IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Wanneer: 23/01/2020 - 13:22

One eviction and two police arrests in two days in Tweebostraat. This is obvioulsy the start of a harassment campaign by police and Vestia against the squatters.

Yesterday, one apartment was evicted by the police on Tweebosstraat. On their way back, the police stopped in front of one of the squats in the neighborhood and tried to get in. This place is protected by housepeace and an ongoing legal procedure.

The inhabitants went outside to talk to the police and ask them to stop. The police refused to give the reason of their presence, and asked for everyone’s ID (some people were even still inside) without legal justifications. Two employees from Vestia were with them, laughing at the situation. Some inhabitants refused this abusive and illegal control. Somebody was arrested. They brought them at Zuidplein Police Station for a few hours, and forced them to give fingerprints and took pictures of their face. They got out of the police station 4 hours latter and came home safely.

We though it was going to calm down, but we were wrong. Today, we saw the neighborhood police going back and forth Tweebosstraat controlling people’s ID. One of the inhabitants rang to the door of one of the squat and got arrested almost immediately while he was walking in. Some people went downstairs immediately and asked the police the reason for this arrest. They wouldn’t say. They asked for everyone’s ID again, without any legitimate motive. People insisted to know the reason of the arrest, and they answered “You don’t have anything to do with this kind of people, go home and let us do our job”. Most likely, this was a racist statement because the person that was arrested was obvioulsy not Dutch.

This is obviously the begining of a harrasment campaign against squatters in the neighborhood. Vestia lost their court case and failed to evict Tweebosbuurt by legal means, so they’re now working with the police to make our lives so hard that we leave by ourselves. There have been two unjustified arrests in two days.

We’re not going to let them do that to our community.

We’ll not let ourselves be intimidated by abusive ID controls and arrests.

We’re not leaving.