Multiple arrests for violence against police

Several police officers throughout the country fell victim to abuse over the weekend. Several of their abusers were arrested.

Police report incidents in Baarn, Utrecht and Amsterdam.

In Baarn they arrested a 24-year-old resident at Hoofdstraat in Grootegast late Saturday night, after he hurled a beer bottle at a passing police car. Officers tried to talk to the intoxicated man and advised him to go home, but he got violent and insulted them. While making their arrest the officers found seven packets containing cocaine. The narcotics were seized.

In Utrecht officers were called to a café at Weg naar Parkwijk around 11.30pm Saturday night, where a man was arguing with staff; they wanted to close up, but he refused to leave. When the officers arrived on the scene, he too started insulting them. He was taken into custody.

And in Amsterdam a female police officer was injured when a man flung something at her. The officer and colleagues had gone to a house at Bloys van Treslong straat around 2.45, where there were reports of disturbances. When the officers tried to arrest a man who refused to produce his ID papers, another man got angry and threw something at them, hitting one of them on her head. A fracas erupted, and as the officer was transported to a hospital, more police officers descended on the house. In total they arrested five people, four men and one woman.

Last weekend’s incidents come on the heels of a reminder Friday from police that aggression against its officers in unacceptable. “Police officers play a role of responsibility in our community and should be allowed to do their job without hinder and with mutual respect. Aggression and violence against them is not tolerated,” police said in a statement on Friday, following an incident during which an officer was hit on the head with a bottle, requiring almost 40 stitches. Police said that incidents in which its officers suffer violent treatment are handled with priority.