Mass murderer back where he spread terror and death. “Police powerless” as drivers targeted by motorway sniper. Policing big cities in the wake of London’s riots. Positive sign from Myanmar. 

Gunman returns to scene of slaughter
Two gun-related stories feature prominently in today’s Dutch papers, one of them is the return of mass killer Anders Breivik to Utøya island near Oslo, where he shot and killed 69 of his fellow – mainly young – Norwegians.

De Telegraaf, AD and de Volkskrant all have the same front-page photo of Breivik attached to a police ‘leash’ showing police cameramen how he held his weapon – apparently to shoot at people in the water – less than 4 weeks ago. As De Telegraaf writes above the photo “A chilling pose by Anders Breivik” as he provided the Norwegian police with a detailed on-site breakdown of the horrific ‘walk of death’ he took – disguised as a policeman - around that island on 22 July.

Today’s nrc.next has as its – also rather chilling – headline “Relaxed Breivik flirts with camera” during Utøya reconstruction. The paper speaks to fellow newsman, Torry Pedersen, editor in chief of Norwegian newspaper VG, and asks him how people have reacted to his paper’s detailed coverage of Breivik’s return to the scene of one of his two major crimes.

Mr Pedersen acknowledges that the detailed photos published in VG’s Sunday edition mean the paper is “walking a tightrope” in terms of public opinion, but: “Because we followed the reconstruction from a distance, we did not disturb the procedure. Of course, some of the survivors find it hard seeing Breivik back on Utøya...” Later nrc.next quotes him again “We’re trying to report this massive issue as correctly and scrupulously as possible.” 

Mysterious motorway maniac
At least, however, the Norwegian police have this self-confessed mass murderer in custody now. Here in the Netherlands another armed maniac is on the loose – possibly more than one – although he/she has yet to cause serious injury or loss of life.

Under the headline “Hunt of motorway sniper - Mysterious maniac strikes again” De Telegraaf gives front-page attention to a spate of gunshot attacks on cars using some of the Netherlands’ many motorways, particularly around the city of Rotterdam. So far it’s been a matter of pot shots at cars - and resulting shattered windows and windscreens – believed by the police to have probably come from an air rifle.

A total of 23 car windows have been hit so far. A spokesman for the KLPD national police service tells De Telegraaf: “people get a real shock [...] next time someone may react by turn the steering wheel the wrong way and cause an accident. That could mean fatalities.”

AD’s headline is “Cars shooting target” with the more worrying sub-headline “Police powerless”. It tells us that a baby travelling on the back seat of one cars was covered by shattered glass but was unscathed. 

Apart from being unsure whether it’s the work of one and the same person, the police are lacking a description the assailant and even the deployment of a helicopter on Saturday failed to produce any leads.

Policing a big city
Also facing a tough time recently have been the police in England, particularly London. The riots there continue to get much attention in the Dutch papers, but today’s de Volkskrant also decides to look at how police operate in several other major cities, including the Dutch capital, Amsterdam.

The analysis is not in-depth; instead de Volkskrant’s international reporters sketch the outlines of ‘their’ local police force’s size, make-up and general approach. In New York city, for example, we’re told the traditional police philosophy is that a threat is best tackled by coming down on it fast and with overwhelming force. But this is now combined with a system of district officers ‘on the beat’. The result, we’re told, is less crime. The city of 8.3 million souls has a police force of around 35,000.

Closer to home, Brussels has 5,922 police officers for a population of 1,130,000. Plans to have a ‘local officer’ for every 4,000 inhabitants have proved unsuccessful, instead, the paper writes, there is “a shortage of police officers, and they spend too much time on administrative work [...] the city is divided into six police zones, which all work separately and this doesn’t make for an effective policing policy. In addition to this, there are a couple of rundown neighbourhoods which are so bad that local police officers don’t dare show their faces...”

And Amsterdam? Well, de Volkskrant’s short report seems to paint a rather rosy picture. The Dutch capital has about 6,000 officers for a population of about 750,000. Of those police, some 4,200 are to be found on the streets at certain times. The city has some 32 police districts each served by 60 to 80 officers.

The paper tells us the city also has around 200 ‘district managers’ – police officers who are relieved of most of their other duties in order to become the ‘eyes and ears of the neighbourhood’.  Their motto:  “Friendly where possible, tough when needed”.

A local police spokeswoman says “The district manager knows exactly what’s going on behind the front doors. He knows the names and faces of the locals and can sense very quickly whether there’s any tension and which people are causing problems. He’s unbelievably important in terms of keeping the peace.”

Sounds like a good system, but the paper does not comment on whether it’s actually working well.

Sign of peaceful change?
Finally, and very far away from home... a piece of more positive news makes it into today’s Trouw. Alongside a photo of a smiling Aung San Suu Kyi – the world-famous Burmese leader of the opposition to Myanmar’s military regime - we’re told that for the first time since the end of her house arrest at the end of 2010 she has gone on a political trip within her own country.

She visited the town of Bago, where she was welcomed by some 200 supports, opened two libraries and gave a speech to an audience of hundreds of listeners: “Unity is a force, unity is needed everywhere but especially in our country,” she said.

Despite veiled threats made by the authorities - and memories of 2003 when another trip by Aung San Suu Kyi was targeted by government-backed thugs, some 70 people were killed and the opposition leader arrested and put under house arrest – Trouw tells us this trip passed off without serious incident. Here’s hoping this is sign that peaceful change may be possible in the ‘Golden Land’.