To Protect and Serve the People:
How Top Down Police Strategies are experienced by
Ethnic Minority Youngsters on a Street-level
By: Oliver R. Senduk Student number: 6282342 Supervisor: Nanke Verloo Second reader: Anne de Jong Word count: 22.027
Master Thesis Conflict Negotiation and Governance University of Amsterdam
Abstract
This study has examined how ethnic minority youngsters experience their interactions with the police. The following research question has been devised: How are police strategies to interact with ethnic minority youngsters experienced by ethnic minority youngsters on a street-level in the Schilderswijk and Laak, The Hague?
In answering this question, the police policy to interact with ethnic minority youngsters was compared to the way these strategies are experienced by ethnic minority youngsters on a street level in the Schilderswijk and Laak, The Hague. A content analysis was done to study the policy
surrounding police interaction. The experiences of 52 ethnic minority youngsters were examined through 18 in depth interviews and participant observations.
The results showed a large amount of discretionary space imbedded in the police strategies that leaves police officers to decide on which action to take. As police strategies entail terms such as “proportionately” and “subsidiarity”, it also becomes difficult to see where the authority begins and ends at street level. Overall the reception of police strategies by ethnic minority youngsters is often not in accordance with their official meaning and purpose, and sometimes even contrary to their purpose. In the experiences of the youngsters, police officers often abuse authority and display discriminatory behavior. Within the stories and narratives of ethnic minority youngsters, it is imbedded that police officers are often inadequately able to handle the discretionary space given to them.
Word of Thanks
What an excruciation, yet fulfilling journey it has been. With some big bumps on the road, this has not only been an academic journey, but also one that has thought me a great deal about myself and about life in general. I would not have been able to have these breakthroughs were it not for a few very special people.
My biggest thanks in achieving this milestone goes out to my supervisor Nanke Verloo, who has mentored me with wise comments on an academic level, as well as beyond. I find it very
impressive how she has managed to obtain her PhD (cum laude I might add), whilst still providing all her students with valuable advice and leading us to this point.
In addition to Nanke’s wise words, there was a whole team of passionate CRG teachers who loved to give you a hand and to shed their perspective on what you have written, giving me the feeling that they were genuinely interested in what you had to say. Every one of you has inspired me
throughout the year and I want to thank you all for the nice times, which I shall remember long after my days of a university student are over.
During my fieldwork, I have had the pleasure to meeting a lot of very special people, whom I also want to thank. Because I said I would not include your actual names in this thesis, I cannot give you all the credit you deserve, but you have been a great help by opening up and helping me navigate through a city, and maybe more importantly, in some cases a whole street culture I was unfamiliar with.
I would also like to express my family and friends, and give a special thanks to my father who inspired me throughout my life. I would also like to express my thanks to my sweet mother who has not missed a day in calling me to ask how my thesis was progressing. Lastly, a special thanks to my mentor outside of the UvA: my uncle Dick Ruimschotel, who has helped me enormously with his wise words and academic insights.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 6
1.1 Academic Debate ... 6
1.2 The Core Values of the Police ... 8
1.3 Research Question ... 8
2. Theoretical Framework ... 10
2.1 Street Level Bureaucrats ... 10
2.2 Top Down Strategies & Street Level Tactics ... 11
2.2.1 Strategies & Tactics ...11
2.3 How Narratives Shape Reality ... 12
3. Method ... 14
3.1 Respondents ... 14
3.1.1 Defining ethnic minority youngsters ...14
3.2 Materials ... 16
3.3 Methods ... 16
3.3.1 Qualitative Content Analysis ...16
3.3.2 Participant Observation ...16
3.3.3 Qualitative Interviews ...19
3.4 Log ... 20
4. Top-down Law versus Real Life Experiences... 21
4.1 Police Duties. ... 21
4.1.1 Police Duties experienced by ethnic minority youngsters ... 22
4.1.2 Analysis ... 24
4.2 Use of Violence ... 25
4.2.1 Use of violence experienced by ethnic minority youngsters ... 26
4.2.2 Analysis ... 29
4.3 Restrictive Measures ... 30
4.3.1 Restrictive measures as experienced by ethnic minority youngsters ... 30
4.3.2 Analysis ... 31
4.4 Stopping and searching of people or vehicles ... 31
4.4.1 Stopping and searching of people and/ or vehicles as experienced by ethnic minority youngsters ... 32
4.4.2 Analysis ... 34
4.5 Asking and demanding identification ... 35
4.5.1 Asking and demanding identification as experienced by ethnic minority youngsters ... 36
4.5.2 Analysis ... 37
4.6 Wijkagents ... 38
4.6.1 Wijkagents as experienced by ethnic minority youngsters ... 38
4.6.2 Analysis ... 40
4.7 Police integrity ... 40
4.7.1 Police integrity as experienced by ethnic minority youngsters ... 41
4.7.2 Analysis ... 44
4.8 Handling complaints ... 45
4.8.2 Analysis ... 46
4.9 Summary ... 47
5. Conclusion and Discussion ... 49
5.1 Overall summary ... 49 5.2 Specific results ... 49 5.3 Conclusions ... 51 5.4 Theoretical evaluations ... 51 5.5 Discussion ... 52
7. Literature ... 54
Epilogue: Reflection ... 58
1. Introduction
'‘We are not white, thàt is why the police is targeting us’1 (Bos & Wismams on nrc.nl, 2015)2
‘Heavy riots yet again in the Schilderswijk after a demonstration against police violence’3 (Klompenhouwer on nrc.nl, 2015)
The Hague, the third largest city in the Netherlands, and more specifically the Schilderswijk, has been the stage for clashes between the police and ethnic minority youngsters. One of main reasons reported for this tense atmosphere is the notion that ethnic minority youngsters accuse the police of ethnic profiling and police brutality (Zeegers, 2015; Bos & Wismans, 2015).
In order to get a better understanding of what drives these youngsters to revolt against the police, this research aims to unveil how ethnic minority youngsters experience their interactions with the police, as well as how these interactions shapes their ideas about the police.
The reported ethnic minority youngsters are not alone in their critiques against the Dutch police force. A Dutch newspaper published a critical blog written by Gerard Bouman, who is the chief of police in the Netherlands. In the blog, Bouman voiced his concerns about racism within the police force: “A poison is infiltrating in our organization. It is the poison of exclusion” (Bouman in NRC, 11-04-2015). The blog is mostly focused on discrimination of police officers towards fellow police officers, though Bouman also recognizes that if the police can’t hold up to their core values internally, it might also be problematic for their interactions with the general public:
‘How can we guarantee safety and connectivity on the outside, if we alienate our colleagues on the inside? Which weight do the words “integer, trustworthy, brave and connective” have if we cannot even realize these core values towards each other?’4 (Bouman in NRC, 2015)
1.1 Academic Debate
Previous research looking at discriminatory behavior by police officers in the Netherlands has shown mixed and contradictive findings. According to a PhD study conducted by Paul Mutsaers, there is a structural problem of discrimination within the Dutch police force. Mutsaers (2015) argues that the discretionary space police have to enact their duties result in discriminatory behavior from police
2 Retreived from nrc.nl. Translated from Dutch. The orginal text: We zijn niet blank, dààrom moet de politie ons hebben. 3 Retreived from nrc.nl. Translated from Dutch. The original text: Opnieuw hevige rellen in de Schilderswijk na demonstratie tegen politiegeweld.
