days.
One story goes like this: One day, somewhere around 1919, an English newspaper published an article about human trafficking. “Het ging in die dagen om de overtuiging van een levendige handel in blanke slavinnen.” (In those days it was about the conviction of a lively trade in white slave girls. [Google translate]) reads policeacademie.nl. This story is about white girls; imagine if they would have been people of colour or black. The victimized white girls’ story kept Europa busy for years and ultimately let a European force be formed with headquarters (IKPK) in Vienna. After WW2, IKPK was replaced by Interpol.
“International sex traffickers can also be empowered by poorly-thought-out prohibitionist police actions, which often involve deporting or incarcerating foreign women involved in sex work, a practice often driven by US policies.” writes Alex S. Vitale in his book The End of Policing about American policing. It is not so different from European policing.
In truth, sex workers are seldom in favour of the police, and these workers rarely see police intervention as being in their best interest. If only it’s because of the sex worker’s interest in maintaining their anonymity. Or the secrecy of/from their clients… Sure, in that case, the police would understand? Sadly, no, the police often see sex workers as offenders rather than victims. They fail to take the worker’s request for help seriously, regardless of whether sex work is voluntary or coerced.
* It’s broken Dutch, but it roughly translates: For anyone who demonstrates against slavery and racism: 1. First learn the history of the country you live in. Not only the part you think is important but everything. 2. Realize the times you live in…..thus the NOW or do you really live in the past? 3. You are against racism and slavery? Fine no problem with that…..are you also going to do something about slavery nowadays in which WHITE girls are misused as sex slaves? 4. You want the statues from your streets gone because it bothers you? Jeez, why did you come to the Netherlands where you have all chance? 5. You think that I should respect you, because of the colour of your skin, your religion, your beliefs and values….CAN I ASK YOU WHERE YOUR RESPECT FOR MY COUNTRY, MY CULTURE, MY BELIEFS AND MY VALUES?
Before we address how police worldwide have been implicated in running, demolishing and providing protection for brothels, assaulting sex workers, border control and deporting or incarcerating foreign women let us go back to the Netherlands. The reality is that no amount of police (intervention) will ever eradicate crime. The police force in the Netherlands consisted of 20.000 men during WW2. [source] Their distribution of police agents shifted after the war and it was cleansed, and reformed again and again until 1994; the KLPD (National Police Force) is formed. The Netherlands is not a police state and even though the army, Marechaussee and Justice system have to answer to the same government, they’ll stay somewhat separate.
From the 1960s onward the Dutch police are most afraid of drugs traffic, terrorism and (integration of) immigrants, often with an Islamic background.2
Living today means,
2020, The Dutch police consists of ten regional units, the National Unit and the Police Services Center. It counts approximately 50,400 officers. [source] That means 295 police officers per 100,000 people, one officer for 339 people. There’s quite a lot of blue on the Dutch streets. Their basic tasks are wide in range; daily surveillance (making sure no one sprays graffiti and watching young people leave the bars at holiday locations in the summer3), warning others and tipping them off, helping (Domestic violence? Abuse? Fire in a private house? The police helps.4), enforcement (addressing noise disturbance), everything that has to do with traffic, and research. The police have ‘special’ tasks too. Police investigations (done by the Dienst Landelijke Recherche (DLR)) look into matters of human trafficking, the creation and sales of drugs, terrorism and online crime. The Dienst La