Police officer active for the PVV is sacked for discrimination

A police officer who was active for the far-right PVV has been sacked for discrimination and inciting violence on social media.

Norbert S, who worked in The Hague, had called on the police to use their weapons more frequently in incidents involving people with ethnic minority roots. “Just shoot back until we no longer see these sort of sights on social media,” he wrote on X.

S was a member of the police works council and had been an officer for 25 years. He was also an acting provincial councillor on behalf of the PVV and stood for election in The Hague city council elections.

The investigation into S began in March 2023 after a report was made by his superior officer. That same month he supported fellow police officers who had been suspended after making racist chants on an outing in Paris via his own social media account.

Local police chief Karin Krukkert said that the only option was to sack S. “Uttering discriminatory, insulting and hurtful messages via a publicly accessible account on social media for years on end does not fit with the standards and values we as the police strive for,” she said. “There is no longer room in our organisation for this employee.”

The justice department is currently investigating whether any of his comments merit criminal prosecution.

The police have been struggling to improve their image following a string of racist and discriminatory incidents and serving police officers have made dozens of complaints about racist or discriminatory behaviour by colleagues.

Acting national police chief Liesbeth Huyzer told the NRC last year that banning police officers from joining democratically elected political parties was neither possible nor desirable, but more should be done to ensure they carry out their duties in a neutral way and respect the constitution.

No one knows how many police officers are members of the PVV, but ‘research suggests police officers lean more to the right,’ she told the paper. Several others, including S, stood as candidates for the party in the 2022 local elections.