4 Translated from Dutch. Original text: ‘Hoe kunnen wij buiten instaan voor veiligheid en verbinding als wij binnen collega’s van ons vervreemden? Welk gewicht hebben de woorden integer, betrouwbaar, moedig en verbindend als wij deze kernwaarden richting elkaar niet waarmaken?’ Retreived from NRC.nl
officers. This discretionary part of their job is accounted for under police professionalism: It is through their training and experience that police officers gain the ability to handle situations accurately, and therefore a substantial amount of freedom is given in their decision-making (Naeyé, 2014, p.10).
Mutsaers’ (2015) findings are in line with the conclusions of an Amnesty International report released in 2013, stating that ethnic profiling by police officers goes beyond the level of isolated incidents. Ethnic profiling is thought to be caused by the proactive stop and search policy, meaning that police have the freedom to base the decision of who they stop on their ‘police intuition’ (Amnesty International, 2013, p. 2). In an unpublished manuscript, Senduk (2014) came to similar conclusions after conducting a participant observation and interviews with police officers and added that, although it is often a grey area due to the discretionary space, police officers do consciously, as well as
unconsciously, use ethnicity to profile in their day-to-day work.
As I stated earlier, there is no consensus in the scientific field whether or not police officers structurally use ethnic profiling in their day-to-day work. Çayanka (2012) for example, states that police officers generally look for suspect profiles, meaning that they look at the person, the vehicle, the behavior and the time in combination with the location. He notes that these suspect profiles often belong to youngsters with a brown/dark skin color and Eastern-European looking people. In contrast with Mutsaers (2015) and Amnesty International (2013), Çayanka (2012) concludes that, although it is a grey area, it would be unjust to accuse the police officers of being structurally discriminatory. Svensson et al. (2011) also conclude with the notion that police did not structurally approach ethnic minority youngsters more than natively Dutch youngsters. According to Svensson et al. (2011), police officers rightfully based their controls on objective criteria such as behavior.
Where Amnesty International (2013) pointed to the proactive work ethic of police officers being the cause for ethnic profiling, Svensson et al. (2011) underlines the positive attributes of
proactive police work: more contact between police and youngsters would benefit the relation because it could result in a better understanding for each other and create a basis for mutual respect.
Despite conflicting views on whether or not police officers use ethnic profiling in their daily work, adolescents in The Hague themselves seem to think police officers do discriminate. Van der Leun (2013) conducted a survey with 205 adolescents to examine how adolescents looked at police behavior, specifically if they thought police profiled on the basis of ethnicity. 93% of the adolescents said they thought the police profiled on the basis of ethnicity, with 70% of them saying it happened frequently (van der Leun, 2014, p. 34).
The aim of this research is not to look at the police performances in relation to ethnic profiling in a manner such has been done before (Svensson et al. 2011; Çayanka, 2012; Amnesty International, 2013; Senduk, 2014; Mutsaers, 2015), instead it looks at the experiences of ethnic minority youngsters in relation to the way police officers carry out their duties. By unveiling the actual experiences on a street-level of ethnic minority youngsters, the public and academic debate,
which thus far has mostly been emphasized on the executive side of the police work, is broadened by taking into account the experiences and thoughts of the receiving side, the ethnic minority youngsters.
1.2 The Core Values of the Police
In order to understand the position police are expected to take, it is helpful to first understand the core values of the police, as these are the foundation from which Dutch police officers operate. As the police officers have the duty to protect and serve the citizens, they have four core values that they abide by (Naeyé, 2014, p.120):
a. Police officers have integrity. All employees who work within the police force are
independent in their judgment and their work. In protecting citizens and upholding the law, every person is treated the same. The police are to speak the truth under every circumstance and act with decency and respect towards others.
b. Police officers are trustworthy. The police are dependable in what they do and accountable for what they do. They are professionals who are consistent and fair in their actions. c. Police officers are brave and act vigorously. The police will act in situations where others
will not, including life-threatening situations.
d. Police officers are connected with society. Police will be active in trying to connect with civilians and built professional networks (Naeyé, 2014, p.120).
Looking at the first point of their values, it shows that police officers must strive not treat minority youngsters any differently than other citizens, due to the claim of integrity. Ethnic minority
youngsters must also be able to trust that the actions of police officers are just and that the police can be held accountable for them.
1.3 Research Question
In order to look at the experiences of ethnic minority youngsters in relation to police actions, this study aims to answer the following research question:
How are police strategies to interact with ethnic minority youngsters experienced by ethnic minority youngsters on a street-level in the Schilderswijk and Laak, The Hague?
The term ethnic minority youngsters in relation to the research question is not meant to represent all ethnic minority youngsters, only those who participated with this research. The police policy to interact with ethnic minority youngsters is looked at through official police policy documents. The goals and guidelines of each policy item will then be compared to the street-level experiences of ethnic minority youngsters. The data accounting for the experiences of ethnic minority youngsters is gathered through qualitative interviews and participant observations with ethnic minority youngsters.
The outline of this paper will be as follows. Chapter two will provide an overview of the theoretical lenses used to analyze the data. In chapter three will explain the methodological choices that have been made and the way the study has been carried out. Chapter four will discuss and analyze the empirical data. In conclusions, chapter five will answer the research question and try to look at the outcome in respect to the current academic debate.
2. Theoretical Framework
This chapter will provide an overview of existing theoretical insights that shape the analytical lens to look at police strategies, as well as how these are experienced by ethnic minority youngsters on a street level. For this three concepts have been used. Firstly Lipsky’s (1980) theory on Street-level Bureaucrats is looked at, which explains the discretionary space found in police strategies and what effects this has on the police having to make decisions when implementing the policy on a street-level. Secondly, insights from de Certeau’s (1984) book Practices of Everyday Life are discussed to emphasize the importance of looking at both top-down strategies stemming from rules and
regulations, as well as the tactics deployed by ethnic minority youngsters to coop with these
strategies. Lastly, theory on how narrative analysis can help uncover how people perceive reality and identity will be discussed.
2.1 Street Level Bureaucrats
The way interpretations of rules and regulations can have an impact on interactions between the police and ethnic minority youngsters is defined in the concept of Street Level Bureaucrats (SLBs) by Lipsky (1980). One of the premises of his book is that public service workers, or SLBs, have to dedicate a relatively large portion of their daily work routine to handling situations that do not have specific policy. Because all clients SLBs face are unique, it leaves the SLB with a lot of room for discretion. The ambiguous nature of their work also causes it to be impossible to act out in a perfect fashion (Lipsky, 1980: 82).
Another notion in his book is that SLB’s have a limited amount of resources they can draw upon, including the personal resources they can use, which are the individual capabilities to handle a specific matter (Lipsky, 1980: 31).
