Zaltbommel mayor Albert van den Bosch is at the centre of a media storm after telling the Brabants Dagblad he agreed with ‘beating robbers rotten’.

Van den Bosch was responding to the news that a local hardware shop owner had seen off three robbers with a karate kick.
‘It’s great that people do that. And it appears to work,’ Van den Bosch was quoted as saying. ‘We keep on taking it. But that does not help us. Beat them rotten. I think people have the right to hit those [who attack them] and to kick.’
Van den Bosch told the Brabant paper he has a hockey stick handy in case his home is attacked.
Van den Bosch later tempered his statement slightly in the Volkskrant, saying attacks were only justified in an emergency. ‘People should never play judge and jury and take revenge.’ he told the paper.
Prime minister Mark Rutte said at the presentation of the new government’s plans that ‘we are going to handcuff burglars, not you’, clearing the way for victims of crime to fight back against their attackers.