In the past six months, police officers have reported thirty reports of racist or discriminatory statements and behavior by colleagues, NRC writes. Most reports were made by senior officers to the national anti-racism coordinator at the police, who was appointed last year. According to the NRC, it is the first time that the police have received such an overview of reports about racism and discrimination in their own circle.
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In response, the deputy chief of the National Police Liesbeth Huyzer says in the newspaper that she will tighten up the policy to combat discrimination by the police. She does not want to say whether she finds the thirty reports in six months a lot or a few. Huyzer:
That question doesn’t matter: there will be many more reports to come. What matters is that colleagues report it, that we investigate the reports and that we respond adequately and unequivocally. Anyone who crosses the border will always feel it, always.
Dismissal
According to Huyzer, the reports colleagues make of discrimination are the fruits of the policy announced last year that racist behavior will not be tolerated within the police, and in extreme cases will lead to dismissal.
The most recent incident concerns an agent from The Hague who was suspended from his job last week after a report from his superior. The man has been active in Geert Wilders’ PVV for years. He is being investigated for making “grossly inappropriate comments” on social media.
‘Negroes’
Huyzer says that discredited agents are being dismissed more quickly than before and an investigation is being launched.
An agent in Rotterdam who had been employed for 46 years and who worked as a confidential adviser within the force was fined 500 euros for discrimination. He had said to colleagues at the coffee machine at the police station: ‘The niggers who stomp the beans have a break. That’s why it’s taking so long.’
Six police officers from the east of the Netherlands were recently suspended because they posted a video on social media of a trip to Paris in which they shouted ‘less, less, less’ to Moroccan passers-by. The aforementioned PVV member tweeted in response to that news that he wanted ‘less, less, less gajes’.
