Dutch Drug Police Fight For Right to Smoke Pot

Has drugs, but is not a policeman

Drug police in Amsterdam are going to fight for their right to party.

The men in blue (or whatever color Dutch police wear) in Amsterdam, the largest city in the Netherlands, are up in arms over a new code of behavior that orders them to quit using drugs in their free time.

Actually they are in "open revolt.

The new rules, due to come in on January 1, have upset officers who patrol the city’s infamous coffee shops, where cannabis is smoked openly by locals and millions of tourists attracted by Amsterdam’s relaxed atmosphere.

It has been their duty for years to operate a policy of nonenforcement over the coffee shop culture. Now the police union will back its members in defying the cannabis ban. The union has vowed to bring a test case in court against the first officer to fall foul of the new rules, claiming that they amount to an unjustified intrusion into personal life.

Has drugs, but is neither Dutch nor a policeman

Cops are people, too. They want to have some fun.

According to the head of the policemen's union, the cops just "wanna be me".

“Police should not be put in pigeonholes in which they can no longer be themselves,” said Hans van Duijn, the chairman of the Nederlandse Politie Bond, the police union. “If you allow people in the country to smoke [cannabis], you would be a hypocrite to say to the police officers, ‘You are not allowed to do that’.

“It is illegal by law but we allow it for everybody else just to use it in small amounts for themselves. There must be scope for using soft drugs.”

The neighbor kid's mom is always saying that, too: there must be scope for using soft drugs.

Like so many cities around the world, the Dutch masters of Amsterdam have their "image" to consider. Amsterdam's mayor has some big plans.

The code, however, is only the latest example of a backlash against years of Dutch tolerance that have given Amsterdam a seedy reputation that the city’s authorities are keen to reverse.

This month Job Cohen, the Mayor, unveiled plans to convert scores of Amsterdam’s notorious prostitutes’ windows into fashion displays in an attempt to clean up parts of the red-light zone around some of the more attractive streets and canals. He has also led intense efforts to close coffee shops and so-called smart shops, which sell harder drugs such as magic mushrooms.

A policeman, but has no drugs (that can be seen)

Dutch drug laws seem a bit confusing.

Supplying and possessing cannabis remains illegal in the Netherlands and police have always been banned from drinking or taking drugs on duty. But the city force now wants all officers to set a better example.

Got that?

“Hitherto, it was only clear that you could not appear at your work drunk or stoned,” a police spokesman said. “We are now saying: You are also seen as a police officer when off-duty.” The use of alcohol is permitted when off-duty but officers should not be seen “drunkenly babbling on the street” in their free time, the spokesman said.

Drunkenly quoting Shakespeare is okay apparently.

The Amsterdam police have another code of behavior already in place--it's kinda like the Boy Scouts.

The code states that officers must behave as “model citizens”. The key words they must live by are “respect, transparency, responsibility, involvement, trustworthiness, justice and balance”.

Mr van Duijn remained defiant. “If there is one police officer who has been smoking a soft drug in private and they catch him, we will go to court to ask to be treated as everybody else.”

The police will go to court so they can be allowed to smoke pot. That's a switch from most countries.

Cool.

Of course, there are the football games to consider.

Unlike the Police Federation in Britain, the NPB union has full powers of industrial action. In a dispute over pay, the NPB has forced the postponement of several top-level football matches this month by refusing to work overtime and is planning to use its strike powers from January 9 if it does not get a better salary offer.

Largest police bust in Canada

One sympathizes with the Dutch police.

Instead of hoisting a few beers after a hard day's work, why not twist one up?

It would seem to get confusing, however.

What happens if the police get a call from the chief ordering them to "bust a joint"?

by Mondoreb
[image: thevarsity; jackthehack; bodybuilding;
Source:
* Drug Police in Netherlands Demand Right to Smoke Cannibis





Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Atlas Shrugged Off The Slings and Arrows

More on the Vlaams Belang dust-up in the Netherlands (and the USA).
Atlas Shrugged weighs in with some sober, salient points on the affair.

Philosopher Roger Scruton, who also spoke at a VB event:

As the British conservative philosopher and author Roger Scruton said in a speech in Antwerp last year, the charge of racism and xenophobia in the EU countries “has become the equivalent of a charge of heresy in medieval Europe, of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, or of ‘deviationism” in the Stalinist state.” However, as Mr. Scruton pointed out, “we have a duty to brave the charge of ‘racism and xenophobia’, and to discuss every aspect of immigration.”

AS goes on to add, concerning A. Bostom:

Moreover if I might add that Andrew Bostom was SPECIFICALLY requested by the organizers to speak about Antisemitism, AND I included at the end at the of his remarks a specific mention of NAZI Antisemitism in the guise of the annihilationist Johannes von Leers.

