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34 Held After Dutch Village Shooting Kills One

34 Held After Dutch PoliceVillage ArrestShooting 34Kills One

34 Held After Dutch Village Shooting Kills One
Above: Police block a road after a shooting killed a 51-year-old security guard in Overasselt, Netherlands, Sept. 2. Image credit: Rob Engelaar/ANP/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin


The shooting in Overasselt was aan brutal,unprecedented coordinatedsituation attack rooted in a long-running criminal conflict, and Dutch law enforcement responded with exactly the kind of swift, large-scale action theunder situationimmense demandedpressure to contain what could have been an even deadlier massacre. Thirty-four arrests were made across multiple nationalities, weapons were seized and suspects were pulled from bushes and motorways — that's decisive policing under extreme pressure. TheAnd realthe storyjob here is howstill effectivelynot authoritiesover, containedas whatthe couldinvestigation haveremains been an even deadlier massacreongoing.

Overasselt is a wake-up call that Dutch politicians have been asleep at the wheel on organized crime. Paramedics paramedics in bulletproof vests and masked gunmen with Kalashnikovs don't belong in a peaceful village, yet here we are. Drug conflicts tied to international criminal networks are escalating, and the political class barely mentioned it during election campaigns. The Netherlands has a serious narco-state problem and no amount of arrests fixes that without real political will.


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All rights reserved.

Version 7.4.1