Summary:
The article says Belgium is losing the war on drugs, shown by rising urban shootings, corruption and smuggling in prisons, overcrowding and violent incidents linked to organized crime. Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden is asking for an extra €1 billion (half for operations, half for buildings) while the government searches for €12 billion in the budget; proposed actions include tougher sentences for drug bosses, mandatory prison drug tests, making wealthy inmates help pay incarceration costs, and Defence Minister Bernard Quintin has suggested deploying soldiers on city streets. The piece argues that better management of justice is needed but is a long-term project, and that Belgium is in a state of emergency with “no-go” urban areas, investor flight and unprosecuted crime forcing hard budgetary trade-offs between stopping financial decline and addressing societal decay.
A feeling of impunity undermines citizens’ trust in justice, politics and “the system”. The cost of that is almost impossible to calculate.
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I think the author correctly identified a large issue:
A feeling of impunity undermines citizens’ trust in justice, politics and “the system”. The cost of that is almost impossible to calculate.
Belgium has had this problem within justice for a long long time now: whenever a “crime” is profitable to the government, such as speeding, the whole process from gathering evidence to inning the fine is fast, digitised and automated.
Whenever real victims are involved, it’s amateur hour, fumbling about, having to manually go from griffie to station.
“Slachtofferhulp” is a joke, just one old lady that doesn’t care calling you up: “oh yeah dude got released 4 months ago forgot to notify you sorry haha”.
The justice system to many is a career, a self-fullfilling goal, where the everyday realities of victims and perpetrators are treated as nuisances that disrupt internal routines.