Moroccan youths seem to have ‘an ethnic monopoly on street hooliganism’ says Diederik Samsom. The PvdA mp has worked- secretly- as a street coach for nearly a year. He patrols the streets of Amsterdam on his bike tackling trouble makers and talking to parents. Nrc interviewed him.

Samson, who admits that promoting street safety has not always been a priority for his party, says that the fact that people don’t feel safe ‘has culminated in a few icons, among which Moroccan youths. And it’s not just Geert Wilders who is beating the drum. The whole integration story of imams who won’t shake hands with women has somehow ended up on the streets. And it’s Moroccan boys who are the main culprits’, he tells the paper.
Box on the ear
Street coach Samson says that Moroccans have ended up with an ethnic monopoly on street hoologanism through a number of circumstances. ‘This has become the Ground Zero of the integration debate. It has nothing to do with Islam whatsoever. The more people believe the less trouble they are. Look at those Geenstijl videos, that irritating behaviour. I just wanted to know what it was like. Now I know. The crowing, the knowledge that they won’t be touched, it just gets to you. It affects the confidence of the police, of the country.’
Samson is in favour of a tough stance. ‘These lads need a physical or verbal box on the ear’, he says. And it’s the parents, the police or other adults that should be doling them out, sooner rather than later. ‘It’s all about keeping these youths from getting the attention of the police. Then the lawyers and psychologists come into play. Their phone bill is sorted and they get some sort of course but that is all. Sometimes there are as many as seven organisations involved but none of them ring their doorbell. Believe me, this sort of help is not helping. What we need is that authority is seen to be upheld. Then the whole neighbourhood breathes a sigh of relief.’
No pr stunt
The mp wouldn’t describe himself as another socialist who has seen the light. ‘I was never a softie. All that talk of pampering versus getting tough, it’s all nonsense. I’ve seen Moroccan youths laughing at the short sleeves and trousers the police wear. But I don’t want a country where the police carry a AK-47 slung over their shoulder’.
Samson says his work on the streets is not a publicity stunt. ‘If that were true I would have knocked off after a few months, or invited a television crew.’