In order to deal with the resource deficits and the ambiguity of their work, Lipsky (1980) argues that SLB’s have a tendency to fill in their job description in such a way that it better utilizes the limited resources they have to try and optimize results. This often results in simplifying the work and creating routines to manage certain situations, causing the SLB to become the policy maker in a way (Lipsky, 1980: 83-4).
Judging from Lipsky’s notion of discretionary space rooted within the work of public service workers, it is expected that this discretionary space will also be found when analyzing the police policy. Uncovering where this discretionary space is rooted in the policy, will help to analyze the situation where police officers do not have specific guidelines they can follow, but have to interpret and improvise.
Besides looking at where Lipsky’s ideas reflect back in the policy, the analysis will also focus on the experiences of ethnic minority youngsters in relation to their interactions with police. More
specifically, using the theory of Lipsky (1980) can be helpful to see whether any dissatisfaction ethnic minority youngsters have with police officers is rooted in the specific policy matters, or is a result from choices police officers make on a street-level within their discretionary space to act.
2.2 Top Down Strategies & Street Level Tactics
De Certeau (1984) proposed looking at everyday practices as a means to study everyday life. In his view, too much emphasis is placed on systems of production and consumption. How consumers interpret and manipulate these systems is overlooked. He illustrates this with an example of studies on television use:
The analysis of the images broadcast by television (representation) and of the time spent watching television (behavior) should be complemented by a study of what the cultural consumer "makes" or "does" during this time and with these images (De Certeau, 1984, p. xii).
De Certeau, then, is primarily interested in the difference between what producers mean for these systems, and how consumers pick them up. He shows this by introducing the terms “Strategies” and “Tactics”.
2.2.1 Strategies & Tactics
Strategies are explained as structures that are produced by organizational institutions with power, which impose certain rules to define social environments (de Certeau, 1984, p. xix). These strategies however, do not necessarily account for everyday practices of individual consumers and are therefore insufficient to define the social world. Strategies are unable to show what the structures actually mean to the people who consume them. Looking at the top-down police strategies as formulated in the laws, rules and regulations will account for the imposed structures in which the police operate. However, this does not clarify how ethnic minority youngsters relate to these policy strategies. To analyze this, we look at the tactics of ethnic minority youngsters.
Tactics can be seen as the extension of strategies into everyday life situations, taking active actors into account. Looking at things on a consumer level does not diminish the social aspect of everyday practices, as practices and tactics must always be positioned in relation to an individual’s surroundings (de Certeau, 1984, p. xiii). These tactics are not attempts to change or take over existing structures, but ways for people to maximize opportunities within the given space and time.
Looking at de Certau’s (1984) theory, it is expected that ethnic minority youngsters will have created tactics to coop with the top down strategies formulated in the police policy, maximizing the opportunities within the strategies. Analysis will focus on the tactics of individual youngsters, but also on the surroundings of these individuals, as de Certau (1984) proposes that the tactics are to be seen within the context of an individual’s surroundings. Uncovering which actions youngsters believe to
optimize results within the strategies can say something about how youngsters view their interactions with the police, as well as what drives their actions.
2.3 How Narratives Shape Reality
The narrives of ethinic minority youth can contribute to the understanding of how ethnic minority youngsters experience police strategies. In his work The Narrative Construction of Reality from 1991, Jerome Bruner proposes that in order to look at the domain of human interaction, it is necessary to look at people’s narratives (Bruner, 1991, p. 4).
In another one of Bruner's works, Life as Narrative, originally written in 1984, he explains how narratives are prone to being unstable, as they are constructed by humans and are therefore liable to personal memory and interpretations of experiences (Bruner, 2004, p. 692-693). He argues that this does not mean that narratives should not be researched. Our stories shape our memories and thus make us who we are, or, as Bruner puts it: “In the end, we become the autobiographical narratives by which we "tell about" our lives” (ibid, p. 94). Bruner (2004) shows how looking at personal stories can help uncover people their identities. It is thus expected that through analysis of the narratives of ethnic minority youngsters and their experiences with police officers, much can be said about how ethnic minority youngsters identify themselves in respect to the police, but also how they identify the police.
Bruner (1991) also provides a list of features to show what constitutes as a narrative. Among this list is particularity, which entails that personal narratives often fall under certain categories, or share characteristics with broader narratives, but the stories gain their unique character through personalized details and personal interpretation of what happened. In analyzing the way ethnic minority youngsters talk about their interactions with police officers, looking at particularity helps to see which aspects of narratives are unique for each story. Looking at this also enables to look at which aspects are shared amongst the ethnic minority youngsters in the Schilderswijk and Laak, thus
creating a broader, shared narratives.
Another feature Bruner (1991, p. 7) ascribes to narratives is Intentional State Entailment. This has to do with the person’s intentionality: his or her cognitive ideas and beliefs that drive their actions. This does not mean that there is a causal link between someone’s intentionality and their actions, since that would discard human choice. It is expected that the intentionality with which ethnic minority youngsters act will show through in their narratives, thereby enabling to look for the beliefs and ideas that drive their actions.
As narratives are often focused on occurrences and experiences, small stories are often overlooked when looking at identity research (Georgakopoulou, 2006). Small stories are “tellings of ongoing events, future or hypothetical events, shared (known) events, but also allusions to tellings, deferrals of tellings, and refusals to tell” (Georgakopoulou, 2006, p. 1). Including small stories in
narrative and identity analysis, Georgakopoulou (2006) argues, can help uncover important information that would otherwise be ignored, such as what norms and values, accessibility and participation within social spaces and people’s social consequentiality.
In respect to analyzing the stories of ethnic minority youngsters, as many of the information used is acquired through participant observations where at times no clear narratives are expressed, it are exactly these small stories that can help elevate the understanding of how these ethnic minority youngsters identify themselves and the police and thus enabling a better understanding of their experiences with the strategies of police officers to interact with them.
As mentioned prior, the Schilderswijk has been subject to protests and riots, often directed at police after a specific event. To analyze the effect of these events, Denzin (1997) in Baden & Niekerk (2007, p. 465) give four types of epiphanies that can be found within narratives and which can help guide an interpretive analysis:
1. Cumulative epiphany: This constitutes for an event which serves as a turning point, after having other experiences lead up to that moment.
2. Illuminative epiphany: An event or point in time that provides someone with certain insights. 3. Major epiphany: A challenging or traumatic event which immediately has noticeable
consequences.
4. Relived epiphany: When an event needs to relived for someone to be able to understand it. (Denzin, 1997 in Baden & Niekerk, 2007, p. 465).
When analyzing the narratives of ethnic minority youngsters, this present thesis will look for certain events involving police that might have functioned as one of these epiphanies. Based on the recent riots, it is expected that the narratives of some ethnic minority youngsters will contain certain events that might have had a big influence, resulting in one of the four epiphanies described above.
3. Method
This methodology chapter describes everything related to the setup and execution of this thesis. What follows are the criteria for the respondents, as well as how they were selected. Subsequently, an overview of the materials and methods used to answer the research question will be given, as well as an explanation as to why these methods were chosen and how these methods were used in practice. Lastly the use of a log will be discussed.
