Dutch policemen on Amsterdam riot. Translated from Dutch.
"They are still shocked by what happened in the capital of the Netherlands on Thursday night. "The ferocity of the attacks, but also the cowardice to beat up groups of defenseless people in dark alleys and streets. It was disgusting."
Several police officers, who tried to restore some order to the chaos in Amsterdam on Thursday night, spoke independently to De Telegraaf. They were shocked by what they experienced..."After the match won by Ajax, the tension that had been caused by the confrontation with the Israeli football club for weeks seemed to have subsided somewhat. The outflow from the Johan Cruyff ArenA went smoothly and in a reasonably calm atmosphere. We were not surprised that something was going to happen, but we were surprised by the intensity and ferocity in the alleys. We did not take into account enough that the violence would take place in this way later," a police commander reflects.
The following reconstruction is based on conversations with a number of agents and managers. Their names are known to De Telegraaf.
When the referee blows the final whistle on Thursday evening, a significant portion of the police force in and around the ArenA will have already left. Officers are on their way to stations and exit roads to prevent confrontations in the city after the match.
According to all involved, there is hardly any reduction in strength. Hundreds of riot police, arrest units, dog handlers, horse riders and support staff remained on duty all night to ensure a peaceful exit of the thousands of supporters from Israel.
"We were present at all metro and train stations from the ArenA to Central Station," a riot police commander explains. "There were 260 riot police available until midnight, and 200 after that. That's slightly less than during the day, when we also had our hands full all day, but still much more than an average deployment around a football match."
According to police sources, allowing a pro-Palestine demonstration on the nearby Anton de Komplein was not the problem. A police chief: "That protest was reasonably under control. We had good contact with the organisers, who knew of our low tolerance limit. Before and during the first half, we had to constantly respond to this group that was marching towards the ArenA with the riot police. Charges on the Amsterdamse Poort, Foppingadreef and Bijlmerdreef prevented that group from reaching the ArenA. The organisation of this demonstration did not recognise some of the demonstrators present. That was a signal to us. We saw an increase in people who we already suspected were out for trouble."
According to the police, the trouble only started after a large group of Maccabi supporters arrived at the Central Station. It was just after midnight. Incidentally, all sources deny that the Jewish supporters misbehaved or brought aggression upon themselves. "I was there all day and evening," says a riot police officer. "I do not recognise myself at all in the image painted by some, that Maccabi supporters provoked or incited violence. On the contrary. When pro-Israel stickers were put on Dam Square and we explained that this was our national war memorial, everything was neatly removed again."
A colleague adds: “If the entire city is filled with thousands of Israeli supporters and a Palestinian flag is deliberately hung out of the window on Rokin, who is provoking whom?”
Regarding an incident involving a taxi driver who was allegedly assaulted by Jewish supporters, a police officer said: “We are still investigating exactly what happened but the reaction of a group of drivers to then attack a group of Israelis in the Casino was completely out of line. The people who were inside had nothing to do with that incident.”
The speed with which things went wrong during the night still astonishes all the police officers De Telegraaf spoke to. A police officer: "Small fluid groups played a cat-and-mouse game. They followed small groups of two or three supporters, beat them up and disappeared again in cars or on scooters. It didn't just happen in the city centre but also in other parts of the city. We didn't have a good answer at that moment. Especially because we had our hands more than full protecting the large group of supporters, who were also at risk of being attacked."
An experienced riot police officer: "I have never had to run and use my baton as much as that night. We did that to protect Israeli supporters." All officers and their superiors deny that the police merely watched and did nothing.
"Every police officer on the street was busy protecting Jewish supporters. We arranged buses at the GVB to drop off Maccabi supporters at hotels throughout the city. They thanked us warmly for that. It is all the more sad that things went wrong in a number of places. We find it terrible that we could not protect these people," says a police officer.
An officer denies that there was any underestimation. He says: "When we saw that our tactics against this hit and run were less effective, we immediately switched to the strategy of clustering all recognisable Maccabi supporters on the Dam and the Spui to protect them there and offer them safety. Later we took them to hotels by bus..."All the messages on social media are also being looked at," he [a police commander] assures. At the moment, there are two large-scale investigations: one into the perpetrators and one into a possible orchestration behind the Jew hunt.
The underlying problem of anti-Semitism and the apparent lack of clear perpetrator profiles of its instigators is recognised by a riot police officer who also often serves in Amsterdam-West. "These perpetrators of Arab descent do not always have a criminal record, which means we cannot properly determine what kind of person we are dealing with. It is partly the same group that misbehaves at fairs or in the nightlife. The management has also been warned by us in recent months that this will get out of hand at some point. Unfortunately, Jewish people are now the victims. A very clear line has been crossed. This street terror must no longer be tolerated."
https://archive.ph/Pzg0G#selection-985.0-994.0; https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/931019379/geschokte-me-er-over-jodenjacht-ik-herken-me-totaal-niet-in-beeld-dat-maccabi-fans-geweld-uitlokten