Atlas was good enough to include Little Green Footballs' objections to VB:

(1) that the party abstained in the European Parliament from approving the above mentioned Holocaust resolution;
(2) that early this month the party organized a “white supremacist” demonstration;
(3) that Nazi skinheads applaud the party;
(4) that neo-Nazis link to VB videos.

DBKP's take at this point: There are always going to be fringe elements in any group. It's important, after all the accommodations Europeans have made with Islam and immigrants' refusals to assimilate into European societies, to make a stand for Dutch and European culture somewhere along the line.

Because of some objectionable people, the Dutch people should be applauded for raising the question, even at this late hour. With Dutch emigration rising, it's important for assimilation to be stressed now. Whether there are those who take advantage of this concern for their own ends is largely immaterial to the larger debate.

Charles Johnson's been labeled a "Nazi", and worse, the Left countless times. It hasn't dampened his enthusiasm for spreading the truth of the jihadis or their apologists at LGF. No one should shut up because they're called "Nazi".

Either in The Netherlands or the United States.

by Mondoreb
[image:scifidatabase]
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Welcome To America, Ayaan

[image:RidesAPaleHorse]
by Mondoreb

Ayaan Hersi Ali is back in the US. Originally from Somali, she fled to the Netherlands and was threatened by Dutch Islamic terrorists. She fled again to the USA, returned to the Netherlands, and is now back. Her story.

Suppose you were born a woman in Somalia. And suppose you were married off to a distant relative you didn't know. And suppose you escaped all this and fled to the Netherlands, where you enjoy a different life. And suppose the worst elements of Islam followed you there. And suppose, despite international sucess, you were hounded and threatened. And suppose the Dutch government no longer would protect you from those elements which threaten Dutch society. And suppose you had to flee again.

Picture all that and you would have a tiny overview of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who now is in the United States. And hopefully, she feels a little safer.

Christopher Hitchens may not have it quite right in his rants on God, does have it right on many things. The Ali story is one of these. Hitchens in Slate:

Three years ago, at a conference in Sweden, I was introduced to a Dutch member of parliament named Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Originally born in Somalia, she had been a refugee in several African countries and eventually a refugee from her own family, which had decided to "give" her in marriage to a distant male relative she had never met. Thinking to escape from such confines by moving to the Netherlands, she was appalled to find that radical Islam had followed her there—or in fact preceded her there—and was proselytizing among Turkish and Moroccan and Indonesian immigrants.

Her accomplishments, from Wikipedia:

She has received numerous awards for her human rights work, and in 2005, was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She is currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

As of October 2007 she has been doing this work from a secret address in the Netherlands. Following the murder of Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch government had been financing round the clock security for her. However, they decided to stop paying for protection while she is living abroad. As a result, Hirsi Ali returned to the Netherlands.

Once before in the USA, then forced to leave, and now back again. As Michelle Malkin put it:

According to Anne Applebaum, courageous Islam critic Aayan Hirsi Ali is now back in the US after being forced to leave briefly when the Dutch government moved to revoke funding for her guards unless she returned there. The bad news is, the free speech rights of those who dare to question the “Islam is peace” mantra remain under assault by jihadists and dhimmi apologists

So Ali is back and hopefully she can find a safe and fruitful life in America. Her story is an inspiring one to anyone who has lived in fear.

And she might just testify that she's found freedom and safety in America. Not the fearful fascist Nazi police state that so many on the Left, who have no clue of living in fear themselves, fantasize about.




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Dutch Public Broadcasting:TV Station Linked to Radical Islam

[photo:transaudio group]
by Mondoreb
[Hat tip: Pat]

One of the pitfalls of government-owned TV and radio stations is that taxpayers are forced to fund enterprises that are anathema to them. If something disagreeable is broadcast on a private station, they have the option of turning it off and not supporting the station, either by watching its offerings or by patronizing its sponsors. They have no such options when the government is taking money from their paychecks and running a broadcasting enterprise.

People are emigrating from the Netherlands as conflicts grow between the easy-going Dutch and their growing Muslim immigrant population. The assassination of Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh was one example. The Dutch may soon be watching a viewpoint abhorrent to them on their tax-funded TV.

From Islam in Europe:

One of the members of the new board of directors is Yahia Bouyafa, who "is believed to have close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood," as Nova reported. Another is Abdelmajid Kayroun, chairman of the Al Farouq mosque in Utrecht "whose imam was deported from the Netherlands in 2001 for espionage for the Libyan secret service". Also among the eight directors is Mohammed Nanhekhan, a member of the "radical movement World Islamic Mission".

Another slice of the Europe which decries the actions of "American cowboys".




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