We all know that a large police presence is needed on New Year’s Eve, but this year, violence against the police in the Netherlands more than doubled from last year. This year 59 separate incidents occurred, compared to 27 last year.
The emergency services also had to attend to more incidents this year. It’s up 9% from the previous year.
Fireworks
Fireworks were the big issue on New Year’s Eve, and in The Hague, officers had fireworks being thrown at them. In general firework incidents rose by 12%, threats of abuse also rose by 12%, vandalism rose by 8.5%. However, despite this, less people were arrested overall. Many who were detained, were done so because of firework incidents.
Firework sales are up and with this comes more firework issues (are we honestly surprised?)
In de Grote Geest in Monster werd deze vuurwerkbom afgestoken op de brug. #triest #Westland #wldebat pic.twitter.com/pMPhl4BTId
— 112 Westland (@112westland) January 1, 2019
Yup, this really happened
Emergency services have had enough
Members of the emergency services have had enough of the issues that arise during the New Year’s Eve celebration. Especially when it involves violence towards the workers. Mark Rutte even made an appeal to the country for people to be respectful to the emergency service workers (you know it’s bad when the prime minister has to TELL people to be nice to people who are there to keep us safe).
This has sparked a re-examination of the running’s of New Year’s Eve in the Netherlands in general. The punishment for breaking the law, the organisation of NYE, the fireworks and of course the bonfires are going to be re-examined by next year. They are hoping that this will do something.
I’ll leave this one here…
What are your thoughts on this? What do you think should be done? Let us know in the comments!
