On Saturday evening, May 4, the tension is palpable: will there be two minutes of silence during the National Remembrance Day ceremony on Dam Square in Amsterdam, or will shouting anti-Israel demonstrators disrupt order?
The triangle of mayor, chief public prosecutor and police chief is prepared for anything. Under an emergency ordinance, demonstrations on or near Dam Square are prohibited during the commemoration.
Additional measures have also been taken. Instead of 20,000, a maximum of 10,000 people will be admitted. They must all be searched upon arrival for weapons, flags, banners or sound amplifiers. The visitors are then divided into sections.
Remembrance Day on Dam Square is ‘watch, watch, watch’
This ‘compartmentalization’ means that in the event of an incident there is less chance that fleeing people will be oppressed, as happened in 2010 when the ‘Dam shouter’ caused blind panic.
“The task for the police officers on Dam Square is to look, look, look,” says former Amsterdam police chief Joop van Riessen (80). He was often in charge of security at events.
Last year he released his thriller Attack on Dam Square, based on a real event. In 2000, Van Riessen received a tip from the security service five hours before the commemoration about an impending attack on Queen Beatrix from the Moluccan area. To be on the safe side, there were snipers with binoculars on the roof of Hotel Krasnapolsky.
Work against the ground
The triangle, assisted by the AIVD, is not afraid of a terrorist attack. The threat level is comparable to that of previous years. As always, there will be (in)visible security against terrorists.
To check visitors, Van Riessen advocates detection gates. ‘That seems better to me than searching all those people. You must also keep a close eye on the boxes containing uniformed and plainclothes officers. They must keep a close eye on suspicious movements in their immediate vicinity and intervene immediately if necessary. Do not hesitate.’
Shouting during the commemoration is punishable under Article 144 of the Criminal Code. If someone does let out a scream, Van Riessen says it is important to immediately tackle the screamer(s) to the ground.
Remembrance Day requires mass imperturbability
Mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam also appealed to the public when presenting the emergency measures in mid-April. This should keep a cool head and ‘show a certain degree of imperturbability’ in the event of any disruption.
A year has 525,600 minutes, the mayor had just looked it up. ‘These are all minutes in which demonstrations can take place,’ says Halsema, ‘But not these two minutes.’
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