More than 9,300 incidents over New Year's: police
New Year's in the Netherlands was marred by incidents like arson, vandalism, and violence against police officers and other first responders. There were a total of 9,300 such incidents this past New Year's, 387 more than the year before.
A total of 300 people were arrested, slightly fewer than the 309 people arrested last New Year's, the police announced on Friday, NU.nl reports.
Compared to five years ago, both the number of incidents and the number of arrests decreased. Over New Year's 2014/15, there were 12 thousand incidents and 640 arrests. But this decrease is not representative of the increasingly grim atmosphere in the country on New Year's Eve, the police said.
According to the police, the decrease in the number of registered incidents is at least partly due to police officers reporting violence less often. "Many officers may think that violence is just part of [their jobs], that you do not make a report for a minor injury," the police said.
As far as is known, no police officers were injured over New Year's, deputy police chief Henk van Essen said. "Nevertheless, it remains remarkable that there must be so many deployments for a 'party'," he said.
