Race riots lead to emergency measures in Culemborg

Two nights of riots between youths of Moroccan and Moluccan background have led to a police lock-down in the Terweijde neighbourhood. It’s typical of ‘young male syndrome’ says a riot-expert with 25 years experience. New Year’s Eve is a time for feasting and fighting.

Race rioting has led to emergency measures in the Dutch city of Culemborg. The Terweijde district is on police lock-down after two episodes of violence between youths of Moroccan origin and others of Moluccan (Indonesian) background. Yesterday, Terweijde was cordoned off by police and strict security measures installed. A hundred officers are preventing outsiders from entering, gatherings of over three people are banned, and CCTV cameras are monitoring all movements. The measures will stay in place for at least two weeks, officials have announced.

The riots began on New Years Eve when a car drove into a group of Moluccans in the front garden of a house in Terweijde. Several of them were hurt. Two of the five men in the car, all between 18 and 21 years old, were attacked by bystanders. In the rioting that followed, windows were smashed and several people wounded. One girl, the daughter of a Moluccan mother and Dutch father, ended up in hospital with concussion when a stone entered their home.

Police say about a hundred youngsters, fifty of them Moroccan and fifty Moluccan, were involved. Five young men were arrested, four Moroccans and one Moluccan, including the driver of the car, who was charged with attempted manslaughter. On Saturday, a 43-year old man was also arrested on suspicion of involvement. According to a police spokesman, two of the suspects were from other parts of The Netherlands.

Mayor helpless to stop violence

On Sunday night, the violence flared up again. More police were despatched to Terweijde and a seventh arrest was made. Now, with just as many police officers in Terweijde as rioters, and riot police on hand, the district has calmed down. But the mayor of Culemborg said yesterday he feels ‘helpless’. These measures won’t address the deeper issues in Terweijde, which have plagued the city administration for a long time. The behaviour of some of the youths is so ‘intolerable’ there’s no point even talking to them.

‘It’s a cat and mouse game. Once the police withdraw, something new takes place,’ he said.

“Terweijde is governed by a street culture in which legal punishment is a status symbol,’ added police chief Henk van Zwam. So arrests don’t solve the problems there.

The mayor believes the problems have arisen from a policy to house both Moroccans and Moluccans in the same district. Moluccans, who were some of the earliest migrants to the Netherlands, were given their own neighbourhood in Terweijde in the early 1960s, But soon after, Moroccans were also allowed to settle in the neighbourhood. Now, about two thousand people of Moroccan background and one thousand of Moluccan origin are part of the 27,000 strong community of Culemborg.

Typical of young men?

But behavioural scientist Otto Adang sees the riots as simply a typical example of what is known in the field as 'young male syndrome' during New Year’s Eve celebrations. A lecturer in public order and control at the police academy in Apeldoorn, he points out there were 2,500 incidents reported to the police, and 940 people were arrested during this year’s New Year’s Eve festivities. It’s traditionally a time when people party with friends or fight with enemies.

“It’s all about prestige,” he said in an interview. “That’s why they play this cat-and-mouse game with the riot police. Wherever the riot police appears, groups of youngsters materialise till the fighting begins again. They keep looking at each other to see what the reaction is to their attacks. It isn’t blind aggression. They choose to get involved.”

“In general, few people choose to get involved in violence, a half to one percent of the population. That choice might seem irrational, but it isn’t senseless in its own context. Riots are a means of getting prestige and status in their circles. Once they throw a stone at a window they wait for the reaction from others. You can easily recognise young men who are seeking confrontation like that. If there is a party, they don’t party. They are looking for something else.”

He believes the police has taken the right action regarding the rioters. Sit on them and keep them apart. That doesn’t solve the problem but it’s necessary. In the longer term, it is necessary to examine whether there are real grievances among these groups of young people. Some kind of reconciliation between them has to be arranged, probably by the mayor. But he also thinks the police should be more effective in preventing riots on New Years Eve. They need to have intelligence units looking to see where riots are likely to break out.

“You have to prepare for the New Year hooligans,” he says, “using information on risk-locations and risk-groups, and working in cooperation with people in those neighbourhoods. At the moment, city governments invent the wheel every year at New Year’s Eve. They have to recognise that this is a risk-event. They have to be realistic about it, and banish the phrase ‘quiet New Year’s Eve’ from their thoughts. ”