“I had a tantrum when I wrote it, but I’m terribly ashamed now.” That said one of the men who stood trial for inflammatory, insulting and discriminatory statements on Facebook during a live stream of a Kick Out Zwarte Piet demonstration in 2018.
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Journalist Clarice Gargard streamed the demonstration at the Sinterklaasintocht in Amstelveen in November of that year. This resulted in thousands of, often discriminatory, reactions.
Gargard reported 200 such responses. After extensive investigation, the police selected 25 comments that went over the line: the people behind the comments have to answer for themselves in court this week. It concerns reactions such as ‘bomb on it’ and ‘too bad that slavery has been canceled’. The trial began today with four suspects. 21 others are coming to court later this week.
Laconic
Gargard initially reacted laconically when she read the comments, she told in 2018 AT5. ‘At first I was like, I suppose. But when I later saw how bad it was, yes, you will not worry about that. ‘
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‘I didn’t mean to cause a lot of trouble with this’
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One of the suspects wrote: “Everyone cut their tongue, it is all about nothing.” In court he said today that he had not considered what he could do with this sentence. ‘I was watching and I saw children crying. But I didn’t mean to cause a lot of trouble with this. ‘
Shadowed
Today’s hearing was largely overshadowed by the prosecution’s decision last night to remove the case prosecutor from the case. This officer was involved with the for the weekend decision not to prosecute rapper Akwasi for his statements about Zwarte Piet at the Black Lives Matter demonstration on Dam Square. She was then criticized because it later turned out that until last summer she was on the board of the Meldpunt Discriminatie Regio Amsterdam with a foreman of Kick Out Zwarte Piet.
A spokesperson for the OM emphasizes today in front of the camera AT5 that neither the prosecution decision in the Akwasi case nor the administrative function at the discrimination hotline played a role in removing the prosecutor from Gargard’s case. “The decision was really just made to keep the focus on the matter.”
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According to the lawyer of one of the five suspects today, Robin Link, it was a good decision by the Public Prosecutor to replace the public prosecutor. ‘You have to get rid of any smell of bias. Although this is a different matter, there are still similarities with the Akwasi case. ‘
Not a good word
But Sidney Smeets, Gargard’s lawyer, did not have a good word for it. ‘It is a pity that it is not about racism now, but about the public prosecutor who has left. While that has nothing to do with this case about serious racist expressions. ‘ Gargard therefore left the courtroom at the start of the trial.
The Public Prosecution today demanded fines and community service orders against the first four suspects. Two of them should receive 30 hours of community service, according to justice. A fine of 350 euros has been demanded against two others. The rulings are expected in early November.
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