A Belgian police union has recorded images of the ill-treatment of police officers in Brussels by young people Facebook put. It is a protest against the city government that in the eyes of the union is too weak against gangs of youth.
The officers came to the rescue of city guards who wanted to appease an argument. One of the brawlers had stabbed the other in the buttock with a knife. When the officers wanted to arrest the perpetrator, he resisted. Bystanders tried to free the detainee and beat and kicked the officers, including the head.
“Such interventions are no longer an exception in our capital,” writes the VSOA police union. “At the slightest intervention, agents are surrounded by bystanders, often young people who stir things up so that people can no longer do their work in normal circumstances.”
Cup in the sand
The Brussels politicians would minimize this problem and always look for an excuse to “pamper so-called problem youth”. The union demands that politicians make a plan to “deal with these youngsters (gangs) very strictly once and for all and to send a clear signal that we as a society do not tolerate this scum”.
According to the union, the city governments of Ghent and Antwerp intervene if situations get out of hand in certain districts or neighborhoods. “But in Brussels people prefer to stick their heads in the sand and resort to excuses that have been repeated for more than thirty years.”
Prohibition of gathering
The police union has been complaining for some time that Brussels politicians have ignored the problems that youth gangs cause. “Our controls are being slowed down by certain politicians,” said a spokesman earlier this month on the Flemish radio station Radio 1. “They are taking the side of the youth gangs by questioning our actions. This must be tackled, even during corona times. “
A Brussels youth worker acknowledged opposite VRT News that the police are struggling. “But why exactly and – especially – what the solutions are, that is a complex story.”
According to the youth worker, poor neighborhoods are deeply suspicious of everything that has to do with the government. This is avenging at a time when anti-coronary measures limit people’s freedom of movement.
“The police have to mediate and fine in 100,000 situations, going from top to bottom, those people are having a hard time. And Brussels already had many structural problems before the corona crisis. The police are understaffed and the courts are 2 to 6 years behind. “
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