Comrade arrested on suspicion of incitement in Schilderswijk

Yesterday evening a comrade was arrested the Schilderswijk in The Hague. He was arrested for allegedly spreading a pamphlet about the Mitch Henriquez case. He is being accused of incitement and will be remanded in custody this afternoon. At this moment he is being held in the police station on De Heemstraat.

On the 21st of December the court will reach a verdict on the two cops who strangled Mitch Henriquez to death two years ago. Now that various texts about the case are circulating, the cops seem to want to suppress any opinion about the case. This is not the first time anarchists are suspected of incitement. Last year a comrade was charged for pasting an

anarchist wallpaper.

The judges won’t protect us from the police. Only we can do this! We want to see our comrade free!

Solidarity and rage!

The text of the pamphlet:

The Mitch Henriquez case. An analysis of the courtcase and a call-out for resistance.

Last month the two cops who strangled Mitch Henriquez to death two years ago went on trial. Immediately after the death of Mitch Henriquez it was clear to most people that he had been brutally murdered by a group of cops. For days a revolt raged in the Schilderswijk neighbourhood of The Hague and the police were attacked. The court case lasted for five days. This is an analysis of the court case; a court case in which the cops are being protected by the state, represented by the Officer of Justice who demanded a conviction without punishment.

After a lot of pressure the State Prosecution started an inquiry to prosecute the officers involved in the murder. During the court case it was clear the inquiry had not been done properly. Mitch’s family had to provide high quality video evidence themselves. Later it surfaced that the public prosecutor was already in possession of the same video’s but did not add them to the case file as evidence. This is just an example of how ‘seriously’ the public prosecution treated the inquiry. What also is relevant is that the cops who are suspected of the murder haven’t spent a single day in jail. They could communicate freely with one another and have the same lawyer. Therefor they could adjust their statements to one another’s.

The suspected cops are still anonymous. During the court case they declared that they felt threatened even before Mitch joked about having a weapon. From their statements it was clear that the police knew Mitch was joking. According to the public prosecution they lied about the potential threat posed by a weapon and therefore used unnecessary force. Despite this the prosecution demanded a conviction without punishment. They claimed that the cops had already endured enough in the past two years and because two researchers claimed that Mitch died due to a high amount of stress instead of chocking to death. The so called ‘stress syndrome’ presented as the cause of death cannot be determined as the cause after death, and would never have occurred if the police had not used excessive force. Whatever happened, Mitch would not have died if the police had not intervened. Mitch died at the hands of the police, nothing else.

To understand this court case it is necessary to see that al the institutions who have worked on this case are state institutions. The public prosecutor, the state investigators, the judges, they all serve the state. However these institutions treat this case it is obvious that the cops, who also serve the state, will be protected. It is no coincidence that the cop who shot 17 year old Rishi was acquitted and that the public prosecution is not demanding a punishment for the cops who killed Mitch. We shouldn’t expect justice from any of these institutions, nor should we put our trust in them or base our hope on them. Police violence is part of the state that oppresses us daily. No judge will change this, not even when a verdict is reached on the 21st of December. Therefor it is up to us to revolt. With the murders on Rishi Chandrikasing, Ihsan Gurz and Mith Henriquez still fresh in our memories we know on thing for sure; if do not do anything we could be next.



The judges will not protect us from the cops. We can only do this ourselves!