Crime, Drugs and Blacks in the Inner City

Abstract

The imagery of crime-fighting permeates the public stereotype of police work (Manning, 1977, pp. 13, 347 ff.) and Amsterdam is no exception. Press articles spoke of the ‘sick’ and the ‘unsafe’ city and the Mayor, Chief Constable and trade associations expressed their anxiety about the deleterious effect of crime and the shortcomings of the police (‘Crime in Capital Disturbing’, ‘Shopkeepers Concerned about Crime’, and ‘Extra Police for the Capital’, De Telegraaf, 7 Jan 1976, and 14 Apr 1977, and 21 May 1977, respectively). The normally staid daily, De Volkskrant, ran two major articles on crime in the city-centre and painted a bleak picture of people frightened to walk the streets and of business driven out to the safer suburbs (9 and 16 July 1977). A Trade Association for the City Centre stated, ‘The street terror, muggings in dark alleys, molesting of foreigners, the aggressive drug trafficking, puking junkies, and ear-splitting noise at night in the Warmoesstraat police district all lead to racial hatred’ (‘Amsterdam Hoofstad?’, 1977). To visit parts of the inner city at night was described as being as dangerous as an evening walk through Central Park or Harlem (Elseviers Magazine, 8 Oct 1977) while De Telegraaf (30 Apr 1977) ran an article under the headline ‘Pickpockets, Knifings, Muggings, Homosexual Prostitution, Drug Dealing: Daily News in and around Central Station’.