Mayor wants New Year rioters banned

Tuesday 08 January 2008

The mayor of Nijmegen is looking into the legal possibility of banning those found guilty of causing riots during the New Year celebrations from certain areas of the city during next year’s festivities.

Thom de Graaf announced the plan during his New Year speech, reports Tuesday’s Volkskrant..

De Graaf spent New Year's Eve behind a police cordon which was protecting firemen from hooligans who had set fire to cars and shops and were trying to prevent the emergency services from doing their work.

The mayor said he is very concerned about these 'New Year idiots'. Extra police and protocols are not the answer, he said.

Meanwhile MPs too are continuing to call for more control over fireworks, says the Telegraaf.
They want local councils to designate specific areas where fireworks can be let off and ban them in areas where disturbances have previously occurred.

Liberal VVD MP Fred Teeven also wants the number of days on which fireworks can be sold reduced from three to two and a ban on letting them off before 10pm on New Year’s Eve, says the paper.

© DutchNews.nl

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