communities and private lives. We don’t have to put up with aggressive and intrusive policing to keep us safe. The book titled The End of Policing describes some interesting alternatives. If you’d like a better description of how policing works, especially in America, I highly recommend you read this book.
Extraordinary Investigation, Officer
Besides police officers, the Netherlands counts about 23,700 ‘peace officers’. They work at approximately 1,100 different agencies. 3900 of them are municipal enforcers, 2450 environmental boas (green and grey), 850 school attendance officers, 4800 public transport boas, 700 social investigators and 10,800 generic detection boas.15 These officers have a Special Enforcement Officer (SEO) status (Buitengewoon Opsporingsambtenaar) or BOA/Handhaving in Dutch. Therefore they have some police powers (detaining suspects, asking for identification, making an arrest, issuing fines within their power of offences and use of force). The majority of BOA officers carry and use handcuffs. A few of them carry police batons, pepper spray and occasionally firearms too, but only with permission from the Ministry of Safety and Justice. [source] Being a BOA doesn’t mean that you’re employed by the police or marechaussee, they have their own supervisors. To become one all you have to do is a 6-month course, which means 4 hours of study a week and it doesn’t cost much! Everyone can do it! You’ll be paid € 2.910 a month.[source]
BOAs are intimidating and often aggressive. On many occasions, I saw them using extensive force to detain citizens. I frequently watched them monitor train stations, occasionally frightening travellers, constantly questioning, searching them and even pushing them to the ground. BOAs pace in groups. They walk with significant steps, their breasts forwards and their voices loud. BOAs are often white men with the small-penis syndrome. (Probably not all of them, but those SPS BOAs are the ones that made themselves most visible to me.) Their targets seem to be primarily men of colour. 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. Se