"Hooligans" will have to pay for damages in anti-curfew riots, Justice Min. says

"Hooligans" who riot and vandalize city centers will also have to pay for the damages, Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said on Monday after anti-curfew riots throughout the country on Sunday. People who loot stores and pick fights with the police will be dealt with quickly and harshly, he said. "They should be ashamed of themselves," Grapperhaus said, ANP reports. 

"It is criminal. Let one thing be clear: tit for tat," Grapperhaus said about damages done to Eindhoven Central Station and other places. "People who engage in criminal behavior will be prosecuted. I find it an aggravating circumstance if you, when 99 percent of the people do the best they can to get along with one another, sabotage that with these types of action."

He expects that hefty damage claims will be a blow to a number of rioters' futures. "I see boys aged 20 and 21 who are at the start of their working life, but they'll receive a claim for damages because they found it necessary to loot a supermarket," Grapperhaus said. "That means that, without being insured, they will suddenly have to compensate ten thousand euros in damages."

The Justice Minister does not think it necessary to deploy the army to enforce the coronavirus measures like the recently implemented curfew. "We have excellent police officers on the front line," he said. The police can also call for backup from the Koninklijke Marechaussee, a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military.