Last night brought another night of unrest to The Hague, again in the Schilderswijk neighbourhood. The municipality declared an emergency order for several streets in the area.
The police report that they arrested 20 people last night: quite a bit more than the night before, when four people were arrested. The situation played out similarly to Wednesday night: police were pelted with eggs and stones, and had loud fireworks set off next to them.
At first, it seemed that the unrest would be prevented altogether. The evening started quietly: neighbourhood leaders, community police and residents were actively working to maintain a good atmosphere on the streets. The Hague Mayor Jan van Zanen had also visited the area earlier in the day to encourage residents to maintain the peace.
At 11:00 PM, however, young people gathered in the streets again. Fires were started and those who gathered on the street made a lot of noise.
The 20 arrests that took place were for sedition (inciting resistance against an authority), contempt of a police officer, open violence, disregard of the emergency warrant and assault of a police officer. The police are still investigating the destruction of two police vehicles.
ME gaat ingrijpen. Wie niet van straat gaat wordt aangehouden. Er geldt een noodverordening pic.twitter.com/fiIV66IulS
— Sander Knura (@sanderknura) August 13, 2020
The causes of the unrest are still unknown. There have been speculations that it comes down to corona boredom or the heatwave, but there’s no evidence to back that up at the moment.
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