Punishing officers who deliberately falsify police reports? No is the consensus among judges.

The Supreme Court in 2013 ruled that procedural errors, accidental or deliberate, are a pain in the ass and virtually deleted the concept altogether.

Motion to suppress faulty police evidence is history. Some defense lawyers have tried, the request is standardly denied. The courts just bent their line of reasoning a bit, euphemizing falsification into a typo: "acquitting lawbreakers on technicalities doesn't go down very well with the general public anymore." (NRC, 6 Sept 2017)

(Dian Brouwer, Mr. aug. 2014)

NSCR REPORT: Employers prefer native white ex-felon over applicant of non-western descent with no criminal record.

It was a collaborative study of the NSCR, UU, VU and Radboud University. The question: what are the chances on the job market for ex-felons? The reseachers sent out 520 mock application letters to real job openings.

The letters were all identical, each ‘applicant’ had the same set of skills. In the resumés they systematically varied the type of crime – violent crime, property crime and sex crime – and no crime. Another variable was ethnicity.

(Un)expected conclusion: if your name is Johan or Kees and you were convicted of a violent crime, there’s a 28% chance you’ll be invited for a job interview. Is your name Youssef or N'gunda and you’re a law-abiding citizen of the Netherlands, the prospect of getting a positive reaction is 9%.

Talking about bias. The Judiciary of the Netherlands: 99.9% white.

Researcher Bauke Koekkoek singlehandedly dismantled the police policy of picking up ”confused persons”. Police registered 75.000 incidents in 2016 alone. ”In reality only thirty percent involve people with signs of mental problems”, says Koekkoek. ”The term is a catch-all for anyone and everyone who shows deviant or objectionable behaviour.”

Chief Aalbersberg laid down the terminology in a mission statement. ”Keeping the peace & quiet” became a goal in itself, at which point we entered that other zone, where the police raid homes ”because the blinds are down”. The couple living there was arguing too loud, according to a neighbour. The woman was thrown in a cell for the night. Her boyfriend for several nights more. Swalmen, Roermond area.

Other ”nuisance” makers were dropped off at one of those GGD affiliated institutions, and kept there. Mayor signs the warrant.

On the upside, individuals like Koekkoek can make the difference. Police started registering in 2011, but have largely abandoned the practice under pressure, and indeed, the unrelenting stream of news articles about confused people has dissipated visibly.

FIRST TWEET EVER.

just setting up my twttr

— jack (@jack) March 21, 2006

The Ladies of the Law Faculty connected way back in the early 90’s. Malva Driessen and Wendelien Elzinga pictured here as a member of the Emancipation Commission, MU.

Elzinga, top row, left.

Driessen, bottom row, second from left

This is the infamous little drawing by the hand of the winemaker’s wife, Luca Hulst. A ”situation sketch” that is part of a court record of a session presided by judge W.E Elzinga, Nov 5th 2007. Hulst was ”sworn in” as a crown witness, and testified about an “assault”.

For two years she kept quiet about it. Didn’t tell her friends, her children, nor her parents. Until the record was published in 2009. Which brought about a short circuit in the Maastricht courthouse, and in the Apostelhoeve’s inner circle. What was the case? Mrs. Hulst never set foot in the court building. The judge wrote a story in the category fiction.

Someone at the Bisschopsingel 53 Police Station had a great idea months earlier: wouldn’t the notable winemaker’s wife be the ideal person to lay down a reliable crown witness testimony of an ”assault”? Whoever put the question, Luca Hulst-Nijsten said yes. She didn’t have to sign. She only had to nod her head. 

First person narrator in that testimony is officer Jan Ten Brink and he formalized it in 39-page police file 2006145758. Which later would be used as the basis for the Nov. 5th court session. As we know now, the court room, besides judge, DA and clerk, was empty, but the documents spell out quite accurately what happened there, though the devil was in the details.

Elzinga “interrupted” proceedings to “reflect on further action”. Here she switched over to private mode. She got on the phone with fellow judge and colleague at the Law Faculty, Malva Driessen – whose name had surfaced as accuser in the case – asking for some input to produce a believable court record.

That resulted in this scribble about a situation that never happened. It seems as if Hulst is saying: ”if I do this minimalistic thingy that says absolutely nothing, they can’t hold it against me”. She drew it sometime later that week, at her kitchen table. 

Read More.

The only existing film images of Anne Frank. She lived at Merwedeplein 37 from 1933 to July 6th 1942, the day they went into hiding in the secret annex of the warehouse, Prinsengracht 263.

1600 teenage girls, victims of forced prostitution, are locked up in closed institutions to ''protect them against their exploiters, and against themselves.'' (Mondriaan/L1)

bit.ly/2hSX0TT