3.1 Respondents
Gathering respondents was done over the course of five week in the Schilderswijk and Laak, The Hague. Respondents were found by talking to people on the street, in parks, around neighborhood centers, mosques, schools, universities and around squares. Before choosing the sites I walked around through the neighborhoods to look for potential places. In doing so I tried to make a list of places that enabled me to speak to youngsters with varying ethnicities, ages, levels of education and wealth levels
As it can be difficult to approach subjects and get their permission to interview them (De Jong, 2007), snowball sampling was used numerous times. Snowball sampling is a way to find subjects, by having a subject introduce the researcher to another subject and so on. This can be an effective way of sampling when the subject population is hard to reach and is mostly effective in explorative and qualitative research (Atkinson & Flint, 2001, p.2).
There were 22 groups of ethnic minority youngsters I interacted with, with group sizes varying from two to twelve. The field notes and diary show a number of 52 respondents, 41 of whom were male and 11 who were female. The total number of respondents I interacted with is difficult to say, as some respondents were only there swiftly and no real interaction took place and there were times where I did not speak to members of a group individually, however they were present. The duration of my interactions differed from half an hour to four hours, with three groups whom I saw more then once. Though again, the composition of the group members was not always the same. The ethnicity of the respondents varied. Most were of Moroccan, Surinamese, Dutch Antillean or Turkish decent, but there was also a Russian respondent, as well from Iran, Ethiopia and Eritrea. The names that are included in this present thesis are not the actual names of the respondents, but names that I have made-up.
3.1.1 Defining ethnic minority youngsters
Because this research focuses on ethnic minority youngsters, criteria had to be set as to who fall under the header “ethnic minority” and what constitutes as a “youngster”. To categorize as an ethnic
minority, the official definition of the CBS5 was chosen. According to the CBS, a minority is someone who has at least one parent that was born outside of the Netherlands6. The criteria to what constitutes as a youngster are not that clear cut. According to Dutch law, children under the age of 12 are not liable for prosecution, so a logical starting point would be 12 years old. However, during my fieldwork I came into contact with children as young as 8 who had already been in contact with the police. Therefore, I decided to lower the age boundary to 8 years old. Setting up an upper age
boundary of 24 years old was also decided on the basis of findings, as none of the minority youngsters who I interacted with were older than this.
Researchers have been criticized for oversimplifying ethnic minorities by generalizing them as a homogenous group, in effect missing critical differences (Van San & Leerkes, 2001, p. 17). In order to avoid this, the term ethnic minority youngsters as used in this present thesis should not be seen as representative for all ethnic minority youngsters, but only as a representation for those who have participated with this research. Furthermore, in order not to overgeneralize the opinions of the ethnic minority youngsters who participated, I will try to show the differences found between different groups, as well as within these groups, as much as possible when analyzing the results.
As I met many of the participants on a square, sitting on a bench, or hanging out in the park, a large portion of the respondents could be referred to as loitering youth who, to more or less extent, deal with the police frequently. Within the police multiple categorizations have been made for these types of youngsters: (1) Occasional offenders, who commit minor crimes when the opportunity arises and (2) repeat offenders, who have been arrested multiple times for offenses (Ferwerda & van Wijk, in Fijnaut, 2007, pp. 957-959). For groups of youngsters the following categorizations have been made: (1) bothersome youth groups, who cause mild nuisance and incidental problems, (2) Mildly problematic youth groups, who are known to be involved in minor criminal offenses, and (3) criminal youth groups who are known to be insensitive to authority and commit violent crimes (Ferwerda & van Wijk, in Fijnaut, 2007, pp. 961-962).
In order to add background information about who is telling the story, I will mention it when a youngster falls into one of these categories and I will base this of the stories told, but also the general attitude I have witnessed whilst interacting.
5 CBS stands for Centraal Bureau of Statistics, which is a bureau for economic policy analysis in the Netherlands and is a part of the Dutch ministry for Economic Affairs.
3.2 Materials
To look at the structural rules and regulations regarding police interacting with minority youngsters, I analyzed two books that are used within the police, but are also available for people outside the police. These books contain police policy, as well as research. The list of books that were analyzed:
- De organisatie van de Nationale Politie by Jan Naeyé (2014). This book is a comprehensive overview of all the regulations that were implemented in 2013 when the Dutch police became nationally run. The laws discussed in this book fall under the header Police Law 2012. - Politie: studies over haar werking en organisatie. (Fijnout, 2007). This book entails an all-
encompassing view of formal rules, as well as how they are seen in the light of everyday police practice.
3.3 Methods
In order to get the right empirical data for the research questions, three study methods have been used: (1) Qualitative Content Analysis; (2) Participant Observations; and (3) Interviews.
3.3.1 Qualitative Content Analysis
To gather the empirical data concerning police strategies to interact with minority youngsters a content analysis was conducted. As there were no clear cut guidelines as to what accounted for police strategies focused on interaction with minority youngsters, the first step was to reduce the data, also known as the data reduction process. The data reduction is achieved by limiting the data to the point where you have specified which data relates to your research question (Schreier quited in Cho & Lee, p. 10). In doing so, a researcher minimalizes their own interpretations of the empirical data, as “there is no mandate to re-present the data in any other terms but their own” (Sandelowski, quoted in Cho & Lee, 2014, p. 10). Every policy strategy concerning some form of police interaction was selected, as this relates back to the research question.
3.3.2 Participant Observation
Much of the information used to answer the research question has been gathered through participant observations. In general, participant observations are useful if you know what to research, but not what you want to find (Berendsen, 2008). This is the case here: the general aim was to find out how minority youngsters experience interactions with the police, though there was no premise as to what information they would provide. Including participant observations in the method of analysis has an advantage over solely doing interviews, because it allows to observe behavior that the participants
might not be aware of, as the behavior is observed directly (Berendsen, 2008). Monitoring behavior also allows to see if the answers given match with the behavior that is shown (Svensson et al., 2012). Lastly, spending time with respondents also creates trust and report, which can increase the
possibilities for respondents to talk about sensitive subjects (DeWalt, & DeWalt, 2010, p. 52).
Having spent all this time with the youngsters was helpful to see how they were talking about the police amongst each other. This both gave me extra information relating to what they had told me privately before, and helped me formulate questions to ask them later. Additionally, it also helped me get a lot of information about the respondents, such as what they do for a living, how they viewed themselves and how they acted amongst their peers and against people outside of their own group. Although this information cannot always directly be linked to the research question, witnessing their behavior did help me to see the bigger picture as they told their stories about how they experienced interacting with police officers, without me judging these.
When doing participant observations, it important to make the research-nature of the interactions clear to the participants (DeWalt, & DeWalt, 2010, p. 42). To do so, I always started by saying that I was a researcher from the University of Amsterdam and tried to explain the nature of the research I was doing. Doing so was not only important from an ethical perspective, but explaining my neutrality in the matter also helped gain the trust of the respondents, as I told them my main objective was to uncover their stories and experiences in relation to the police.
