Anti-lockdown demos in the Netherlands this week have generated many shocking images. But there is one that may yet become iconic.
During a protest against the imposition of a nationwide 9pm curfew in Eindhoven last Sunday, a police truck turned its water cannon on a young woman who was hurled against a concrete wall so hard that she appeared to bounce off it.
She slumped to the ground and was photographed with blood pouring down her face. The woman, later named as Denisa Stastna, sustained a fractured skull and a head wound that required more than 15 stitches.
According to police, she was targeted because she and her boyfriend ignored repeated instructions to leave an area of the city where anti-curfew protests had been raging for several hours.
March 23, 2021 last updated 9:10 ET A police officer sweeps up glass from a bus stop that was smashed during protests against a nationwide curfew in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Jan. 25, 2021 (AP photo by Peter Dejong).
The Netherlands’ Violent Anti-Lockdown Protests Are a Bad Omen
When riots erupted across the Netherlands last weekend against a new coronavirus lockdown, the scenes of mayhem triggered a cascade of emotions. “My city is crying, and so am I,” said John Jorritsma, the mayor of Eindhoven, the country’s fifth-largest city, contemplating the damage from all the violence. But the sentiment was not just sadness. Furious, and perhaps a bit frightened, Jorritsma called the rioters “the scum of the Earth” and warned that the country could be “on our way to civil war.”
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