woensdag 26 december 2018

The 112 call turned into a script, the caller replaced by a voice actor, the dispatch center transformed into a film set. 

Enter The Dispatch, a new EO reality show.

The camera follows officer Hannelore de Laat as she’s going to work. She takes her seat behind the desk and starts answering 112 calls. Pretty quickly the penny drops and you realize you’re not watching reality TV, but something that feels more like a dialog from The Office. Awkward.

If anything, it emphasizes the blindspot at the entrance of the constitutional state. Emergency calls stay in the vault. Police rarely release any to the public. Like in my previous post, what we get is written excerpts, and that’s it. We the people can’t 
check a thing.


So wouldn’t it be a great assignment for a law faculty student to pull up all public court records from the last 10 years where the 112 audio was unavailable? Especially for a student like Daphne, who “always wondered why things are the way they are”, as her teacher Stefaan van den Bogaert said in de Observant. “She always wanted to know everything”.

zondag 25 november 2018

Centerpiece in the Daphne Farquharson murder trial is the 112 call 4.59 a.m: “Uhh…I’ve just committed a murder”. Judge, D.A. and defense lawyer never heard the actual tape, as the latter told me three weeks ago.

zaterdag 8 september 2018

zondag 5 augustus 2018

dinsdag 17 juli 2018

Invented by Joost à Campo, Maastricht University. Transforensic Psychiatry. Treatment for "pre-crime behaviour". Under lock and key that is.


About The Council of State – de Raad van State.
Founded in 1531, making it one of the world’s oldest still functioning state organisations.
The constitution dictates that the Council of State ”be heard” on proposed legislation, before the cabinet presents a bill to parliament.
In the old days it consisted of “the great nobles of the realm and a few of the great prelates”. And still today, the king is chairman. Queen Maxima has a seat, alongside former diplomats, senators, MPs and preeminent representatives from the law community. The prelates are gone, but not very far away.
The cabinet mostly follows the Council’s “dictum”, thereby handing over the power to a group of insiders appointed for life by royal decree, including judges, and they send ministers back to the drawing board if necessary, to redo the bill.
The second ‘branch’ of the Council is the High Court of Administrative Law, parallel to the Supreme Court. Where council members rule in plain suits and dresses. This NRC editorial comment explains what that’s all about: same thing, pushing a political agenda.
Parliament embrace the institution like it’s their own, bills that originate here follow the same route. Even the ones initiated by progressive Groenlinks or SP. The Hague tradition, it’s how we keep things cozy (gezellig) in the lowlands. And it sheds yet another light on the question what it is exactly that constitutes an opposition.
(Source: NRC, RaadvanState.nl, Volkskrant, RTL nieuws, Wikipedia, Parlement.com)

zaterdag 9 juni 2018

COMMON SENSE PREVAILS. Or does it?
As of July 1st, a fully trained emergency physician with 2 years experience must be present at the ER, 24/7. Instead of only residents and students.

22 regional hospitals don’t meet the requirements. Measure postponed.

woensdag 18 april 2018

Rector Rianne Letschert isn’t lying awake over the fact that MU has slipped to #200 in the 2018 QS World University Rankings. She has a new hobby, local politics. Helping forge the new coalition. And a politician she is. This is her reaction to recent events.
https://youtu.be/lLhlvWh1kCw

UN Report: 1000 children in Dutch prisons without any form of trial.

zaterdag 17 maart 2018

This is the size 36 sneaker ”found in front of club Backstage”.
Amir’s foot size: 30.
bit.ly/2eXLer6

woensdag 28 februari 2018

TAX COLLECTION, WIL MEIJER STYLE

March 29th, 2017

Tax inspector Wil Meijer arrives in Voerendaal this foggy spring morning, at the address where he's about to collect a back tax. He rings the bell and when the occupant opens the door, Meijer asks him to pay the outstanding amount, on the spot.

The man says he doesn't have such kind of cash on hand. That is the cue right there. Meijer unleashes the army search unit he brought along, a police unit, a customs unit with a dog and his own Revenue Service unit. To ransack the place for valuables equal to the amount of the debt.

read more.

zondag 14 januari 2018