Tractors blocked cops from protecting anti-blackface protesters near Staphorst: Police

Several blockades of tractors prevented the police from getting to Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) protesters being surrounded and harassed by men in blackface makeup on an A28 offramp to Staphorst on Saturday. The Oost-Nederland police gave the Volkskrant a statement on Wednesday, four days after the debacle.

In its first concise response to rioters preventing KOZP protesters from reaching their pre-approved demonstration at the Sinterklaas arrival party in Staphorst, the police want to “partially refute” the idea that officers stood and watched cars being attacked on the A28 exit. According to witnesses, people - mostly men and many in blackface - attacked three cars, pelting them with items, shaking them, and slashing one car’s tires.

“Near the exit where things got out of hand, there was a police van with six officers,” a police spokesperson told the Volkskrant in writing. When the rioters started attacking cars, they called in reinforcement from the riot police, he said. But the riot police “was quite hampered along the way by various blockades of tractors, for example,” he said. “Crow’s feet were even found at one location.”

So the riot police arrived at the offramp “only a little later,” and the rioters “immediately cooperated” after the first intervention. The six officers already at the scene estimated that the harassed demonstrators were safest in their vehicles, the spokesperson said. “They also received this instruction from their control room.” And six officers trying to act against such a crowd “could only have led to further escalation and risks for the people under attack.” So they waited for the riot police.

According to witnesses, rioters started gathering on the A28 exit to wait for KOZP demonstrators at 11:00 a.m. They attacked the cars at 1:30 p.m. The police did not answer the Volkskrant on why it only deployed six officers to watch the people gathering next to the highway. Especially given the Friesland highway blockade stopping KOZP protesters from reaching their demonstration in 2017.

According to the police spokesperson, the police deployed 200 officers to supervise the KOZP protest in Staphorst. For comparison, the police usually deploy about 150 officers for high-risk football matches. When things went wrong, the other police officers were deployed in Staphorst, including on Marktplein, where Sinterklaas arrived at 2:00 p.m. and where the KOZP protest was supposed to be held. The mayor banned the protest.

According to the spokesperson, the police are looking into whether “the right considerations were made when thighs went wrong.” They also “sincerely regret” that the KOZP activists' fundamental right to demonstrate was violated on Saturday.

“The police have worked to the best of their knowledge,” the spokesperson said. “And we understand very well the question of why no arrests were made. After all, criminal offenses have been committed,” he said, not answering the question. “I hope that with the above explanation, we have been able to share some of the dilemmas in this.”

The police’s response led to a great deal of criticism. Police scientist Jaap Timmer of the VU Amsterdam told NU.nl that the police and mayor should have been better prepared for this escalation. “We have known since Gouda in 2014, and then Zaandam, Apeldoorn, and the Friesland highway blockades that this is a sensitive and complicated file. Now the police are showing for the umpteenth time that the right to demonstrate apparently does not apply to everyone.”

BIJ1 MP Sylvana Simons also clashed with Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius about that point, pointing out that KOZP demonstrators have been harassed, attacked, and hindered in their right to demonstrate for a decade. Simons could not believe that after a decade of incidents, the Minister would first want to find out what happened in Staphorst. She called the Minister “hard of learning” and demanded a broad independent investigation into the police.