Schriftelijke bijdrage Constance Rhodes

May 9th, 2024 Amsterdam, The Netherlands I am writing to report on my testimony about the police violence I witnessed on May 8th 2024 in the Oudemanhuispoort encampment. This testimony centres around two principle events in which police violence was used against peaceful protestors. These two separate incidents were instigated by police whereby no violence was enacted upon them first. The first event was on the left entry point of the encampment where police officers entered by climbing over the encampment wall. After about 4 or 5 officers were over the wall, students including myself - formed a wall by linking arms. I was in the second row of this wall. The officers were moving towards us and to try and keep them away from the occupied buildings, we slowly moved forward. A chain of students, slowly stepping forward. One girl on my left held a flower in her hand. In response to this, police officers started beating students with their batons. This was on the right side of the human chain where students were, again, slowly walking forward. The police gave no warning and used violence against peaceful protestors. There were quite a few blows delivered. This was clearly unexpected because students started to duck and tried to move backwards, creating chaos in a bid to find safety. The second event was later on and still in the encampment.

There were maybe around 20 to 30 of us left. We were backed up against one of the archways, where police were being blocked by couches and other obstacles, and facing a row of police. On our left: a wall. On the right: the entrance into the occupied building. Around 10 to 15 minutes before this incident occurred, the police had let the students who had been injured, by the police, leave the occupied building. Since the students had been let out of the building, we tried to fill the gap in space and maintain control of the doorway. Once again, students were gripping onto each other, both to stay up and to form a human chain to stand our ground. Instead, the police rushed forward, on the right side near the doorway, and started hitting students. I was scared of the force with which they yielded their batons because they had just let someone badly injured leave but they were striking us harder than before. We were trying to protect both ourselves and each other by ducking away from their blows and putting our arms over our heads to not get hit. They were striking downwards so the blows would land on our heads, shoulders, arms. At the same time, we were trying to stay up right and not fall on the floor. They were pushing us into a corner, against a wall, while hitting us.

I heard one girl saying “We won’t be able to breathe” because they were pushing so many people into such a small space. Our options were being flattened against a wall, trampled, or beaten with batons. We had been peaceful, we had helped the injured, and the police continued with violence. We were being beaten and there was nowhere to go. We were standing in a chain, refusing to move and we were beaten.

These two incidents reveal the non-violent tactics that we were using by standing and forming a human chain. Yet, in both cases, police used violent measures to respond by beating students with their batons. This is but two instances and there are many more that occurred on May 8th, 2024. -Constance, student at the Universiteit van Amsterdam