As a victim of  violence, including threats to my life by State Actors  in Amsterdam,  I know what it feels like to be treated as less than an animal. In the grand scheme of things ‘human life’ means nothing, animals have better legal protection in Amsterdam ,  which prides itself with being the most tolerant and humane city in Europe.

I am not a lawyer  but I educated myself on international and human rights law, and confidently make the case that the killing of Sammy, which the police chief is trying to reason away and justify was State sanctioned violence.

Since the State has a monopoly on violence and the police acted in name of the State, this killing of a defenseless individual was violence in the name of the state. Sammy was by no means a threat to the 8 to 10 police officers who surrounded him, beat  him to the ground and pulled the trigger on him three times killing him.