olour. In my experience, BOA’s are not friendly. Although I only have secondary sources and secondary experiences.
I am a white woman and not classified as potentially dangerous by any king of law-keeper. One day a BOA sat next to me on the tram in Rotterdam. He didn’t leave much space for me to sit. His manscaping legs are positioned so vastly. I saw him in action shortly after a fellow unknown traveller entered the tram. This traveller, a young black man aged around 17, tried to check in with his public transport card, but it failed, and he couldn’t hop off directly. The doors of a tram close pretty fast. The traveller tried to get off at the next stop. I write tried-as in attempted to because there wasn’t any time. The BOA next to me jumped on him, and 4 others appeared out of nowhere. It was as if they multiplied that instant. The traveller was brought to the floor… His hands were behind his back. He was forced and pushed down by those 5 men. A tin can filled with thyme or some other kind of herbs rolled on the floor towards me. Still wrapped in plastic, I picked it up while filming the whole thing. It looked like he’d just bought it. The BOAs shouted at him, demanding an explanation. He explained that he didn’t know that his public transport card hadn’t had enough credit on it. He tried to explain that he wanted to get off. To get them off of him. The formally manscaping BOA held his knee on his neck, and the traveller’s voice was soft. “What the fuck…” I yelled loudly at the BOA and “let him go”, slightly weaker. Other travellers began to interfere. They told me to stop filming. I stopped filming, and handed the traveller his herbs back, he thanked me, and I wanted to say something more.
Other travellers and a BOA moved towards me as I quickly slipped out of the tram in shock. The rain was pouring and the thunder trembling, and I was so angry. Shaking in disbelief, I walked after the tram tracks towards home. I made contact with the police and public transport and shared the video as soon as I got there. See the image for their only response back to me. And then again, this is not my story. I’m actually not even sure if I should be the one writing this. I’ve been privileged enough not to have had such an experience firsthand, and this is merely one example. A.C.A.B.
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..one of the many cases of extensive, unnecessary violence. Luckily I have never been on the other side (of the camera). This is just one example of the many I have witnessed in The Netherlands.
12 May 2017, BOAs abused my partner. He gave me consent to write his story of that night [but I deleted it from my blog on the 14th of June 2021].
I think it is a good start to processing the information.
2 “Vanaf het eind van de jaren zestig leken de zaken alleen nog maar sneller te gaan. Drugshandel stuwde de criminaliteit tot grote hoogte en het gevoel van onveiligheid bij de burger nam toe. Terrorisme in een aantal zeer verschillende verschijningsvormen moest ook worden bestreden. De integratie van allochtonen, veelal met een islamitische achtergrond, bleek moeizaam te gaan, wat weer tot onbehagen leidde. Al met al zijn dit uitdagingen die, in de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse politie, zijn weerga niet kennen.” https://www.politieacademie.nl/thema/Politiegeschiedenis/canonpolitiegeschiedenis/Pages/50Terugblikentoekomst
3 Agent Richard: “Nu is het nog rustig in Renesse. Maar we blijven opletten. Deze zeven kroegen staan allemaal bij elkaar. Gaan ze dicht om 03:00 uur? Dan staan er zomaar 4.000 jongeren op straat.” https://www.vraaghetdepolitie.nl/binaries/content/assets/vhdp/18097-181128-spreekbeurtpakket_interactieve-pdf_di.pdf
4 Huiselijk geweld? Mishandeling? Brand in een woonhuis? De politie helpt. https://www.vraaghetdepolitie.nl/binaries/content/assets/vhdp/18097-181128-spreekbeurtpakket_interactieve-pdf_di.pdf