Dutch Youth Torch COVID-Testing Facility In Violent Curfew Backlash
BY TYLER DURDEN
Until December, the Dutch government had bucked the authoritarian trend of most global authorities in their efforts to ‘crush’ the virus, but as cases, hospitalizations, and deaths began to soar, the government turned to harsher measures, and ultimately to the first curfew since WWII.
Yesterday was the first night of the newly enforced curfew and that crackdown sparked a backlash across the nation..
The violence climaxed with a group of rioting young people torching a coronavirus testing facility and threw fireworks at police in a Dutch fishing village.
Video from the village of Urk, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Amsterdam, showed youths breaking into the COVID-19 testing facility near the village’s harbor before it was set ablaze Saturday night.
“This is not only unacceptable, but also a slap in the face, especially for the local health authority staff who do all they can at the test center to help people from Urk,” the local authorities said, promising to strictly enforce the curfew in the future.
The group was reportedly driving cars, honking horns, and waving national flags at the square, footage from the scene shows.
The group then apparently waited for police to arrive to taunt the officers and pelt them with various projectiles.
Overall, police said Sunday they fined more than 3,600 people nationwide for breaching the curfew that ran from 9 p.m. Saturday until 4:30 a.m. Sunday and arrested 25 people for breaching the curfew or for violence.
Police in Amsterdam also were bracing for another protest Sunday, sending officers to a square where demonstrators clashed with police a week ago. The city’s municipality designated the square a “risk area,” a move that gave police extra powers to frisk people.
Unrest erupts in Dutch cities for third night in a row in pushback against Covid curbs
25 Jan, 2021 21:10
A large group of young people clash with police on Beijerlandselaan in Rotterdam, Netherlands, January 25, 2021 © AFP / Marco de Swart
Anti-lockdown riots have broken out for the third consecutive night in the Netherlands, with fires lit, police vehicles burned, and windows smashed. Police have vowed to crack down on the lawlessness.
Hours after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned two days of anti-lockdown riots as “criminal violence” and vowed to keep a controversial curfew in place, disgruntled citizens took to the streets again for another night of mayhem.
Masses of black-clad rioters assembled in the streets of Rotterdam on Monday, as fires were set and police vehicles vandalized.
As video footage showing a gang of rioters smashing the windows of a police van spread around the internet, right-wing politician Geert Wilders demanded that the government “deploy the army and clear our streets.”
Armored police faced off with rioters and arsonists in The Hague, Den Bosch, Haarlem, and reportedly in other cities throughout the country.