27 March, 2018
Reading time: 6-7 minutes
Headline reads: “Man died after incident with the police in Waddinxveen [small-town]: ‘Was possibly a confused man’.” In red: ‘Victim was supposedly hit hard by the police’ (source: Telegraaf.nl).
Imagine you are that police officer. You went to work this morning, probably hoping to arrive home safe at the end your shift. A call comes in: a confused man needs attention, and you are the officer send to respond. Minutes later you find yourself on top of this man, being called a ‘motherfucker’ and you’re trying to restrain the individual. Not cooperating that well, you shout ‘cooperate, now!’ to the person and you feel you need to resort to other measures apart from verbal instructions. You punch the individual in the side ribs hoping he will lower his arm so that you can cuff him, and consequently move him to the police car. These are all strategies you learned in your police trainings of course. Then, all of the sudden, the personl stops breathing, and eventually dies.