Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Amsterdam Labour Aelderman supports "preventive frisking"

Labour Aelderman of Culture Hannah Belliot has spoken out on the subject of "preventive frisking". The right wing ("ahem") VVD in Amsterdam is a supporter of "preventive frisking" which would give the police in the whole city the right to frisk people without a warrant. The Amsterdam VVD is supporting a "zero tolerance" policy in a bid to appear tough.

The Amsterdam Labour party opposes the move, especially Aelderman Achmed Aboutaleb, who regards it as a decisive obstacle to a coalition with the VVD. Hannah Belliot has broken ranks within the Labour Party (PvdA).

The zero tolerance policing that is inforced in Amsterdam since 2 years causes increasing friction with non-white youth. There is a possibility that tensions between Islamic youths and the Amsterdam police will boil over in spring and summer.

Aelderman Belliot insisted that the frisking policy should not be combined with racial profiling, although it is obvious from studies from the Dutch National Statistic Office CBS that convictions for criminal offenses differ wildly from one ethnic group to another. CBS studies confirm the Conventional Wisdom that Morroccans and Blacks are wildly more criminal and violent then whites and Indonesian Asians.

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