Amsterdam police sorry for tackling, dragging man running at train station
The police of Amsterdam admitted to wrongly detaining a young man last week Monday, and using "unlawful violence". On Thursday the police will apologize to the victim, Ammar Nayare, in the presence of his lawyer, a police spokesperson reported.
Nayare told on Facebook that he was running to catch a train in Amsterdam Central Station. The police mistook him for a robber and grabbed him by his collar. Even after identifying himself, he got punched in the stomach and pulled to the ground, injuring his face.
In the Facebook post Nayare also shared some pictures with his injuries and suggested that police racially profiled him: "According to the police I look like a stereotype of someone that deals with drugs or commits break-ins". His post was shared more than a thousand times on social media.
According to the police Nayare was running with two more men at a distance of 1 km from the station, on a street where a lot of break-ins take place. Since two of the three were wearing hoodies, the police decided to intervene. They halted Nayare and when he refused to take his hand out of his pocket they proceeded with his arrest. The police spokesman admits: "The arrest was unlawful because there was no sufficient proof to order him to take his hand out of his pocket."
Nayare filed a formal complaint against the police officers. As a reaction to the announcement of the officers' apology, he told NOS: "I am a Dutch citizen, I'm not only doing this for myself, I won't wish this on any other Dutch person or anybody else. This has to stop".
