Your encounters with the Dutch police

[Smith2]

It's occurred to me that I can only remember two incidents from over 30 years of visiting. The first was in 1981: I was interrailing, planned to stay out all night and take the first train to Germany in the morning. But by around 3am I was bored with the places that were still open, so drifted towards the station.

There were quite a few Celtic fans in town, most of whom had apparently had the same idea. We all waited for the station to open at 4.30, then tried to find somewhere to get out of the cold. There was a staircase that was obviously staff-only, but the door was open and it was better than nothing, so I went in with a few others.

Suddenly about four policemen appeared, very aggressive, shouting 'Can't you read?' at the Celtic fans and shoving them roughly about. Yes, there was a sign, but it was in Dutch only, which struck me as a tad unfair. I suppose they didn't like football fans very much to start with, though.

The second time was in sleepy Leeuwarden last year. Around 11pm I saw the police approach two eminently respectable middle-aged gentlemen and start to search them. I tried lingering discreetly to see what was going on, but nobody does that there, so I moved on. A couple of coffeeshops later I saw a group of clean-cut college students, male and female, get the same treatment; some rastas were being searched at the same time. I was both relieved and slightly irritated that the rozzers seemed to have no interest in me, indeed didn't even seem to see me: I was carrying a pipe and various examples of the local herbage, and though I was under the 5g limit I didn't really want to be exposed as Leeuwarden's lone cannabis tourist. But I've often wondered since what crime all those various people were suspected of, and why it was so obvious that I couldn't have done whatever it was.

I'm sure most people have more interesting stories, so here's the place for them.

[treetop]

In

[RvanSteensel]

lol local police never remember my face ....
when they see my passport they're always like "van Steensel .... AHHHHH van Steensel , yes we know you ".....

then they ask me how much i got on me lol ....
they used to take it away from me all the time, but last time we got pulled over i got to keep it

and luckily one time when i had about 20 amsterdam bags with me , there was a noise complaint , but that obiously wasnt us ,so they just let us continue getting high lol
they were amazed about all the strains i had lol, since i wrote it on each bag.

[Lemon Haze]

The only encounter I had was once outside the Doors coffeeshop, my first visit to a CS and first visit to the Dam, I lit up a joint and then realized there were 3 cops standing 10 feet in front of me. I got nervous as a normal reaction to that situation back home, then I looked for a second and realized there were at least a dozen other people smoking joints around me and the cops were not even bothered in the slightest.

That's about it, cops being cool.

[matty223]

ive seen aot of people getting arrest for this and that,, the only thing that happened to me wa last year at the Canabis cup, i was hassled then removed from the expo by security for fiilming the police busting a both,, who then tried to take my judges pass,, which i refusde to give up,,ad asked them to call the police if they wanted it,, i still have the pass


peace matty

[madmaxxx]

one feb in the 90,we where down by the bulldog palace,snow every where{they had just shut all the bars so 3-4 am in thoses days}.i went to the police car to ask directions to central station.as he wound down his window,the local boys threw a snowball,direct hit on the policeman and his mate in the car,well let just say i didnt get any directions,

[bleak]

I was taking photos on an Amsterdam street around midnight (on the way home from something). I saw a nice moment when some bike riders in the distance were silhouetted, and took a photo of it. They continued riding towards me and it turned out to be 2 policeman on bikes. They came up, said hello and asked to see the photos on my camera, which I think is justified considering it was 12am. They were respectful and non-aggressive, and the situation was handled professionally. Once they saw my photos of architecture etc, I was free to go. Can't complain.

Another time was riding at night with no lights. I see a cop car slow down next to me and the driver that I should stop. Its a female cop, who gives me a bit of a lecture but lets me off with a warning. Can't complain!

[Ganjaman70]

Only ever encountered one experience with the police in Amsterdam and it can only be described as an enjoyable experience... Got caught using an illegal substance in public, I thought I was going to get bang up, instead I was given a pink slip with a court date and had to return and pay a fine. They didn't take the drug off me because they said I'd buy some more and it might not be as good as what I have so they told me to keep it.. An excellent attitude to have, needless to say I returned but never ever went to the court to pay the fine
But for their attitude towards Celtic fans is shocking especially after last years heavy handed tactics!

