Police union worried about winter full of climate protests

The Dutch police union NPB is very concerned about Extinction Rebellion’s plans to protest for the climate in the coming months. The police cannot manage all these protests, chairman Jan Struijs said to Parool.

“These unannounced actions are a problem,” Struijs said about an Extinction Rebellion protest on Saturday. “We have to call up people from the regular service, which means they are not elsewhere. We spend another four hours with everyone arrested before they leave with a fine in their pocket. If these actions attract thousands of demonstrators, you have days of work.”

On Saturday, about 300 Extinction Rebellion protesters blocked the Utrechtsebaan of the A12 in The Hague. The police arrested 150 of them. Early this month, the police arrested 400 climate activists at a protest at Schiphol airport.

Notably, the police did not arrest any of the pro-Zwarte Piet protesters who gathered on the A28 offramp to Staphorst earlier this month to block anti-blackface demonstrators from reaching their pre-approved protest at the Sinterklaas party. The climate activists on Saturday were sitting and standing on the highway. The pro-Zwarte Piet protesters surrounded and shook three cars, pelted them with things, and slashed one car’s tires.

According to Struijs, the police unions are meeting with the Minister next week. “How the hell are we going to handle this?” he said. “Our policemen are exhausted. This will disrupt things soon. They are highly motivated and driven by the global environmental problem. We have a hot winter ahead of us, as they say ironically.”

Extinction Rebellion confirmed to Parool that they have many more actions planned in the coming months, and their support is growing. “The growth is going very fast. People are worried about the climate,” Lucas Winnips of the climate activism group said. “We want to be on the front page day in and day out with our peaceful actions.”

According to Extinction Rebellion, the government is not being honest about the dangers of climate change. The group wants the Netherlands to reduce its CO2 emissions to zero by 2025. They believe massive demonstrations are the only way to get the government’s attention. It worked for the farmers, after all.