Investigation: Random violence against Dutch bus drivers

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Investigation: Random violence against Dutch bus drivers

Submitted by Ilonka Oudenampsen on Saturday, 23 January 2010No Comment

The Netherlands is mainly known as a tolerant and peaceful country, so many don’t know that lately the Dutch have been facing random violence against bus drivers, policemen and ambulance people. These range from mere threats to actual physical violence. As more and more of these cases occur, the public is shocked and bus drivers go on strike, forcing the government to take severe actions against any violence towards citizens with a public profession.

Media attention

Since 2008, several severe incidents have taken place, all well covered by the media causing the public to think that public transport has become more dangerous. Curiously, these incidents do not very often take place in the bigger cities, but always in the medium sized ones. It all started after several incidents in Arnhem and Gouda. In Arnhem a bus driver was robbed while being threatened with a knife and in Gouda several buses were hit with rocks thrown by Morrocan youngsters. Around New Years, several other incidents took place, where bus drivers were mugged, beaten, threatened or spit on.

After those events, the media covered every act of violence to bus drivers and other employees with a public task. Although not as serious as the incidents that triggered the public’s attention, several other cases happened, varying from threats to stabbings. The reason for the random violence is usually an argument with the bus driver. The passenger refuses to turn off their loud music, gets into the bus through the exit door or tries to travel with an invalid ticket.

Enough is enough

All these events led to the inevitable decision of bus drivers to avoid certain neighbourhoods that are known for causing incidents. This happened in Gouda, where bus drivers refused to go to the neighbourhood of Overwei and in Ede. In Almere bus company Connexxion was forced by its employees to discuss possible solutions with the city council. Because of all the media attention, the Cabinet was also forced to help find a solution. The Second Chamber had an emergency debate about the problems in Gouda that were caused by the Moroccan youths. The debate was hijacked and became about Moroccan problem youngsters in general and although several suggestions for a solution where made, including Geert Wilders who wanted to send the military to the neighbourhood, there was no actual positive outcome.

Public discontent

The fact that it took the government so long to come up with a solution and that such actions were not met with rigorous punishments, led to discontent with the Dutch people. It was not understood why this random violence, which is so unmistakably wrong, had to be discussed so much without any proper outcome. It did not help that many criminals were of Moroccan descent, as the general attitude towards Moroccans has changed since the murders on Pim Fortuyn in 2002 and Theo van Gogh in 2004. The fact that the percentage of Moroccan youngsters in statistics of youth crime is higher than that of any other part of society does not plea for them either. The troublesome attitude towards Moroccan youth, a general disapproval of the workings of the government and the strikes of the bus drivers forced the government to come up with a plan to solve these problems. However, as dealing with minorities is always seen as a delicate matter by the Dutch government, this issue had to be solved satisfactory for the bus drivers and general public but at the same time minorities should not be stigmatised. Therefore the Cabinet carefully formulised their disapproval and introduced a Taskforce for Safer Public Transport, which has been dealing with the issue since then.

Slow progress

Although there were weeks in 2009 when you could not open a Dutch newspaper without reading about another act of random violence against public servants, it seems as if 2010 may be a better year. The taskforce is working hard to try to diminish the number of incidents. According to Sjaak Krombeen, program manager of Veilige Publieke Taak (Safe Public Task) which is responsible for the taskforce, targets are being met. Higher punishments are being given, there are more security cameras, several campaigns are running and they also try to convince employers to look after their employees more.

When I spoke to Krombeen he told me: “We have urged the Public Prosecutor’s Office to demand a double punishment for violence against public servants. It is now being applied in 86 percent of the cases.” Judges often take over the Public Prosecutor’s demand, although in 10 percent of all cases a lower or higher punishment is being given. Sometimes ‘fast justice’ or ‘superfast justice’ is being applied.” ‘Fast justice’ was introduced in the Netherlands a couple of years ago in order to give quicker punishments to suspects of less serious crimes. If ‘fast justice’ is applied, the suspect can choose to get a transaction proposal by the police on the same day or to appear before court within two months. ‘Superfast justice’ ensures that the suspect appears in court within three days.

The taskforce also ran several campaigns in order to not only monitor and punish random violence but also to prevent it. One of their campaigns asks citizens to report any violence against bus drivers, while their latest one focuses specifically on young people.

Krombeen believes that it is important to make youngsters aware of the problems: “Young people are a very specific target group in our work. Of all the cases, 60 percent are people under 30. Often alcohol and drugs play a role as well and people that already have a criminal record are more likely to engage in random violence.”

And although the problems are still not solved, Krombeen is optimistic about the future, as the overall rate of random violence against public servants has dropped with 1 percent since the year before. “The images we get are variable. In some places the numbers have dropped, while in other places the image is negative and the violence has increased. However, we see good things happen, for instance in Twente [region in the east of the Netherlands] where the violence diminished with 30 percent in the last year, and in Amsterdam, where the number of incidents have gone from 5000 a year ten years ago to 2000 a year now. It is a slow process, but it is improving. It is merely a matter of having a long breath.”

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