October 26, 2006
Street traffic
We can't move in our street for production crew, celebrities and the neighbours. meanwhile in Amsterdam my ex-colleague, Jaap, found himself trapped inside the oranjekerk where he works for different reasons.
Squatters were being evicted in the subtle way they do these things in the Netherlands. Jaap managed to get some photos. This was a couple of blocks from our flat and on my morning route to Jacob's creche and then work.
While living in Amsterdam I was always slightly unerved by the way they dealt with squatters once it was decided to move them out of the building they were inhabiting. It didn't involve the normal police but the other ones, the serious ones, the ones they also use for football hooligans, who look more like a SWAT team than anything else. Rows of armoured black vehicles and huge burly black-clad body-armoured teams were sent in, usually to deal with some very underfed-looking vegetarians. Not only were the police able to use enormous truncheons on people who were running away from them but they were happy to be filmed doing so by television crews.
Posted by Faith