The protest was organized by the BIJ1 Rotterdam in response to racist text messages from Rotterdam agents. At the end of February, five Rotterdam agents became reprimanded in writing due to the existence of a racist app group. The racist statements came out all at once last year.
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Police officers named citizens with a migrant background, among others, ‘cancer people’, ‘pussy-Africans’ and ‘pauperallochtonen’, who they want to ‘shoot’ at. It was recently announced that they also discriminated against the 16-year-old Hümeyra, who was murdered in 2018.
BIJ1 Rotterdam and the left-wing action group Doorbraak demand the dismissal of the five police officers who expressed racist expression in app groups. A petition has also been started for this, which has now been signed more than 7500 times. According to BIJ1, the officers are unable to keep black people and people of color safe.
‘Powerful signal’
AT 1 Rotterdam calls it a ‘nice turnout’ on Twitter and ‘a powerful signal that things really have to change in the Rotterdam police force’. SP Rotterdam also expressed support for the demonstration. The party tweeted to be thrilled to see “so many people in action against racism in the police force.”
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Police officers were also uneasy about the light sentences that the five officers received for the racist statements in the WhatsApp group.
The National Police announced this week that they are imposing disciplinary sentences on discrimination and racism against the light. According to the police leadership, the current way of punishing officers who have crossed the line is no longer in keeping with the spirit of the times.
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