Amsterdam protesters pressing excessive force charges against police, lawyer says
Demonstrators who participated in a banned Palestine-support protest in Amsterdam on Wednesday will be pressing charges of excessive force and police brutality against the police. Several protesters described to NOS how terrified they were when the riot police suddenly started chasing them and hitting them with batons after dropping them off at the Westelijke Havengebied by bus.
Amsterdam had banned protests on Dam Square after several nights of unrest following a match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv last week Thursday. The city gave the protesters an alternative location in the Westerpark, but hundreds still gathered on Dam Square to protest against genocide in Gaza. The police rounded them up, arresting 281 people, and driving them in three buses to the Westelijke Havengebied. There, according to videos shared online, riot police officers hit protesters with batons while shouting things like “Run, get lost. Hop, fuck off” at them.
Kamil from Amsterdam was on the second of the three buses. That bus was first driven to the Westerpark, he told NOS. “But we were not allowed to get off the bus. We heard that we had violated a law and then we drove on. Officers said that they did not know where we were being taken either,” he said. They eventually stopped at the Westelijke Havengebied.
The officers on the bus walked off without telling the protesters where they were or what to do next. As the protesters tried to figure that out and how to get home, police vans with riot police suddenly approached them. “We ran away. We were terrified,” Kamil said.
Mohamed El Bastawisy told NOS that he tried to intervene when a riot police officer hit a woman with a baton after he threw her off the bus. “I wanted to help her. Then they hit me on my head, arms and legs,” he told the broadcaster. Footage of this attack is circulating on social media. “The world started spinning. They told me to walk faster, but I couldn’t because of the pain and dizziness.”
Another protester, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was on the third bus. They got dropped off a few hundred meters from the second bus at the Westelijke Havengebied, also without instructions. “We walked along the cycle path to the nearest bus stop. Out of nowhere, a police van came along the cycle path behind us. Officers came out of the van and started beating us up. They hit us really hard and shouted at us to keep walking. We started running, but didn’t know where to go.”
Another protester said on Instagram that she tripped and a riot police officer beat her while she was lying on the ground.
The victims of this “extreme police violence” will be pressing charges against the police, criminal lawyer Krit Zeegers of law firm Prakken d’Oliveira, who is representing them, told ANP.
In a statement responding to the footage of the attacks, the police said that police violence “is always intense to see and is tested and assessed. Also in this case.”
A police spokesperson told NOS that cops are allowed to use violence if the situation requires it. “Demonstrations were prohibited in recent days due to the emergency decree. Before the riot police intervened, people were ordered to leave several times. They were also warned that violence would be used.”
Asked why the riot police used violence against demonstrators after they were taken to the Westelijke Havengebied and no longer protesting, the spokesperson said there are “understandable questions” about what happened. The police are investigating. The police are also investigating another incident on Sunday. Video shows a police officer hitting a woman on the head with a baton on Nieuwendijk.
The spokesperson said the investigations may take some time. “That is because we consider careful investigation more important than quick conclusions based on images that are circulating. They never tell the whole story.”
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) told the broadcaster that the demonstrators were moved “to put an end to the criminal behavior.” The Dutch authorities often move protesters away from a banned demonstration. This regularly happens with Extinction Rebellion blockades, for example.
According to lawyer Zeegers, this “administrative relocation” of protesters was previously declared unlawful by the court. “Forcing demonstrators into buses and holding them there” amounts to “deprivation of liberty, for which a legal basis is required,” the lawyer said to ANP. “That is lacking in these cases.”
