Friday, August 28, 2009

Trouble at the Beach

Our expatriate Dutch correspondent H. Numan files a brief report on la crise du jour in the Netherlands:

We have a major political crisis in development:

Shooting at Hoek van HollandLast weekend a big free dance festival was organized in Hook of Holland (a beach area that is part of Rotterdam). Suddenly a few men drew guns and opened fire. One person got hit and died. Others were injured.

The stinker? It was the police who opened fire!

Plainclothes officers felt threatened by hooligans who recognized them. That was the kick-off.

The mayor of Rotterdam, Mr. Ahmed Aboutaleb (the nice guy with two passports) immediately forbade this kind of public event in his town. Forever.

As panem et circenses are rather important for a socialist party, that doesn’t fly very well, to say the least.
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The police commissioner added some gasoline to the fire by stating they didn’t have enough in the budget for a greater police presence. The police union stated they were not allowed to be present with the riot police due to… no budget.

The minister of the interior (our beloved alcoholic dentist with a phobia for white men) Mrs. Guusje ter Horst more or less admitted that 4000 police jobs will disappear very soon. Despite the solemn promise that more police jobs would be created.

Mr. Aboutaleb’s first gaffe was to visit Morocco despite being personally ordered not to do so by the foreign minister.

He won’t get fired in a hurry, but things are heating up politically.

— H. Numan