The day that ends with terror, smeared cars and a broken bus window, starts in peace for the activists of Kick Out Zwarte Piet. More than eighty KOZP members and sympathizers will gather around Amsterdam’s Amstel station on Saturday morning, November 19. There they prepare for a demonstration against Zwarte Piet in the lion’s den: the Reformed village of Staphorst.
The atmosphere is brotherly – most of them have known each other for years. They have stood side by side when they have been pelted with cigarettes, stones and fish waste before. Some were there when the ‘block friezes’ trapped them on the highway in 2017. Twelve years of campaigning against Zwarte Piet has given them a thick skin, but they guard against underestimation.
In the rented coach, the occupants are urged: do not use violence, adopt a peaceful attitude. Don’t be provoked. Should things go wrong in Staphorst, aftercare is available for those who need it.
Three nine-seater vans and a few cars with other activists follow the coach onto the A1. Observers from Amnesty International, who want to monitor the progress of the demonstration, also ride along. Kick Out has agreed with the police to gather at the police station in Zwolle, after which the column will be escorted to Staphorst.
But when they arrive at the police station, doubt sets in. The voice on the other side of the intercom has no idea what the KOZP’ers are doing, or with whom they have an appointment. A passing officer also appears to know nothing.
They are not even on their way to Staphorst yet and all sorts of things go wrong. The KOZP’ers have a bad feeling about it.
‘Blackface with dots’
Staphorst is one of the municipalities that stick to a Sinterklaas party with a completely black painted Piet. Although the local Sinterklaas committee sees it differently: this year the village has completely switched to the ‘Staphorster Stipwerk Piet’: a black painted Piet in traditional costume, with colored flowers on the cheeks.
However, this Piet still embodies the racist stereotyping that KOZP fights so fiercely against. ‘This is just blackface with dots!’, Marisella de Cuba of Kick Out Zwarte Piet responds indignantly in an online conversation with the municipality on November 7.
Maureen Hakkers, member of the Sinterklaas committee, calls it ‘a difference of opinion’. The committee is willing to talk further with KOZP and says it will prepare the coffee and cake. Only not on the day of the arrival: the children’s party must not be disturbed. KOZP wants to leave its own demonstration, provided that the committee promises in black and white to switch to a ‘future-proof and inclusive Sinterklaas party’ in 2023.
Staphorst refuses this, after which Kick Out sticks to his demonstration. The group feels strengthened by e-mails from residents who want to get rid of Zwarte Piet. De Cuba: ‘For us that was the confirmation that people in Staphorst didn’t dare to speak out about Zwarte Piet either. And afterwards it turns out that it wasn’t safe to do that either.’
Wick in the powder keg
The fact that Kick Out Zwarte Piet comes to protest in their village while hundreds of children are singing to Saint Nicholas a little further on is like the fuse in the powder keg for many Staphorsters. From the moment KOZP announces its demonstration, the opponents organize themselves at a rapid pace. Via WhatsApp and Facebook, among other things, they agree to be ready at 11 a.m. at the A28 exit, says 18-year-old Staphorster William. He does not want his last name in the newspaper. ‘Just for fun’, a Facebook event is being created to get people on their feet, says William. ‘But that was actually no longer necessary, because it was going around everywhere.’
The people who unite against the anti-Zwarte Piet demonstrators mainly come from Staphorst or surrounding places, according to research by this newspaper. Not all of them are young people, some already have children. Some of them sympathize on social media with farmers’ action groups such as ‘The Netherlands fights back’. They are particularly fiercely against the arrival of KOZP because they believe that ‘those people from the outside should not tell us how we celebrate Sinterklaas here’, says William.
On Facebook, among others, they let their frustrations run free and fantasize about what should happen to the demonstrators. “Beating until they see black,” it sounds. ‘Chain around the ankles and hang behind the car. Bald to the bone.’ “Hopeless brainless figures. The bat on it.’ Marisella de Cuba from Kick Out Zwarte Piet forwards dozens of screenshots to her contact at the police in Staphorst. This is just a selection of what is going around online, she emphasizes.
‘A book of screenplays’
The messages are important for the police in Staphorst. He must estimate in advance how many officers are needed to prevent a confrontation between rioters and demonstrators. The starting point of the police: the children’s party must be able to continue, but so must the demonstration against Zwarte Piet. The right to demonstrate is enshrined in the Constitution.
