The police actions during demonstrations on the Museumplein in Amsterdam over the past weekends have cost a total of more than 5.5 million euros. Reported a spokesman for the police after inquiries from it ANP.
Since 17 January, the police had to act eleven times on the square in the capital, where hundreds of people gathered for demonstrations and ‘coffee drink’ actions by the group The Netherlands in resistance, away with this cabinet. Because people usually do not adhere to the corona rules, and do not leave after several warnings, the police must intervene. That happens with the riot police, water cannons and police horses and dogs.
The costs for the large-scale police deployment are not extra expenses, but, according to the spokesperson, are only at the expense of other police work. “The work that someone does at the mobile unit or the arrest unit is a sideline. So that deployment is logically at the expense of something else, for example work in the neighborhood, in the basic teams, the emergency aid, or work on police investigations.”
The costs are calculated on the basis of the number of police officers deployed and how many hours they are at work. Last weekend had a price tag of about 1.4 million euros. Then it came to a clash with the police on both Saturday and Sunday, and more than two hundred people were arrested.
Amsterdam received aid from the Northern Netherlands to Limburg
During the past ten weeks, the Amsterdam police received help from the military police and all other units in the Netherlands on Museumplein. “Assistance is requested from all units from all over the country, and they provide it. Help came from the north of the Netherlands to Limburg. It must be, if this takes place every Sunday,” said a police spokesperson.
“Most people who stand there are against the government measures. In addition, we see birds of various backgrounds. There are so-called ‘flower power types’, but we have also seen extreme right-wing groups and hard cores of various football clubs. The latter do not make themselves known there. as such, but we do know them from this scene. They come from all over the country, “the spokesman concluded.
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