Dutch prime minister condemns ‘idiot’ rioters
involved in pure violence
Crime Society November 22, 2021 Mark Rutte
addresses journalists on Monday. Photo: Lex van Lieshout ANP
After three
nights of trouble in towns and cities across the Netherlands, prime minister
Mark Rutte has condemned the rioting as ‘pure violence’, which has nothing to
do with demonstrating. Speaking ahead of a meeting with ministers to discuss
the latest coronavirus figures, Rutte said that he recognised there are
mounting tensions in society because everyone is fed up with coronavirus. ‘But
I shall never accept idiots using violence against people who are out there
every day, keeping this country safe for you and me,’ he said. ‘And they do
this under the pretext of “we’re not happy”. This is nothing but pure
violence.’ Police and justice ministry officials will do everything in their
power to track down the perpetrators, he said. They will do this, he said, ‘to
make sure that the right to demonstrate remains for all the decent people who
object to the [coronavirus] policy.’ The rioting kicked off in Rotterdam on
Friday evening, when 49 people were arrested after a demonstration against the
coronavirus rules degenerated into a riot. Police cars were set on fire and
emergency service workers were pelted with fireworks. Police fired warning
shots and on two instances fired at the crowd. On Saturday there were dozens of
arrests in copycat riots in The Hague, Roermond, on the Protestant island of
Urk and in the Limburg town of Stein. On Sunday night it was the turn of
Groningen, Enschede, Leeuwarden, Tilburg and Roosendaal. The rioting is being
carried out not by socially cohesive groups, but by multiple groups getting together, ranging from
football hooligans to frustrated youngsters and ‘defenders’, says
anthropologist Danny de Vries from the University of Amsterdam. ‘What they have
in common is the goal to sabotage the government, and they see the police as
representing this government,’ he said. ‘So they target police, which seems to
be a relatively new development.’ Ministers are meeting this week to discuss
the next steps, as the number of coronavirus cases reported on a daily basis
tops 20,000. A formal lockdown is among the measures being suggested by some
health experts.
Read more
at DutchNews.nl:
.jpg)
.webp)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário