I have blogged quite a bit about the sad state of law enforcement in the Netherlands, and here's another twist to add to it. The police chief of the Amsterdam-Amstelland region J. van Riessen has said that people should only be entitled to police assistance if they've demonstrably tried to prevent the crime they have become the victim of. He wonders, "does a citizen have a right to an investigation after a burglary if his house was insufficiently protected?" He answers his own question in the negative. "As a government, you can force people to protect their houses. For instance through building permits, so that all houses end up secure to a certain degree." He thinks the police should only start to track down criminals if towns, building corporations (usually pension funds who build aparments and then let them) or citizens have done everything possible to prevent crime.

So next time you're the vicitim of a crime, the police will first start to investigate you to see if you've done enough to prevent the crime. I find this disturbing. The main reason for giving the state as much power as it has is that it will act as the enforcer of the democratically enacted laws. That is the police's sole function, and it's failing miserably in that function over here. By saddling victims of crime with the burden of proof to show that they are entitled to police help it's making a mockery of contract between the people and the police. It's really scary that someone in as senior a position as this would entertain such notions and air them publicly.

For all that, I do feel that citizens do have a responsibility to protect themselves, and do all in their power to defend themselves. Outsourcing all responsibility for your own safety to the state is an abdication of your own duties as a citizen, yet the dependency culture of many European countries has driven many people to do just that. But even with that proviso, it's not acceptable for a police chief even to suggest what van Riessen did.

As a coda, van Riessen also proves defeatist. He also said that the impact of laws, the efforts of police and the judiciary on crime are "marginal, really marginal." More cops on the beat, more prisons or more money for judges will not lead to a substantial reduction in crime in the Netherlands. It's not clear what in his opinion will reduce crime. And he's chief of police in Amsterdam. Yikes.