I like how the conservative BBC, writing from a country whose murder rate is double that of the Netherlands, is trying to hype up violence Amsterdam because they don't like drugs. What a bunch of shit.
Thing may not be as violent as in Britain, but the country is on course for it, mainly due to drug related criminal activity. Some newspapers, even the justice minister recently, theorize that the lack of experience of Police in dealing with major crime is just not well developed in general, which together with a generally relaxed attitude and a central and well connected location in Europe (port of Rotterdam, airport of Amsterdam) make the country an ideal place to conduct such drug-business in relative quiet.
I mean... that happened once.
This all is unprecedented.
[1] https://www.advocatenorde.nl/nieuws/contactpunt-beroepsgroep...
Either way, this is terrifying and would have never expected this in the Netherlands.
The scary thing is that the Netherlands basically doesnt have major crimes units. There a good forensics bureau, which is also under heavy strain [2], and a small department at the National Police. That makes is trivial for hardened criminals to stay under the radar: there is (almost) no radar.
[1] https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/tijdlijn-de-vete-in-de-marokkaa... [2] https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2018/07/13/nfi-onderzocht-wegens-v...
Is this something that concerns people around you? Is it like a major shock to everybody?
There is a sort of reinforcing feedback loop to preferring to pretend all is well: to most people things of course are usually well and if everyone thinks all is well most people will behave well. But if you're one of the unlucky ones affected by such issues, you'll find it very difficult to convince people, after all, all is well.
Even though I am outraged by what is happening, I can't help but feel that something is happening to tackle this. The Netherlands is a very sane place, after all, and I'd like to think that whoever can do something about this is doing something about it.
Things are on course to become worse, at this time. Carefully some people start to suggest we need Italian-style investments to be able to track, uncover and handle this level and amount of crime, but we are nowhere near understanding or funding that. There is just no expertise, and no(t much) electoral pressure to fund it. Half of our 'sanity' is simply looking away from problems and hoping they pass of their own accord. That works sometimes, but here I'm not getting my hopes up.