Vandalism and fires during end-of-year festivities have cost Dutch insurance companies 11 million Euro in damages. Last year the cost was eight million Euro. This was announced by the Organization of Insurance Companies. Damages of four million Euro were due to the burning of cars, tens of which were burned in the Slotervaart neighborhood of Amsterdam as well as in The Hague. The other seven million resulted from damages to buildings as a result of errant fireworks and vandalism. The police have arrested hundreds of people.
The number of attacks on Amsterdam places of business increased from 296 incidents in 2006 to 394 in 2007. The head of the Amsterdam police Bernard Welten called this a shocking development. Police helicopters are now flying over the city more frequently and high-risk routes are being watched more carefully. Welten added that he is collaborating with local imams in preparation for the screening of the movie on the Quran being produced by conservative politician Geert Wilders. The police are afraid that there will be riots when the film is shown.
Ybo Buruma, professor of criminal law at Nijmegen University, has stated that the Attoney-General's office and judges must have better control over the police. Detectives have too many chances to hide or distort information, and state attorneys sometimes collaborate with them. Buruma claims that the abuses discovered in the Hell's Angels affair are only the tip of the iceberg. In some cases police record declarations that were never made by suspects and they delete information favorable to the suspects.
Fifty-eight prominent autochtonous Dutchmen have published an appeal for tolerance in the daily Trouw. A website was established where people could show their support for this appeal. However, part of it had to be removed after hundreds of people responded with curses and discriminatory remarks.
There was substantial vandalism in Amsterdam on New Year's Eve. Stones were thrown through the windows of a police station in Amsterdam West; three police cars were set on fire. This is the same police station which was attacked during riots in October. In the center of town two ambulances were partially destroyed. Firemen received 350 alarms during the night. One building on the canals burned down entirely and two firemen were wounded. It had probably been hit by a misdirected firework.
The court in Den Bosch has ruled in an appeals case that calling a policeman a homosexual is an insult and is thus punishable. Earlier, a lower court in the same town had decided that the statement was not subject to punishment, and the person charged had been released. He has now been fined.
