Chief of police Ostend denounces the role of social media after girl (14) gets hit by police officer: “Identity inspector and minor just thrown away” | Ostend

There was a lot of buzz on social media all weekend around a video showing a police inspector punching a 14-year-old girl after she spit on him. The opposition also asked questions about this at the city council. Chief of police Philip Caestecker was also unable to comment on the nature of the intervention in view of the involvement of a minor, but did provide some clarification “During a first attempt at arrest earlier in the day, this minor had managed to flee effectively. She also tried to run away with this second arrest. In the vast majority of cases, an arrest takes place in a peaceful and non-violent manner. However, if the person resists, then we have a legal right, even duty, to use coercion. The coercion must of course be proportional, but a minor of 14 years can also resist very fiercely, which makes it impossible to proceed peacefully.”

An investigation was launched against the inspector involved. “It should be clear that we also regret this entire incident. The investigation has been launched and will thoroughly examine all elements of this intervention. The fact that our colleague was spat on several times is of course also part of the investigation, because the blow was ultimately a reaction to this.”

Meanwhile, the chief of police also addressed the role of social media. “Fully fueled by a lot of posts on social media, a minute (51 seconds) out of a two-hour intervention on the internet is wasted here, without contextualization. The process has already been conducted in this regard. The identities of both the inspectors and minors are already doing the rounds and a serene debate and examination of all elements seems to have been thwarted in advance. Randomly broadcasting uncontextualized videos on social media harms all parties. The Ostend Local Police carried out no fewer than 34,374 interventions in 2021. That’s 95 a day. These interventions are 99 percent problem-free, so I support 100 percent of the colleagues who go for it every day, often in difficult circumstances.”