Young people are bragging about having a gun or a knife, a member of the youth wing of the VVD party in Groningen said.
The North of the Netherlands has witnessed a number of alarming violent incidents including bombings, shootings, and stabbings in recent weeks and months. The Northern Times spoke with Stephan van der Linden, board member of JOVD Groningen, about their views on what’s fuelling this violence and how it can be curbed. JOVD is a youth party affiliated with the VVD. Former Dutch PM Mark Rutte was one of the JOVD’s former chairpersons.
“Young people brag about having a knife or having a gun. It’s cool to have one because they’re not aware of the serious consequences of holding one. The danger of the weapons. It’s not clear,” van der Linden told The Nothern Times.
Though van der Linden thinks the violence is caused by different reasons, the surge of weapons among the youth seems to be one of the main ones.
“It already starts in schools, kids see violence a lot and think it’s normal, but it’s really not,” van der Linden said.
He said they believe it’s important to tackle the root of the problem and are proposing there should be educational programmes and preventive campaigns in schools.
“Young people don’t realise the consequences yet of what having a knife or other weapon means”, he explains. He also believes that a lot of people don’t fear the police as much anymore because they’re not very visible.
Curbing violence
The JOVD thinks multiple things have to happen in order to turn the tide, like effective use of police capacity, placing them in areas with more recorded violence and making them more visible, as well as more control on weapon possessions in the form of neighbourhood watch teams in cooperation with community initiatives.
“A lot of times they are the people that really see the things so they can call the police much more quickly. And I think it’s good for the local government to stay in contact with them so they are given a boost to upscale their operations,” van der Linden explains.
Besides the police being more visible, they also think there should be more stop searches done with people who act suspiciously or are known by police to have had weapons in the past, as long as it’s lawful.
However, data suggests that stop and search is not particularly effective at reducing crime by deterring potential criminals.
The JOVD also wants more video surveillance in the city centre.
“We see a lot of violence in the city centre. With the active nightlife of Groningen and a large amount of young people things can quickly turn disastrous,” van der Linden said.
This surveillance would be done with cameras in the city centre and places where violence is frequent, van der Linden explains, especially after the shooting in the Oosterstraat where an innocent student was shot not too long ago.
“I think it is at places where we’re aware of higher chance of violence we need to place cameras. And we need to make sure everybody can see there’s a camera. So everybody knows I’m being watched,” he said.
“In general it needs to be more of a joint effort between all the stakeholders. So the local government, the police, the schools and the local communities,” van der Linden said.
Incentivising reporting a crime
Van der Lindenyoung people should be incentivised to report violence that they see.
“If they see someone with a knife or a gun at school, even if it’s fake. They have to be comfortable and taught not to keep it a secret because they are scared for some reason,” van der Linden said.“Reporting a crime isn’t a bad thing to do.”
“Everybody needs to feel safe in the city. With the amount of violence we’re seeing this day people just aren’t, especially at night,” van der Linden said.
