Prosecutor can't get to 75 pct. of discrimination charges: report

While the Public Prosecutor promises to carefully examine and assess "all charges of discrimination" in its own guidelines, the reality is that about three-quarters of such charges don't even make it to the Public Prosecutor, RTL Nieuws reports based on its own investigation. Between 2005 and 2013, the police received an average of 416 discrimination reports per year. Only an average of 123 cases were examined by the Public Prosecutor. The rest remained in limbo. The Prosecutor admits that it can't fulfill the promise to examine and assess each discrimination report. "With the advent of social media, on which insults, threats and discriminatory statements are easily made, we can no longer be bastions and have to make choices", Gabrielle Hoppenbrouwers said to RTL Nieuws. The Public Prosecution Service is therefore adjusting the guideline. The new directive will be implemented on January 1st, though it is as yet unclear what it will say. A spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor said to the broadcaster that seriousness and social unrest will be taken into account. PvdA parliamentarian and former police officer Ahmed Marcouch thinks it a very bad sign that the Prosecutor will let certain cases go. "It has become too much because we prosecute too late and too often not at all. We can only reduce discrimination if we say: 'we do not accept discrimination, and where it happens, we act'."