I was semi-involved, thus taking on the role of a researcher-participant (Bryman, 2012, p.412). Despite the fairly passive way I participated, I tried to engage in conversations to a certain extent to make the participants familiarize with me. As one of the obstacles of conducting a participant
observation is potentially influencing the answers and behavior of the respondents (De Jong, 2007, p. 92), I tried not to voice my opinion on police matters.
Whenever respondents ask about the opinion of the researcher, especially the opinion on a matter that is being researched, the researcher must try to remain as neutral as possible. This can involve
declining to answer, or trying to use neutral wording when expressing the opinion, such as “I agree with this standpoint” or “I don’t believe this to be the case” (DeWalt, & DeWalt, 2010, p. 49). I was asked about my opinion of the police numerous times. Where possible, I would try to avoid giving an answer by saying I would talk about my ideas after we were done. When I felt it was in the best interest to answer, for example because it seemed necessary for them to open up more, I would say that being a police officer appeared to me as being a very complicated line of work. Another measure to ensure that their behavior was sincere was to inform them that their names, dates and locations would not be included in the final report.
When interacting with loitering youngsters, some of the conversations were about criminal activities. It proved difficult not to voice my own opinion during these talks, as some of the things that were said were very much against my own values. For example, two of the respondents had a
sentence was as high as it was “just because he stabbed her”. I tried not to engage in such conversations.
I also found that getting accepted or respected was quite difficult. In some of my interactions, there was somebody who did not trust me and tried to keep the others from talking to me. A strategy that seemed to work was to direct my questions towards this person specifically, as he or she often did have a lot to say. These persons that would first be an obstacle to getting information, often later proved to be a valuable source.
3.3.2.1 Field notes
In order to keep track of what happened during my interactions with the minority youngsters, I made field notes. Schatzmann and Strauss (1973:100) refer to field notes as observational notes that should contain as little interpretation from the researcher as possible. I used the comprehensive note taking strategy as outlined by Spradley (1980). Spradley (1980:78) gives nine points to look out for when taking field notes: 1. Space: the physical place or places; 2. Actor: the people involved; 3. Activity: a set of related acts people do; 4. Object: the physical things that are present; 5. Act: single actions that people do; 6. Event: a set of related activities that people carry out; 7. Time: the sequencing that takes place over time; 8. Goal: the things people are trying to accomplish; and 9. Feeling: the emotions felt and expressed. By using a comprehensive approach to note taking, I was able to identify details that might have seemed mundane at the time, but proved valuable later on (Wolfinger, 2002: 91).
In doing so, I would note down these points where possible, whenever something happened or was said relating to police. Due to the fact that I did not want to take too long writing or recording my own memos in case I missed other information, I often wrote down a short version of what had taken place, and added details to it after I left.
3.3.2.2 Diary
Besides keeping track of what happened comprehensively, I also kept track of my own personal opinion and ideas of what took place. To do this, I used a diary. This is what Schatzmann and Strauss (1973, p.101) refer to as theoretical notes that represent the researcher's own interpretations of what has been observed and how what has been observed relates to the research questions. The diary looks at the interactions in a more salient hierarchical matter, which entails addressing what seem the most important details of what has been observed (Wolfinger, 2002, p.89).
3.3.3 Qualitative Interviews
In order to get more specified information, I also conducted taped interviews with the ethnic minority youngsters when possible. Conducting interviews help get a fuller understanding of the perception of the participants as it gives interviewees the opportunity to give detailed descriptions of events, as well as how they interpret these events (Weiss, 1995, p. 4-11). Using qualitative questioning has been a very helpful tool to uncover how the youngsters experienced their interactions with police officers, as this enabled me to go in depth and let them tell their stories.
As I interacted with youngsters, I would ask them if they were willing to conduct an
interview. This resulted in 18 in depth interviews, 11 of which were audiotaped7. I tried to interview at least one person from each group I interacted with, although this was not always possible due to unwillingness from respondents. The number of interviewees per interview varied from 1 to 4 whom I was actively interviewing. I usually let the respondents themselves decide if they wanted to do the interview alone or in a group, although I sometimes specifically asked to conduct it one-on-one whenever I thought this would benefit the interview.
The interviews contained two different lines of questioning: Narrative Questions and Semi-Structured Questions.
3.3.3.1 Narrative Questioning
A narrative interview is an interview where the interviewee is encouraged to tell about a significant event from his or her life, as he or she experienced it. These narrative interviews are particularly useful when trying to learn about specific event, as well as when multiple social groups are involved in an event and you want to know the different perspectives (Jovchelovitch & Bauer, 2000, p. 8). As the center question of this thesis revolves around the narrative of minority youngsters in relation to police strategies, I asked the youngsters narrative questions to hear about their interactions with police. A narrative interview should start with an open question about a specific event, using everyday language, and should enable the interviewee to express his or her experiences (Holloway & Jefferson, in Elliott, 2011, p. 30). To get a narrative, I asked participants a question such as the following: Could you tell me about an experience you had with a police officer that was either good or bad?
During a narrative interview, it is best to ask as few directional questions as possible (Bauer, 1996, p 5). Therefore, I limited myself to giving non-verbal encouraging cues such as nods, or questions such as “and what happened then?”
3.3.3.2 Semi-structured Questioning
Besides the questions relating to stories, I also asked participants more specific questions relating to the police policy law articles and how they experienced these on a street-level. Besides having some questions prepared, I also based my questions on what the respondents were saying to add depth to their stories or have them elaborate on certain aspects. Examples of standard questions I included were “What is your opinion on the function of the wijkagent?” and “Do you think the police look at ethnicity when they decide whom to approach?”
3.4 Log
I wrote a log, which includes the methodological notes. Logs show the tactics deployed to gain information, stationing, sequencing and note timing during the fieldwork (Schatzmann & Strass, 1973, p.101). Keeping track of the log for me functioned as a valuable study aid as this helped me better remember certain sequences, as well as provide material which later proved valuable for analysis.
4. Top-down Law versus Real Life Experiences
‘The police must carry out an integer policy that is focused on (…) preventing abuse of authority, having a conflict of interest and discrimination.’8 (Naeyé, p. 340)
‘The values of officers are that they can do whatever they want to do and they show this. For example, they abuse people. Firstly, I don’t think is right. The way they do this is also something I’m against.’9 (Jaya, pers. comm., 27-04-2015)
The first of these quotes is taken from the 2012 police law, which provides guidelines and regulations police officers are expected to follow. The second quote is taken from an ethnic minority youngster in an interview conducted by myself, where he shares his opinion on the how the policy is acted out by police officers on a street-level.
The following chapter provides an overview of the empirical data gathered to answer the main question: How do minority youngsters experience the policy strategies for police interaction on a street-level? In order to answer this question, this chapter is divided into multiple sections, each covering a different policy from the 2012 police law focused on interaction. First, a specific policy law will be explained, followed by how this policy is experienced on a street-level by ethnic minority youngsters. Conclusively for each section, an analysis is done where the intended policy is compared to the experiences of ethnic minority youngsters on a street-level. Where applicable, the theories discussed in chapter 2 will be used to deepen the analysis of the empirical material.
