The police arrested a 20-year-old man from Heemskerk on Friday evening. He is suspected of spreading false information and incitement on social media. The police have that on Saturday afternoon announced. In Heemskerk and and Beverwijk, unrest was created last week due to an escalated fight between youth groups from Beverwijk and the Haarlem Schalkwijk district. The mayor of Beverwijk issued an emergency order on Thursday. Some neighborhoods have been designated as a safety risk area. On Friday, secondary schools and various sports clubs closed their doors.
What the arrested man from Heemskerk would have placed online, the police do not yet make public. “This is part of our further investigation,” said a police statement. More arrests are not excluded ‘in the short term’. NRC Saw Snapchat and Tiktok messages in which a half-naked man who is bloody on the ground is kicked together. In another message, a shooting was warned.
Such videos would have been busy on social media. A student from Castor College from Beverwijk told NRC on Friday how he and his friends saw films online, including an AI video in which a bomb falls at the school. On NPO Radio 1, the mayor of Beverwijk also mentioned such false AI images on Friday.
Safe on the street
The police also let us know that there were no new incidents on Friday. It was safe on the street ”. Since the unrest in the area, the police survivors, a number of people in the security parquetry areas have been searched and vehicles have been checked.” These checks have not revealed any criminal offenses, “said the police.
The police further emphasizes that the distribution of false information that “can lead to unrest” is punishable. The police also appeal to parents, after many children came to Beverwijk or Heemskerk to see what was going on there. “Don’t let your child interfere with the unrest online or on the street,” the police said.
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