“No estimation error has been made,” says Mayor Van Zanen about the riots in The Hague

Prior to last Saturday’s demonstration in The Hague, which ran into large -scale violence against agents, the police had already collected and analyzed an enormous amount of online information. That said deputy police chief of the unit The Hague Anja de Bruin Wednesday during a committee meeting of the Hague city council.

Mayor Jan van Zanen spoke to her to give more explanations about the preparations and estimates that the so -called triangle had made last weekend. Van Zanen wanted to make it clear: the authorities had really prepared themselves well. “No estimation error was made based on the available information.” According to the mayor there were no signals that the violence would be so intense. “Afterwards you can say that that was a wrong estimate.”

De Bruin told the council that the police saw online that many different groups would come to The Hague. “There were ordinary demonstrators who wanted to express their dissatisfaction, but also hard core supporters of football clubs.”

According to the police chief, it was emphasized in all groups that it should be a peaceful demonstration

According to the police chief, everywhere, within the groups, it emphasized that it should be a peaceful demonstration. “Organizers called for mutual conflicts to rest and together make a sound heard towards the government.”

‘Soft signals’

If that had been the only picture, the police would not have four platoons to me, extra agents, water cannons, horses and dogs. Because there were also “soft signals,” as the police chief called it. She was talking about loose tweets or messages on forums that pointed to possible counter -demonstrations “perhaps from the left corner.” Or on “mutual violent confrontations between groups or with the police.”

During the demonstration itself, all new information – obtained through cameras, drones and police officers on the street – was always discussed in the triangle, De Bruin said.

Zoom in

Around half past one, at the occupation of the A12, the atmosphere suddenly turned: within a few minutes bottles, looks and stones flew to the police. “The violence was so massive and fierce that it had to be scaled up immediately, and that happened immediately.” Van Zanen: “According to experienced ME’ers, the intensity was unique; they said they had never experienced this in twenty to thirty years.”

Mayor Van Zanen also said that he wants to draw lessons from what went wrong. That is why, at the request of the Hart voor The Hague party, there will be an independent investigation into the monitoring of social media. There must also be an analysis that makes it clear exactly which groups popped up in The Hague, such as “hooligans, extreme right -wing groups and defend groups”. Both investigations must be ready in the second quarter of next year.

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