Crime Reporter Lecture

Intro

On Tuesday, May 20, 2024, we met up with a Netherlands Crime Reporter, Wouter Laumans. Wouter came to the hostel we were staying in and gave us a lecture on what he does currently, things he has achieved, and crime in The Netherlands currently. This was about an hour and a half lecture. He allowed us to ask questions about his job and the current crime. This lecture was mainly about the Netherland’s current war on drugs. The Netherlands is a very safe country, so crime isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of The Netherlands, however, crime reporters are still an asset to staying informed. We were all grateful that Wouter came and spoke to us about what he does.

Who is he and what has he done

Wouter Laumans is a crime reporter for the newspaper Het Patrool. Wouter has also written a few books that have been adapted to tv shows. The books hes written are Mocro Maffia, and was turned into a TV show, is about drugs and gangs in The Netherlands and he also wrote Wraak which is a sequel to his first book, Mocro Maffia. Both books touch on the drug and gang problem in The Netherlands. Wouter is a journalist and writes news for the newspaper he works for. He will arrive on a crime scene to report. He doesn’t go undercover or work for the police, but he does work with the police to help write his reports. One thing we touched on in this discussion is the dangers of his job. Since he, and other news reporters, are at crime scenes that are either being investigated or scenes that are happening while they ware there, this job can be dangerous. Wouter told us that he has had many friends die while on the job because of being at crime scenes or even just reporting on a crime. Some gangs don’t like it when reporters talk about their crimes, so they will attack the news people to stop information from getting out. The dangers of Wouters job are important to note, however, in The Netherlands society, his job as a reporter is just as important.  

Crime in The Netherlands

When Wouter came to us, the lead of the lecture was drugs and gangs. The Netherlands is a tolerant country, and many people think that marijuana is legal in The Netherlands, it is not. The common misconception of The Netherlands is that weed is a legal drug. Marijuana is an illegal drug, however, if sold or used, police officers turn a blind eye to it. One way to get marijuana in The Netherlands is through coffee shops. A coffee shop is a shop where beverages, like coffee or milkshakes, can be sold, however, that is not what the coffee shop is there for, it is there for the selling and use of weed. Coffee shops started because there was a problem with selling drugs on the streets. Selling weed on the streets caused an increase in danger to the people buying the drugs because of lacing, gangs, and the cost. Gangs would produce so much weed and they ran the underground weed business. Then, coffee shops were born. This didn’t just make weed more affordable, but it also regulated the marijuana and was now a part of The Netherlands economy. Coffee chops were made in hopes of a few people growing some weed in their window and then selling them to coffee shops, but this isn’t what ended up happening. Coffee shops ended up being a new place that gangs could sell their weed. Although this is not ideal for The Netherlands, it did what it was supposed to do, get marijuana off the street, make it more regulated, and make it part of the economy. The next thing we touched on was The Netherlands problem with cocaine. Cocaine has become a problem for The Netherlands. Large gangs are smuggling it in and selling it. Some gangs use kids even. They will smuggle it in on crates and then send people to find and collect the cocaine from the crates. This has made gangs more powerful and caused problems with drugs on the streets. This cocaine epidemic in The Netherlands has caused a type of war on drugs. Drugs will always be an issue, whether you are in the United States or in The Netherlands. Right now The Netherlands are fighting against the buying, selling, and using of cocaine, but this only causes issues with these big gangs that want to continue to buy and sell. This is posing a problem that Wouter, as a crime reporter, writes about. 

Differences from the United States

The Netherlands with drugs and gangs is not in a very different spot than the United States. There was a time when we had a war on drugs. The Netherlands is a little behind, but it is still the same concept. The United States is also starting the conversation of legalizing weed and most states are starting to do that. Which, this does the same thing that coffee shops do, it takes drug dealers and the dangers of unregulated marijuana off the street and makes it part of the economy. ANother thing we touched on was murder. The Netherlands is one of the safest countries in the world, so their murder rates are very low. He told us that murders per year were much lower than most cities in the United States. In 2023 there were only 128 murders in the entire year. This is very different from the murder rates in the United States. In the end, d/rugs and gangs will always be an issue, and Wouter noted that a crime reporter like himself in The Netherlands isn’t much different from a crime reporter in the United States. They are all there to report crime, the dangers are the same, and the goals are the same. 

Questions

Although Wouter allowed us to ask questions, I still have a few questions and ideas that were left unanswered. The first question I had was why not make weed legal at this point? Marijuana is obviously being sold, why not just make it legal? The next question I had was why wouldn’t they just make coffee shops but for hard drugs? When it comes to drugs, people are always going to find a way to buy and use them, why not regulate all drugs? This could make it safer for people to buy and use. The last question I had was about the Red Light District. WOuter made a comment that the Red Light District is a problem with The Netherlands because that and weed are the only two things people think of then they think of The Netherlands. I think the Red Light District is an important part to The Netherlands and prostitution, but taking that away and making prostitution illegal, that would just cause more problems because people will still do sex work, just illegally, which causes more dangers. So my question is, what is the benefit, besides image, that The Netherlands would gain from making sex work illegal again?

Conclusion

I am very grateful that Wouter came and spoke to us, he had a lot of information about drugs and crime in The Netherlands. A criminal justice student would probably get a little more out of coming to this lecture, however, knowing about The Netherlands and crime is a fascinating thing to learn about. We would walk past coffee shops everyday while in The Netherlands, so after this talk, I looked at coffee shops a little differently.