Ruling party wants double punishments for crime in problem areas

Those who live in problem areas and break the law must be punished twice as harshly as those from another neighborhood who commit the same crime, according to VVD leader Klaas Dijkhoff. In this way he wants to force problem neighborhoods on the right path, he said to newspaper AD.

Dijkhoff will expand on his plan during the General Considerations, the parliamentary debate on next year's budget, on Wednesday.

According to Dijkhoff, problem neighborhoods are neighborhoods "in which it is not clear who is in charge", neighborhoods were integration has failed. The government must find neighborhoods in which more than half of the residents are of non-western origin and where crime is high, he said. In those neighborhoods punishments should be twice as harsh.

The VVD leader in parliament doesn't think this is discrimination. "Equality is for equal cases. We already have punishment aggravating circumstances. If you attack an emergency worker, for example", he said to the newspaper.