On the part of the police, frustration can be heard on the A12

The female section commander sounds frustrated. It’s half past four in the afternoon, Saturday. She says to platoon commander Cock: “I really see colleagues looking like ‘what the fuck am I doing?’. They want to frustrate the system, but they do it at our expense.”

The police officers see that the climate demonstrators they arrested an hour earlier, lifted and removed, are returning to the highway. The Public Prosecution Service has decided not to prosecute after the judge ruled, following a previous demonstration, that a few hours of deprivation of liberty was sufficient punishment for blocking the access road to the A12.

She says: “And we have to go again tomorrow.”

This is the other side of the blockade of the Utrechtsebaan, where Extinction Rebellion has announced that it will stand every day until the cabinet has decided to put an end to fossil subsidies. This is what happens behind the lines of the mobile unit, behind the water cannon.

NRC was allowed to watch with the police for a whole day. Restrictions only existed at the De Yp command center, where not everything was allowed to be photographed and when sensitive information was shared. Everything could be asked. The police officers spoken to on the street are only referred to by their first names for security reasons. The police want to be “transparent”, says spokesperson Hilda Vijverberg. Show “what dilemmas there are”.

Additional function

Just before ten, hundreds of police officers are in the hall of De Yp. Bottled water and packed lunches are loaded into the police buses. They come from all over the country: an Amsterdam accent sounds, a soft g. This is a secondary position – the rest of the week they are a local police officer or detective.

The demonstrators say that this massive police deployment is not necessary. Aren’t they non-violent?

But talk to head of mobility Remco Heijstee, see his map, and hear him tell it. About public order and safety, the task of the police. About streams of demonstrators, straight across the tram track. If the trams run aground, public transport in The Hague will come to a standstill. About possible crowds at The Hague Central Station, which may mean that trains may have to be stopped, which will have consequences for train traffic in the rest of the country. About beachgoers who may get stuck in their cars because traffic cannot flow.

In the heat. It will be over 28 degrees, and that will be a recurring concern all day long. General Commander Martine Dijkstra will immediately announce it at half past ten when the Large-Scale and Special Operations Staff meets at De Yp: “The Hague is in for quite a ride in terms of crowds and with these temperatures.”

The first “information picture” is given, a similar briefing will take place every hour. It will still be quiet, but it will be “quite a complex day.” The first groups – called fingers by XR – are already gathering, at twelve o’clock they will try to walk onto the A12 at the same time. On the camera images in the control room you can see the tufts of demonstrators, banners in the backpack, bikini straps under the T-shirts.

Dijkstra points out that the police are there to ensure that “the right to demonstrate can be exercised.” She wishes everyone “a lot of wisdom”.

Triangle

One floor lower, the triangle meets: Dijkstra, police chief Karin Krukkert, Tolga Koklu of the The Hague police unit, chief public prosecutor Margreet Fröberg, and mayor Jan van Zanen of The Hague. It is his decisions that the police are following today. It is he who has determined that demonstrations are not allowed on the A12.

He also sounds frustrated. Van Zanen says: “I was not a ‘protester hugger’, XR said on Thursday. Well, I do feel like a facilitator.” There were more than 2,200 demonstrations in The Hague last year and “not all of them were easy ones,” according to him.

But this one… The mayor is struggling with the methods that use “many bodies” and announce actions that are indefinite. He also says the same about the use of “heavy equipment” such as tractors. Van Zanen believes that this is not a demonstration, but a means of coercion. He allows the climate demonstrators to gather at the Koekamp, ​​but not to block the highway.

Dijkstra briefs him. She says that the specialist USAR assistance team is going to the earthquake zone in Morocco, so those people cannot be deployed on the A12. And the police in Central Netherlands have their own issue, which is also why there are fewer available police officers for ‘The Hague’.

Her phone rings. The police want to close the highway now, it is already becoming dangerous for people and traffic. It’s ten to twelve. “Yes, do it,” says Van Zanen.

It fills up around the Malieveld. Some of the demonstrators walk to the stage on the Koekamp, ​​for the demonstration that has been requested and allowed by the mayor. It looks like a festival there. Part of it continues towards Utrechtsebaan, to the unauthorized blockade.

Protesters in pink vests say: “There have already been three warnings, so pay attention!” The police only have to warn once and make official demands twice: “Attention, attention. This is the police, you must leave this location immediately. If not, you may be arrested and violence may be used against you.”

Water throwers

On the Utrechtsebaan this is said ten times before the water throwers arrive around one o’clock and the first demonstrators are sprayed. Platoon commander Cock says: “This is a target group that wants to burden the system. They submit objections stating that they did not hear the claim. We prefer to make very exuberant progress, then we can prevent complaints.”

There is a big cheer among the demonstrators when the first water comes. Clothes come off, bikinis and swim trunks are underneath. Behind the lines, Pieter, who is responsible for occupational health and safety matters at the police, hands out cold packs. They eagerly stop the police officers in their necks. Water is being distributed, even more water. Fanta and coke. Nuts to maintain salt levels.

Pieter says: “It is an effort, especially to move people who do not want to walk. Capturing ten men isn’t too bad, but a hundred…”

Also read: Extinction Rebellion’s marathon blockade promises to be a daily confrontation with the police

That is why Bas, local police officer from Hollands Kroon, and Pieter came up with something: rolling stretchers. They were tested in May during a previous XR blockade. “They turn themselves into dead weight, which is very heavy. One is 60 kilos, the other 140,” says Bas. An XR activist, he says, served one file a complaint with the Labor Inspectorate because the police would do too much lifting. “Well, this is the solution. This pulling of demonstrators is not nice either. Here they lie peacefully.”

The arrested demonstrators wave from the stretchers. Some even have three people on it. Others walk to a waiting bus, often chatting pleasantly with the officer who takes them away. Young people, a man with an inflatable unicorn tire, old people. Most laugh. They are cheered from the roadside by other demonstrators: “You are not alone!”

Relaxed

“Both sides know that this is going to happen,” says Marika, an operational specialist from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. “It can be relaxed.” That’s what most police officers say; sometimes they face a group of demonstrators who use violence and throw stones. Then the officers act as riot police, with helmet, leg and arm guards and the coats of arms appear.

Not that violence is not being used now. Around five o’clock, officers used batons. XR says on X (formerly Twitter): “We abhor the violence used here against peaceful demonstrators.” The police say that they were repeatedly asked and demanded to leave, and that the demonstrators “deliberately” sat down in front of police buses.

In general the order is: water spray, hold, water spray, hold. Until the highway is clear at a quarter to seven. Finally, there is a demonstrator hanging from a lamppost. It is cut away with an aerial platform.

Ultimately, 2,400 arrests will be made on Saturday. The police do not want to say exactly how many officers have been deployed. They talk about hundreds. General commander Martine Dijkstra spoke on Friday about “thousands of police hours” for the entire week.