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Demonstrators clashed with police in the Hague on Monday following the death of a Caribbean man who witnesses say was brutally beaten by police officers.
Reuters reported that a march of about 200 people headed to a police station Monday night, protesting the police brutality that they say ended the life of 42-year-old Arubian, Mitch Henriquez.
Protesters reportedly threw rocks, while police accosted the crowds with truncheons.
Dutch prosecutors have launched an investigation into Henriquez’s death.
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Henriquez died in a Dutch hospital after a violent arrest by The Hague police at a music festival. Prosecutors originally said he “became unwell on the way to jail.”
However, videos of the man forcefully pinned to the ground by five white police officers using a chokehold on him quickly emerged on social media.
Witness said that officers approached Henriquez as he was making jokes and shouting and that he allegedly resisted his arrest, reported Russia Today. Dutch prosecutors said that he shouted he had a weapon.
Videos show the Henriquez lying motionless and handcuffed on the ground as police officers sit on him.
“His head was completely swollen, he was mainly beaten on his head,” Henriquez’s sister Lila was reported as saying to masnoticia.com. “How could someone be handcuffed, thrown in the car and then arrive black and blue and unable to breathe?”
Dutch police have previously been criticized for racism and excessive use of force. In 2012, a Dutch Surinamese teenager was fatally shot as he ran away from police. Police originally alleged the boy was threatening passengers, but it was later revealed he was unarmed.
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