As you may know the country I live in uses birthright to pick a head of state, which I strongly feel is decidedly outdated, silly and, well, wrong. As you also may know some mental case killed a bunch of people when the queen visited Apeldoorn this April when he drove his car into the crowd. This act of frustration has been made into a “terrorist attempt to assassinate the royal family”. The guy was driving a Suzuki Swift loaded with nothing but himself, the royal family was in a 12 meter long bus with an empty weight of almost 9000 kg.
Now today the queen is visiting some other municipalities and they have created special emergency laws giving the police special powers to curb demonstrations and search people as they please. Let me translate the press-agency news item from ‘nu.nl’, the largest dutch news site:
RAALTE/OMMEN – In the municpalities of Raalte and Ommen in the Overijssel province an emergency provision will be enacted on Friday in relation to the visit of queen Beatrix to these municipalities.
The police has indications that there are plans for serious disturbances of public order.
This can be read on the websites of the two municipalities in the Salland region. In the areas the queen is visiting the police can perform preventative searches. Demonstrations and the carrying of flags is outlawed.
The municipalities point, among other things, to the events in Apeldoorn on queensday. There, during the queens visit, a man drove into the crowd lining the route. Eight people were killed.
Precautionary measure
According to the police, there are no direct clues that anything is about to happen, and the emergency provision is nothing but a precautionary measure. “The rules just say we need indications for trouble before an emergency provision can be enacted.”
“We now meet these requirements, because there are always people that dislike the queen.”
Fear
According to the police spokesperson, the measures are purely instigated by fear that the queens day drama might repeat itself. “We can’t have another Apeldoorn here. But it’s not like we’re going to be lining up riot police or using tanks.”
So far the dutch media have yet to notice anything wrong with the police statements. Which is evey bit as shocking as the statements themselves.
As you maybe have noticed “we” are not very unlike some dictatorial governed countries “we” like to bash.
But at least “we” can write and speak about it, hoping it turns around.
There has also been a series of incidents lately that involve the police using their fire arms, and which have caused a lot of hubbub and media attention. I’ve already heard collegues of mine say things like “too bad those cops didn’t shoot to kill.”
On the face of it, it’s a somewhat understandable (if harsh) reaction. But as you see this happening, once again our hatred and – mostly – fear take the better of us, stimulated by the press, and we happily and blindly let it guide our decisions. More and more I see news articles plainly referring to fear as a motivator, just like the one translated by Rop above. It wouldn’t surprise me if events like these will be used as a pretext for expanding police powers and having them respond more aggressively.
People say our police are pussies because their hands are tied and they can often do nothing. I say that may be our only saving grace. For now.
Amazing… on the website of the municipality of Raalte you can find the emergency ordinance:
http://www.raalte.nl/index.php?simaction=content&mediumid=1&pagid=1231&stukid=15454
That is, when you know how to fix the broken link to the pdf. To save you the trouble:
http://www.raalte.nl/document.php?fileid=18208&m=1&f=ae2b77990f83c5953e3dd1e750e27ffb&attachment=1&c=15454
It’s quite disturbing to read:
“Overwegende, (..) dat een ernstige vrees voor ernstige wanordelijkheden, zoals bedoeld in artikel 176 Gemeentewet, niet is uitgesloten; ”
which translates into:
“Considering, (..) that a serious fear for serious disturbances, (..) cannot be excluded; ”
A serious fear cannot be excluded? I wonder if that’s what they aim for anyway?
Beste
Graag zou ik u voor mijn thesis project contacteren (master in conceptual design, Designacademy, Eindhoven), mijn onderwerp werkt rond planned obsolescence in technologie en hoe virussen/worms hierbij van dienst kunnen zijn. Ik heb een nogal “conceptueel” idee. Daarom zou ik graag met een professional spreken over het onderwerp en mijn idee. Hopelijk kan u hiermee mij verder helpen !? U kan mij contacteren op tomtack@gmail.com.
Vriendelijke groeten
Tom Tack