For the police it is ‘no rocket science’ that tension will arise that Saturday, says José Rooijers, who coordinates the police deployment from the headquarters in Apeldoorn, later in The Stentor. But how many people are willing to keep KOZP away from the center and where exactly they will turn up, the police find it difficult to say in advance. “There was a book of scenarios, but they changed during the week,” says mayor Jan ten Kate afterwards. de Volkskrant.
In the end, two hundred officers are deployed – according to the police, more than in a high-risk football match. Among them: a platoon of the mobile unit (48 officers) and several plainclothes officers. From the air, a drone must provide an overview.
Tried and tested as she is, KOZP member Marisella de Cuba advises the police to ‘take every conceivable scenario into account’. It cannot guarantee that nothing will happen. Okay, De Cuba says to her police contact, “but then I want you to pull out all the stops to keep it safe for us.”
A runaway crowd
The column has only just left Zwolle or things are already going wrong. The police have devised an alternative route on inland roads to prevent a crowd from waiting for Kick Out Zwarte Piet at the bottom of the A28. Only the police forget to share that route with the activists.
As a result, a car with five KOZP’s loses the rest of the column after 400 meters, which is accompanied by two undercover police cars. When they accidentally pass exit 23 on the A28 just before half past two, they see that dozens of people have gathered there.
Three other cars that have lost sight of the column do take the exit. Almost immediately they are smeared with oil and eggs, and later destroyed. One car manages to escape, two other cars are stuck in the thronged crowd for at least half an hour.
The panic is great. Amnesty observer Gerbrig Klos, who is in one of the cars, contacts the police several times. “But he didn’t really say anything.”
The two hundred agents have their hands full with the chaos around Staphorst. Tractors are set up here and there to keep the KOZP procession away from the center. Crow’s feet are strewn across the road to puncture tires. As a result, the mobile unit, which is set up at various places along the route, takes fifteen minutes to get to the exit of the A28. Instead of a few minutes.
The six police officers who have been standing at exit 23 all this time deliberately leave the KOZP’ers in their cars. That way they run the least risk, the police later explained. 18-year-old William sees it differently: ‘The cops were on our side, the police didn’t intervene.’ The KOZP’ers also have that feeling. The police did not want to respond to this accusation last week.
The police seem surprised by the fanaticism with which the rioters hunt the demonstrators. ‘These people had ears and eyes everywhere,’ says police coordinator Rooijers afterwards The Stentor. She talks about ‘people who want to boycott someone else’s fundamental right. No matter what. Knowingly and willingly. At almost any price.’ Several investigations are now underway into the actions of the police and the municipality, including those of the Justice and Security Inspectorate.
Drastic decision
In a short time the situation escalates. In less than half an hour the threat of the rioters in and around Staphorst becomes so great that mayor Ten Kate takes a drastic decision. Just before he steps on stage at 2 p.m. to receive Sinterklaas, he forbids the Kick Out Zwarte Piet demonstration. According to him, the police can no longer guarantee the safety of the demonstrators.
At that moment there are still two cars at the exit of the A28. Shortly before that, the other cars in the column were directed to a gas station in Meppel, 8 kilometers away. They are not safe there. They are filmed from all sides by excited men, who shout all kinds of curses at them from their cars. “I have no idea how they knew where we were,” says Martine Heijthuyzen, who was taken off the road by the police with four other KOZPs and ends up at the gas station.
As soon as it is clear that the demonstration will not take place, the officers present advise the demonstrators to leave at the gas station – for their own safety. After that announcement, the police officers drive away. Not much later, a car containing two sooty-black Pieten rams into the front of the KOZP coach. Another car is put in reverse and jams the bus. ‘Call 112 everyone’, KOZP’ers shout to each other. They are saved by the bus driver’s driving skills.
The agents eventually return to the gas station. Under heavy police escort, the procession is still led back to Zwolle. The ride is chaotic, because the police initially do not seem to know which cars belong to KOZP and who the rioters are. ‘We belong’, the KOZP’ers shout from their car when the police cuts off their way. Before they finally dare to breathe again, they see how a crowd standing next to a tractor wave them goodbye. The cars attacked on the A28 have to do without the police: terrified they manage to reach Zwolle.