4.1 Police Duties.
Multiple internal police investigations have questioned how the core task of the police should be defined. This led to the notion that the police should be held responsible for duties that are exclusive to the police, more specifically: preventing and stopping criminal activity and duties involving violence (Naeyé, 2014, p.6). However, besides handling criminal activity and duties involving violence, the police have an array of other duties, such as conflict mediation and surveillance. Police duties as outlined in Article 3 of the 2012 Police Law can be split up into 4 sub-duties (ibid, pp. 133-150):
8
Translated from Dutch: De politie moet een integer beleid uitvoeren dat is gefocussed op (…) voorkomen van het misbruiken van autoriteit, belangenverstrengeling en discriminatie.
9
Translated from Dutch: De waardes van agenten zijn is dat ze alles kunnen doen wat ze willen doen en dat laten ze ook zien. Bijvoorbeeld ze mishandelen mensen, dat vind ik ten eerste niet kunnen en ook de manier hoe ze het doen, vind ik ook niet kunnen.
a. Keeping public order. The main task in keeping public order lies in ensuring anyone can use the public space, as long as this does not interfere with another person’s right to use of public space.
b. Ensuring that the law is upheld. Upholding the law entails preventing, stopping and/or solving criminal activities.
c. Duties for justice department. Police officers are also responsible for all duties that fall under the jurisdiction of the justice department.
d. Giving aid to those who need it. Police officers serve as a first as well as a last resort for people in need of help.
As this article provides an all-encompassing notion of what the core duties of police officers should entail, it is not as specific as the rest of the law articles. Perhaps because of this, Lipsky’s (1980) argument on discretionary space within the work of street level bureaucrats holds up quite well here. Point a. for example, leaves it up to the police officer to judge if someone’s interference in another’s space has reached a critical boundary where the officer feels the need to step in, as no specific protocol is given when this has to happen. Point d. shows a similar discretionary space, as there is no mention of what constitutes for someone in need of help.
The next paragraph will look to what extent the policy article aligns with the ideas of ethnic minority youngsters on how police duties are carried out on a street-level.
4.1.1 Police Duties experienced by ethnic minority youngsters
15-year-old Hamza was boy who played football on the same field almost everyday after school. I talked to him and his friends whilst playing football in Laak. Less so then his friends, who were very critical, Hamza also thought that the police weren’t doing their duties correctly:
‘Yeah just, [The police should] just do more about stopping criminals, helping people. Not just bothering people all the time’10 (Hamza, pers. comm., Laak, 26-04-2015).
Police officers carrying out their jobs were often considered to be “annoying” or “irritating” for loitering youngsters. Saïd, who was a boy I met while he was playing on a square, was one of the boys who, like Hamza, did not involve himself in criminal activities, but hung out a lot outside. He got frustrated with police carrying out their duty, as he felt much of it consisted of bothering him and his friends:
10
Translated from Dutch: Ja gewoon, meer gewoon met criminelen stoppen, mensen helpen. Niet de hele tijd mensen lastig vallen.
‘What I really don’t get is when I am with a group and I am standing somewhere, like over there in the corner And I am just talking normally and for example I laugh loudly, and then the police goes like, they come and start saying like “yeah, what are you doing here and you are causing a
nuisance” or something like that. We’re not doing anything. We are just standing on a corner and they keep bothering us.’11 (Saïd, pers. comm., Schilderswijk, 27-04-2015)
Youngsters who involved themselves in criminal activities also felt bothered a lot by police. One of the youngsters who claimed to have a history of committing a lot of crimes was 21-year-old Gegory from the Dutch Antilles. He was part of a group of which the members talked to me extensively about their criminal activities, to the point where they started arguing who got to tell the story. Gregory and his friends were okay with the police patrolling the street, as they thought that this was something that needed to happen to keep people safe, however police should not bother them:
‘Look, listen, if something is fucked up, of course, of course. Don’t get me wrong you know; let those guys [do their job] (…) I agree with them if they want to step in during an issue. But, when there is no problem, why the fuck would you bother anyone?! If someone has something in their inside pocket, let them keep it in their inside pocket. If he keeps it there only him or his homies see it’12 (Gegory, pers. comm, Laak, 25-04-2015).
Gegory would be hesitant to call the police if he was ever in trouble, but thought they could be useful to others.
Many of the youngsters I spoke at their high school or university had a more positive attitude towards how the police officers carried out their duties. They acknowledged the fact that the
Schilderswijk was a very difficult neighborhood and even pointed out that the police should be stricter with some of the youth. Randy was one of these students. He is a 23 year-old half-Surinamese student who I met while he was studying for an exam in a cafeteria in The Hague. He knew quite well what the duties of police officers were, as he wants to do voluntary police work himself and had worked for the Dutch Defense Department. Although he wanted to do police work, he was critical of the focus of police on a street-level:
11
Translated from Dutch: En wat ik echt niet begrijp, is als ik met een groep ben en ik sta bijvoorbeeld bij een plekje, bijvoorbeeld daar in die hoek. En ik praat gewoon en ik lach bijvoorbeeld hard, dan politie die gaat dan, die komt dan en die gaan ze helemaal noemen van "ja wat doen jullie hier en jullie hebben overlast" ofzo. Wij doen helemaal niks, we staan alleen bij een hoekje en hun vallen ons de hele tijd lastig.
12
Translated from Dutch: Kijk luister luister, als iets facked up is, tuurlijk tuurlijk. Begrijp me niet verkeerd weetje. Laat die mannen. (…) Alleen, op het moment dat er niks is: Waarom de fock zou je iemand lastig vallen?! Laat iemand lekker in z'n binnenzak hebben wat die in z'n binnenzak heeft, als die het in z'n binnenzak houd en alleen hij ziet het of z’n matties.
‘So the police mostly focus on big criminal activity, causing a lot of small things to be left out, you know, like: mugging, burglary, yeah, Marktplaats [internet website] you know, fraud. Very little time is spent on all these things’13 (Randy, pers. comm., Schilderswijk, 06-05-2015).
Randy thought that some of the irritations youngsters had about the police came from the fact that youngsters were often insufficiently aware of what police duties actually entailed and that better communication from the police could help. However, he acknowledged that he thought the police acted differently towards youngsters in disadvantaged districts. What the police need to do, he said, is:
‘(…)[to] explain more clearly what the functions [of police] entail...[and have] better
communication with youngsters. Look, the attitude [of police] so to speak, it’s not supposed to be like that, but the attitude police have towards for example youngsters in the Schilderswijk differs from the attitude towards youngsters in a richer neighborhood, you know a white neighborhood’.14 (Randy, pers. comm., Schilderswijk, 06-05-2015)
4.1.2 Analysis
Analyzing these stories on police duties through Bruner’s (1991) take on narratives, it becomes apparent that the youngsters share a broader narrative: the youngsters feel as if the duties that the police should be performing are not always the same as the duties the police are performing. Although this is a shared narrative of the ethnic minority youngsters, narrative particularity lies in what youngsters feel should change in the way police carry out their duties. Youngsters who hang out on the street in their free time feel as if the police should be less concerned with them and focus more on criminals. Youngsters I spoke to who were students or did not hang out on the street a lot, had less direct contact with police officers and felt as if the neighborhood needed this strict surveillance, adding that police supervision should be increased. These were also the youngsters that focused more on the positive aspects of police work. Youngsters who involved themselves in criminal activities did not care that much what police duties were, as long as they left them alone. Despite the criticisms of how the police carry out their duties, most of the minority youngsters still viewed the police as useful for society.
