Around the Sloterplas in Osdorp, Hélène de Bruine (50) knows exactly which streets she prefers to avoid in the evening: dark areas where lampposts have been broken for months, porches where people sleep, groups of young people ‘claiming’ their place. “I sometimes avoid places,” she says. She doesn’t always feel safe during the day either. She says she is regularly treated unfairly, harassed and sometimes even threatened.
According to her, the problems in her neighborhood are piling up: youth nuisance, men harassing women, begging, drug nuisance and dangerous traffic situations. “Our neighborhood is unsafe and the municipality and police are understaffed in the neighborhood. We are on our own.” The insecurity may not always be captured in figures, she says, but it is palpable. “Older people and women no longer dare to go out at night.”
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