Out of nowhere, officer Jeffrey was hit with a glass on a terrace in Tilburg two weeks ago. He had to go to the hospital with a big hole in his head. As a cop he has been confronted with violence before in his ten-year career, but such a calculated attack without any reason was new to him. The perpetrator was sentenced to 240 hours of community service on Thursday. “Personally, that punishment could have been a bit heavier.”
32-year-old Jeffrey was called to a fight around closing time on Saturday, August 12 as a dog handler in a café on the Paleisring in Tilburg. Arriving at the terrace, a visitor said that he had gotten into an argument with an aggressive man in the cafe. Jeffrey’s Malinois was still in the car when the man came out. “I tried to keep him away from his opponent. But then all of a sudden he hit me hard on the side of my head. It felt way too hard for a regular punch.”
With a few colleagues he managed to knock the man to the ground. “Only then did I see that he had a beer glass in his hand. He had hit me with that vase.” Immediately Jeffrey felt his face get wet and saw blood gushing down his shoulder.
He had to go to the hospital. There was a big hole in his head that needed stitches. Jeffrey shows that there is a whole gash above his left ear. “That will be a permanent scar. Luckily it’s under my hair. I was lucky anyway. For the same money he would have hit me on the temple or the glass would have broken.”
“I don’t know how I could have avoided it.”
That someone just hits a cop for no reason is something Jeffrey cannot understand. But it is unfortunately the reality of everyday life, he realizes. Violence against the police is becoming more and more common, especially in nightlife areas. And when people resist an arrest, it happens that there are blows. “But just out of the blue, that’s different. In the days that followed, I wondered if I could have prevented it. If I should have been sharper, but I don’t know how I could have avoided it.”
Jeffrey is frustrated that the suspect stated in court that he does not remember what happened and that it was not intentional. Jeffrey can’t believe that. “If you walk out with an empty beer glass in your hand, you don’t want to take it home.” A colleague of Jeffrey was also hit by the beer glass. He came away with a big bump on his head.
“I should have been in jail for a month.”
He has since processed the incident. “It kept me awake. Not because it kept running through my head, but because the wound hurt so much and I couldn’t lie on it properly.” After the weekend in question, he just went back to work. “It worked with a paracetamol.”
The suspect was sentenced within two weeks. Justice gives priority to cases of violence against aid workers. The 38-year-old Tilburger received 240 hours of community service and 13 days in prison, the time he had been detained until the trial. So he is free again. That punishment could have been a bit higher, says Jeffrey.
“The policy of the Ministry of Justice is to impose extra severe punishments for violence against police officers. Then it could have been a month in jail for me.” Jeffrey also receives compensation. He leaves the amount in the middle. “That is really not a monthly salary, and not even half a month’s salary by a long shot. It won’t make me rich.” The dog handler is pleased that the man was punished so quickly. “Then I can put it behind me.”
Jeffrey is not the policeman’s real name. His name is known to the editors.