[Smith2]

Just remembered a third incident. We were hitching on the motorway, which of course isn't allowed, but Holland doesn't have the abundance of rest stops the way the UK or Germany has and it's more or less inevitable at some point. The police stopped and informed us of this fact. Then they drove off. Perhaps we were supposed to sprout wings and fly.

When we finally did get a lift, the driver said he'd recently picked up a German who'd had a similar experience, but got a 30 Guilder fine as well. He suspected we were spared that for not being German. Who knows?

[Mongoose]

I have nothing but fond memories of Basjoe's as it once was, but on one particular occasion, our relaxed, chilled out vibe (enjoying some of James's finest royal creme hash) was shattered, when four or five burly, grim faced officers barged in, with dogs. My wife nearly wet herself and some poor German guy, who had the cheek to ask one of them what the problem was, was greated with a fist being slammed down on his table and eyeballed ; 'THIS IS A RAID!' at which point he decided to leave with the rest of us feeling duty bound to follow. It was all over in about 10 minutes and James just shrugged it off

[Adamster]

2003 saw theses cops standing asked one of them if I could take a selfie with then in the back ground ... So I took the picture and then took a picture of them ... Next thing I know the other tree cop came almost ripping my cam from my hands asking passport and bunch of questions ... Emptied my pockets .., lucky me hope had 5 gs on me ... Nothing else happen they let me got ...

2007 rented a bike for the first time riding from amstel where I rented and staying into town .. I get near the dam square when I get caught in traffic parol ... They where stopping ppl for all sort of things ... I'm trying to pass trough I get pulled from the back and this cop screaming and whacking my bike and trying to rip the light in my bike and screaming ... He let's go and still screaming ( I'm in total shock speechless) I say yo don't break my bike ... He takes he pad out still screaming in Dutch saying passport passport ... Lucky me some other cop came said something in Dutch to him .. He then said oh Canadian ?! I like yeah eh! Dude I just rented the bike it's not even dark out and I don't know how make light work .. He's like you lucky I like Canada get the light fix ... I go to ride off he darts screaming once again my bag was falling off the rack ...

2010 got arrested put in a truck ... After few questions they saw I wasn't part of the fight that had happen !

[ktown smokerz]

in 2012 my and my mates were doing some photography exploring all over Belgium, after a long day hitting our locations we were looking for somewhere to camp for the night and ended up driveing aimlessly through the night in the pissing rain. eventually we drove into Holland as were we not to far anyway, stopped on some quite road and checked out the spot, we started to get our tents out and some angry dutch farmer came over going mental, after he calmed down we got the fuck out of there. then we found another spot, I went into the bush's and started setting up camp, whilst my mate was skinning up in the car and I had one on the go. Then out of no where all these lights beam through the bush's, so I went to see what the crack was and police had pulled up with all their lights on, asking what we were doing at 3am in the rain. we explained we just wanted to sleep for the night and they told us to go down the road to some spot that wasn't there. didn't even smell the weed. so off we went again and finally got set up, not where they told us to. later that night they came past again slowly but didn't stop. worse night sleep ever, some cunt came down the road bout 5am screaming the whole way, which didn't help lol
never been bothered by them in dam tho, smoked righting front of them and they didn't even turn a eye.

[spliphy2]

While in Groningen I asked two officers for directions and one could speak a little English and the other none at all. At my age learning a new language is not part of a holiday experience. When I was younger, yes. Now, getting to where I am going and communicating efficiently is much more important.

[Fat Dro]

One night walking through Damrak I walked past the Rabo Bank. There was a Cop standing in front of it and in one of my brightest moments I look up and say to him "Hey if ya change the the O with the A, it say's ROB A Bank". Completely unamused he looks at me and say's very firmly "Alright, move along now". I, very scared and sheepishly did as he said. My friend who was with me and witnessed the exchange tells me " whatta ya fucking stupid"? Well yes I am, and even more dumb after smoking fine weed and hash.

[Bob2]

during the cup the other year waking past nemo area smoking a joint and look up and theres stupid amounts of cops. they were stopping all cars and people, i had about oz and half on me so just turned around and walked the way we came.