Shortly after they left, the theft occurred. 'They closed the door while the cleaning people were cleaning the toilet,' he said, adding that the door was unlocked. 'After four minutes, they come out and it was no pigs.' A spokesman for the Copenhagen Police said that it was notified about the theft just before noon on Saturday and that nobody had been charged. Evaristti, who said he and his family had received numerous threats, does not expect the piglets to be returned. The use of animals in artwork is frequently criticized. In 2017, the Guggenheim in New York pulled three works involving animals from an exhibition by Chinese conceptual artists after protests and an online petition signed by more than half a million people. In 2000, Evaristti displayed 10 goldfish in individual blenders in a Danish museum and allowed visitors to turn on the machines. Some did. Animal rights groups were divided over Evaristti's latest exhibition, with some agreeing with his message but not his method and presentation. A review from a Danish newspaper slammed the exhibition as 'old-fashioned avant-garde.' Mathias Madsen, a campaign manager for Anima International Denmark, said in a statement that the organization had reported Evaristti to the police when he announced his plans to starve the piglets to death. 'This would violate multiple sections of the Danish Animal Welfare Act, and we wanted authorities prepared to intervene,' Madsen said, adding that the strong public reaction to the exhibition was a reminder that people find animal suffering unacceptable. There are about 5,000 pig farms in Denmark that produce approximately 28 million pigs annually, according to the Danish Agriculture and Food Council. Many are slaughtered, with more than 70 percent of the pig meat exported to countries within the European Union. Birgitte Damm, the chief consultant for farm animals and mink for Animal Protection Denmark, said about 25,000 piglets die each day in Danish stables, some from starvation, because the country's sows are bred to birth 20 piglets but have only 14 teats. 'We completely understand the indignation, frustration and even anger over the continued abuse of millions of pigs in the Danish pig industry,' Damm said about Evaristti's exhibition. 'This has been going on for decades, and it is completely unacceptable. However, we cannot allow three individual piglets to suffer in order to make our point.' Evaristti said his idea for the exhibition came from reading a newspaper article about the topic around October. 'I knew that something was wrong in Denmark, but I didn't know that it was so bad,' he said. On Monday night, he faced a critical question: What now? He said that an exhibition without the piglets would be 'boring' and 'plastic,' before he shut it down altogether on Tuesday. 'If you take your heart from your body, you cannot exist, only as the body without soul,' he said. 'My exhibition doesn't have a soul anymore. It's only a body and I'm not interested in representing a body. I want the soul with the body.'