Comparing the policy with the narratives, it becomes apparent that they do not necessarily differ in the sense that minority youngsters, to greater or lesser extent, also feel that upholding the law
13
Translated from Dutch: dus politie concentreert zich vooral op grote criminaliteit, waardoor veel kleine dingen… worden nu niet veel aan gedaan, weet je wel: straatroof, diefstal, ja marktplaats, weet je wel, oplichting… wordt heel weinig aan gedaan.
14
Translated from Dutch: (…) Beter duidelijk maken wat de functies inhouden. Een betere communicatie met jongeren, kijk, de houding zeg maar, eigenlijk hoort het niet zo te zijn, zeg maar dat de houding eh van agenten tegen bijvoorbeeld jongeren in de Schilderswijk anders is dan tegen, jongeren in een wat rijkere buurt weet je wel een blankere buurt
and stopping criminal activity is a police duty. Looking at police duties in terms of it being a strategy as proposed by de Certau (1984), youngsters seem to understand the police duties fairly well, but the tactics differ among youngsters. The difference in how they coop with the strategy of police acting out their duties seems to align with the extent of how much it affects them on a day-to-day basis. As ‘police duties’ as a strategy is still fairly broad, the tactics will be explained in more detail in the following paragraphs where the more specific policy law articles are discussed.
4.2 Use of Violence
As the police have a monopoly on violence, tasks involving violence or the use of coercion should be their main concern, because this is something only they are authorized to do (Mein, Schutte & van Sluis, quoted in Naeyé, 2014, p. 6). Police are authorized to use violence in situations involving criminal activity, but also when trying to keep public order or even when providing aid for people (Fijnout, 2007, p. 530). However, there are certain regulations that have been included in article 7.1 of the 2012 Police Law to serve as guidelines when using violence (Naeyé, 2014, pp. 170-173):
a. Proportionality and subsidiarity. Proportionality entails that before resorting the violence, a police officer must try to analyze if the use of violence is proportionate to the consequences and risks of using violence. Subsidiarity means that when police resort to violence, they must always choose the least impactful form of violence.
b. Judiciousness and moderateness. This serves as an extra measure to ensure proportionality. c. Circumstances when to use violence. As situations in which police officers have to resort to
violence are often very complex, there are no detailed guidelines as to when an officer can use violence. The situation is analyzed afterwards to judge if the use of violence was lawful. d. Use of warning. Where possible, as police officer should always warn before using violence. e. Consequences of the use of violence in court hearings. Disproportionate use of violence
against someone can influence the court sentencing of that person, leading to a lower sentence.
This law article is particularly interesting for analysis, as some of the reported riots in the
Schilderswijk have said to be started because of excessive violence from police officers15. Lipsky’s (1980) notion of discretionary space is very visible in this law article. As police work is very diverse and policy cannot account for every possible situation, the terms ‘proportionately’ and ‘with
subsidiarity’ have been added to give guidelines for police officers when encountering a situation where they feel the need to use violent measures. However, the police officers still have to evaluate the situation on a street-level, therefor the guidelines are still very much open for interpretation.
15 Like in the article written in the NRC newspaper on the 2nd of july 2015: ‘Heavy riots yet again in the Schilderswijk after a demonstration against police violence’
Adding point b. ‘judiciousness and moderateness’, seems to imply that policy makers have tried to add a notion of cautiousness police officers should have when resorting to violence and, if they do resort to violence, also have them think what kind of violence is necessary.
As Lipsky (1980) argues, policy is often very much open for street-level bureaucrats to create their own routines for specific situations. Judging from article 7.1, the policy concerning police using violence, seems no exception to this. However, how discretionary space is used is always dependent on the street-level bureaucrats that implement the policy. Therefor, the next paragraph will show the stories of ethnic minority youngsters in relation to police violence,.
4.2.1 Use of violence experienced by ethnic minority youngsters
Orçun (2015) is a very religious young man and referred to himself and his peers as “the boys from the mosque”16. Although Orçun did not think of himself as someone who the police would need to interact with, he did have an altercation with them. In the past the police had beaten him, because they mistakenly thought that he and a friend had damaged a car. His initial reaction was to get angry, however he chose not to fight back:
‘Of course I yelled at them, stuff like that I thought it was undeserved. But I didn’t do anything back’17. (Orçun, pers. comm., Schilderswijk, 03-05-2015)
His friends from the mosque had also witnessed police brutality, but all of them thought fighting violence with violence was not the answer, as this was not the way Allah would want it. The general feeling was that police officers were often unable to exert dominance through words, thus they resort to violence:
‘Most policemen want to show like: I’m the boss. They’re inclined to beat people because they know they can do more, so they’ll do it sooner…’18 (Orçun, pers. comm., Schilderswijk, 03-05-2015)
He later went on to say he believes the best approach to aggression is to act friendly:
‘If you are friendly, which is the most sensible approach; you can set the tone, which I think is best. If you act aggressively then you often end up in trouble (…) Yes, because angry versus
16
Translated from Dutch: de jongens van de Moskee.
17 Translated from Dutch: ik ging natuurlijk terug schreeuwen van eh dat ik het onterecht vond vind eh vond, maar ik heb ze
niks terug gedaan
18
Translated from Dutch: Meeste politieagenten willen laten zien van “Ik ben de baas. Ze zijn sneller geneigd mensen te mishandelen omdat ze weten dat ze meer kunnen, dus doen ze het sneller.
