Police pay Romanian man €35,000 for violent arrest at Amsterdam Central Station

The Amsterdam police paid a Romanian man 35,000 euros in damages and compensation for an injury he sustained during his arrest at Amsterdam Central Station in August 2020, personal injury agency JBL&G announced. The man broke his hip when cops pulled him from his bike.

On 14 August 2020, police officers asked the then 27-year-old man to “remove himself and his bicycle from the IJ passage of the station,” JBL&G said. When this didn’t happen quickly enough, police officers pulled the man from his bicycle, shoved against his shoulder, and punched him in the face, according to the agency.

The man broke his hip in the fall from his bicycle. He cried out in pain, but the police refused to call an ambulance. A bystander eventually called in medical help. The police initially denied all liability, but “an internal investigation by the police (with analysis of the available camera images)” showed “clear cut” that the officers could have solved the matter differently, JBL&G said.

The man needed surgery after the hip fracture and still struggled with complaints a year later. The 35,000 euros is “both material compensation for the extra (medical) expenses incurred, as well as compensation for the fright, pain, and misery endured,” the agency said.

A spokesperson for the Amsterdam police confirmed to Parool that the police paid 35,000 euros in damages and compensation to the man. The police department took “appropriate measures internally” in response to the case, the spokesperson said.

The matter was settled between the police and the man, with mediation by JBL&G, without intervention by a court.