Police failed to protect anti-blackface protesters in Staphorst riots: Inspectorate

The police did not act decisively or adequately during the Kick Out Zwarte Piet demonstration in Staphorst last year. The police should have intervened and given more protection to the protesters and Amnesty International observers when rioters attacked them, concluded the Justice and Security Inspectorate after investigating the police actions surrounding the disturbances.

“During the preparation, the police incorrectly assessed the severity of the risks,” the investigators wrote in the report on police action published on Thursday.

On November 19 last year, members of Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) came to Staphorst to demonstrate against the blackface character Zwarte Piet in the Sinterklaas parade. Amnesty International sent observers. Counter-demonstrators were waiting for KOZP at the Staphorst exit of the A28. This resulted in serious disturbances and considerable violence used by the counter-protesters, four of whom are being prosecuted by the Public Prosecution Service (OM)

The investigation by the Inspectorate shows that the police did expect roadblocks by rioters during the preparations but did not work out specifically how they would take action against it. The preparations were not complete enough and did not correspond well to the available information, the researchers wrote.

The police proved unable to intervene effectively when things went differently than planned on the day of the demonstration. When two demonstrators’ cars veered off the planned route and were pelted and vandalized on the A28 exit, there were far too few officers on site because the riot police encountered a road blockade.

When the police then decided to stop the convoy of demonstrators at a gas station in Meppel, the rioters quickly found the demonstrators. The police informed KOZP that they must leave the location and drive away themselves “because they experienced the situation as too threatening.” Rioters then surrounded the bus.

According to the Inspectorate, the police should have intervened and protected the demonstrators. “The police were not well prepared for the situation that ultimately arose, which meant that they did not sufficiently protect the demonstrators against the violence of rioters.”

The Inspectorate recommended that the police work out the possible risks more fully while preparing for demonstrations and that officers should know how to respond to them. There will be no Sinterklaas arrival party in Staphorst this year.