Rotterdam riot arrest total reaches 51, police
confirm two were hit by bullets
Crime Society
November 20, 2021
The remains
of bikes and mopeds after the riots. Photo: Jeffrey Groeneweg ANP
The number
of people arrested during and after Friday night’s riots in Rotterdam has risen
to 51, police said on Saturday afternoon. Police also confirmed two people had
been shot. Both have been hospitalised, and police are now checking to confirm
if they were hit by police bullets. Police have said they shot at the crowd on
‘several occasions’. As yet, the circumstances of the shootings are still
unclear, and a formal investigation is now underway. Around half the rioters
who have been arrested are minors and they came from all over the country,
police said. Jan Struijs, of police union Nederlandse Politiebond said there
appeared to have been two instances in which police fired at the crowd. In one,
police were driven into a corner by a large group of rioters,’ he told
broadcaster NOS. ‘In the other, it was about protecting fire officers, who were
being attacked so they could not put out a fire. Police then shot at people’s
legs.’ More arrests are not being ruled out. Rotterdam city centre is well
equipped with surveillance cameras which will be used to identify the rioters,
mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said earlier. The mayor described the riots as an ‘orgy
of violence’. Courts People arrested in the wake of the riots will be tried via
the fast-track court system, justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus said in a
reaction to the trouble. Grapperhaus spoke of his ‘deep respect’ for the
police, fire brigade and other emergency service workers who were caught up in
the violence. ‘The right to demonstrate is an important one in our society, but
what we saw yesterday was simply criminal behaviour,’ he said. ‘It had nothing
to do with demonstrating. ‘It is important that we keep talking to each other,
and where necessary, have a tough debate. But intimidation and violence should
not be part of this.’ Police union ACP accused politicians of shedding
crocodile tears. ‘If there was more police capacity, we would have been able to
nip this in the bud,’ a union spokesman told broadcaster NOS.
Read more
at DutchNews.nl:
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