angry, you know what I mean? If you act friendly towards an angry person, that can calm them down’19 (Orçun, pers. comm., Schilderswijk, 03-05-2015)
Randy, the student who wanted to do voluntary work for the police, said that he thought the police should try to find a balance:
‘…I’m young as well, but I think that the difference with a police officer is mostly… uh, it’s very hard to determine how lenient you can be without like, losing respect and… uh, you have to have a certain authority, but authority can of course be brought in other ways than just aggression or dominance. Yeah, I would do it differently, but I don’t know how I would react… Because if someone said to me “Yes, yes go fuck yourself, shut your mouth” then... umm, I’d reach my limit pretty fast, you know. It’s just difficult’20. (Randy, pers. comm., Schilderswijk, 06-05-2015)
All participants could name an example of the police acting violently, if not directed at them, they knew a story of a friend or had heard about it through social media. These acts of violence by police officers were something that discredited the police a lot, as most of these incidents were unlawful in the eyes of the youngsters. One example of this was the videotaped incident occurring in front of the Tanger mini-supermarket in the Schilderswijk on 06-09-2014, where a young Moroccan boy was violently arrested. Even though this had occurred over eight months prior to my fieldwork, almost every person I talked to mentioned this at least once as an example:
‘Sometimes police just go talk to the people in the neighborhood. But sometimes, like that boy at Tanger, he didn’t do anything, they just took him and put their knee to his neck. For what? Go talk to him.'21 (Winston, pers. comm, Laak, 23-04-2015)
Besides the video of the arrest in front of the mini-supermarket, many of the youngsters have seen other videos of police acting violently towards minorities. On multiple occasions I was shown videos, even some shot in the Schilderswijk, of arrests that the minority youngsters objected to, due to what they perceived as violent behavior from the police:
19
Translated from Dutch: ja want als je met vriendelijkheid en dat is ook het meest verstandige. Als je er agressief op ingaat krijg je meestal problemen, dat soort dingen (…) ja want boos tegen boos, dat eh, snap je wat ik bedoel: als je aardig doet tegen boos dan kan je de persoon, hem kalmeren
20
Translated from Dutch: gewoon op een normale manier geloof ik, ben zelf ook jong, alleen ik denk dat het verschil met een agent is eh vooral eh, het is heel moeilijk te bepalen zeg maar, van hoe meegaand kan je zijn zonder zeg maar, dat je niet gerespecteerd wordt en eh je moet een bepaalde autoriteit houden, maar je kan autoriteit natuurlijk op een andere manier brengen dan eh alleen maar agressieve manier of een dominante manier, dus eh ik zou het anders aanpakken, maar ik weet niet hoe ik zou reageren (…)want als iemand tegen mij zou zeggen van, ja, ja krijg de tering joh, hou je bek dicht dan eh ben ik er ook nogal snel klaar mee, weet je het is gewoon lastig
21
Translated from Dutch: Soms gaan politie gewoon met mensen gewoon in de wijk praten. Maar soms, net als die jongen bij Tanger. Hij heeft niks gedaan, ze pakken hem en zetten zijn knie bij zijn nek. Voor wat? Ga met hem praten.
‘(…) And you see all these videos of them, of police, where for example they start assaulting people because they refuse to come with them. For example, a foreigner doesn’t want to be taken by the police, and because of that they literally put him on the floor until he cooperates’22 (Jaya, pers. comm., 27-04-2015).
Besides violence, the police were also accused of swearing, though this only seemed an issue for youngsters who were out on the street a lot as none of the other participants mentioned it. It was not just the police who were swearing, as I often heard youngsters badmouth police as well. Youngsters have a slang word for the police: ibahesj, and say it when the police drive by. Mohammed, who was a 9-year-old boy from Laak, proudly told me about this word and how he used it to challenge the police:
‘So I say “ibahesj, ibahesj” (...) Ha ha [it’s the word for] sheep! But yeah, all of a sudden they say like “this means bad person, you get your first warning”. I had to fill in my name and everything. And then they said I was too young for a fine, cause I’m nine hahaha’23 (Mohammed, pers. comm., Laak, 23-04-2015).
Another youngster who provoked the police was Azdin. Azdin was a 20-year-old Moroccan who reportedly hated the police more than anything and engaged in many different types of criminal activities. When I first met him he was very much against talking to me, but as I explained that I just wanted to get his story he became more relaxed and even started to call his friends over to tell their stories. One story he told me about police violence was when he got aggressive after a parking warden gave his uncle a ticket:
‘I walked over to him very aggressively and said like “you have your ticket, what are you still doing at the car then?” He was just talking there with his buddy and I thought that was suspicious, you know. He should just go on and continue with the rest. And then a fight broke out between us, while my uncle was in the middle’.24 (Azdin, pers. comm., Schilderswijk, 26-04-2015)
22 Translated from Dutch: en je ziet allemaal video's van hun, van politie, dat ze mensen bijvoorbeeld gaan mishandelen
omdat ze niet meewillen. Bijvoorbeeld een buitenlander wil niet door de politie meegenomen worden en dus dan werken ze hem letterlijk op de grond tot dat die meegaat.
23
Translated from Dutch: Dus ik zeg “ibahesj, ibahesj” (…)Haha ah voor schaap! Maar ja, opeens hun zeggen zo "dit betekent slecht mens, jij krijgt je eerste waarschuwing". Ik moest m'n naam en alles invoeren. En hun zeggen je bent nog te jong voor boete, want ik ben 10 jaar hahaha.
24 Translated from Dutch: Ik liep heel aggressief naar hem toe van ik zei euhm "Je hebt je boete uitgeschreven, wat doe je bij
de auto dan?". Toen stond die daar gewoon te kletsen met z'n eigen maat en ik vond dat opvallend weetje, hij moest gewoon doorgaan met de anderen, de rest. En toen begon er ruzie met mijn oom ertussen en mij.
4.2.2 Analysis
These stories can tell a lot about how violence by police officers can have a big impact on the way ethnic minority youngsters perceive the police. Whenever police brutality was discussed, emotions ran higher as police officers using violence were often ascribed racist motives for doing so. Looking at these stories of police violence through the lens of Bruner’s (1991) narratives tells shows that violent actions from police officers can contribute to shaping the identity of the police as being an institution that is “against” the ethnic minority youngsters. This is strengthened by the way in which the narratives contain more emotion whenever acts of violence by police officers were discussed, in comparison to when acts of kindness were discussed.
Viewing the police as a violent organization was mostly the case for ethnic minority
youngsters who deal with police officers often, as youngsters who rarely have contact with the police had a more balanced view of what police officers do and also emphasize the good work that officers do. When asking for an example of when they interacted with the police, they would often have a story about how police officers helped them or when they witnessed a burglary being stopped by police.
When looking at police violence it is also helpful to analyze the short stories, as
Georgakopoulou (2006) defines them. There were many instances where youngsters would talk about hypothetical situations that had not actually occurred. These stories were often filled with an
expectation and fear of the police potentially physically harming them unjustly. This fear of the police influences the way ethnic minority youngsters interact with them in a negative fashion, as the divide between us, being the youngsters, and them, being the police, widens. Georgakopoulou’s (2006) theory about small stories is also helpful when looking at shared, generally known events, in this case being news reports of police violence or videos shared on the Internet. This was also the case for youngsters who hardly ever came into contact with police. As soon as the conversation turned to examples of unjust police violence towards ethnic minority youngsters, even those who previously spoke positively about police started summing up the issues they had with officers.
Act of violence by police officers against ethnic minority youngsters, whether experienced directly or heard about from external sources, often function as epiphanies, as talked about by Baden and Niekerk (2007). The event most youngsters brought up was the one that happened in the
Schilderswijk in front of the supermarket Tanger mentioned earlier. This event, happening so close to home, has made a big impact on many of the ethnic minority youngsters. For some of them who often come into contact with the police, this functioned as a cumulative epiphany, as this was the final piece of evidence they needed to start identifying the police as violent and/or racist. For other, who had less frequent or no contact with police officers directly, these types of events serve as an illuminative epiphany, where they gain new insights in how police do not necessarily serve your best interest. Even police brutality that happened in the USA had an impact of how the youngsters viewed the Dutch police. Some were inspired by the riots that started as a consequence of the police brutality,
