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Amsterdam to close many brothels, marijuana cafes
Associated Press ^ | December 2, 2008 | Toby Sterling

Posted on 12/06/2008 8:04:58 AM PST by Zakeet

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To: Zakeet

In other news, Ruudi Van Juliani announced his candidacy for mayor of Amsterdam.


41 posted on 12/06/2008 9:52:26 AM PST by rfp1234 (Phodopus campbelli: household ruler since July 2007.)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
My wife's father is in The Netherlands. We visited several times. You always have to land at Schipol airport and take the train to Amsterdam to get to her father's little town near Germany.

Yes, there was weed and hashish all over the place. Hundreds of coffee shops full of zonked out Brits on mushrooms and hash. You can actually get coffee and espresso in there, too.

While we were there, some Serbian hitman wiped out one of his boss's rivals along with his two girlfriends in a sushi bar with a riot shotgun. Later we read that it was over the supply line for the legal hashish that just mysteriously appears in the legal coffee shops. The Dutch coffeehouses grow a lot of their own marijuana, but the hashish from Morocco, Nepal, and Afghanistan or wherever isn't legally allowed to be imported into Holland even though it can be legally sold if it gets there. It just mysteriously materializes in the country destined for 'kafehuis' sales. That's what the Serbian gangster pulled a hit over -- the supply line for illegal hashish that's legally sold. Just wiped out three people and wounded several others in a touristy sushi bar with a shotgun in a busy part of the city on a Saturday night. Boom. Boom. Boom.

We've toured all over Amsterdam. It doesn't have the violence of Baltimore or Detroit, but it can be a dangerous place with lots of petty crime. Zillions of jihadi-looking Arabs with their wives dressed like ninjas walking all over. It's a small city. The Rijksmuseum is a don't-miss attraction. I could have spent two days in there alone. Saw the Anne Frank house, the home of Rembrandt, and the city's old buildings. All the tourist areas smell like burning weed, because that's what they do there.

42 posted on 12/06/2008 9:54:36 AM PST by The KG9 Kid
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To: radiohead
Back when I was in college and on my first trip to Amsterdam, 2 other girls and I were doing the tourist thing in the Red Light District. As we stood together figuring out what to do next, a guy came up and asked how much for the 3 of us together. I’m pretty sure this is the only time I’ve been taken for a streetwalker. : )
In previous decades there were many street-walkers on the Las Vegas Strip and as a result many women tourists to Las Vegas experienced what you describe here... being asked if they're a prostitute. That was one of the reasons the Clark County authorities finally got serious started arresting street-walkers as soon as their dainty little feet hit the pavement.
43 posted on 12/06/2008 9:55:43 AM PST by samtheman
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To: The KG9 Kid

We stayed in the grand hotel in the Dam; Krasnapolski(spelling?)We were warned not to go out at night.


44 posted on 12/06/2008 9:58:07 AM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: Scotswife

“except all it does is drive up the crime rate, drug market, and illegal human trafficking does not decrease - it increases.”

You forgot the pulse rate and the interest rate.;^)


45 posted on 12/06/2008 9:58:25 AM PST by billhilly (Sayonara Detroit)
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To: tacticalogic
Like I said, organized crime simply doesn't care. If the trash is hauled by municipal employees or private contractors, it's all the same to them.

Crime takes its opportunities as it sees them. Government can do little to change that outlook.

46 posted on 12/06/2008 9:58:54 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

Agree you win


47 posted on 12/06/2008 10:11:54 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
The danger are pickpockets, 'North African Youth', and those silent streetcars that whiz around the city right next to the curb. I'm sure that it happens all the time that a 'drug tourist' floats out of a coffeehouse higher than holy hell and walks right in front of a streetcar that will grind them into hamburger.

As far as danger goes, Amsterdam is pretty close to downtown San Francisco. I lived there for eight years. Lots of similarities, most of which were the drugs.

48 posted on 12/06/2008 10:13:55 AM PST by The KG9 Kid
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To: Zakeet

Europe continues down the path of statism.


49 posted on 12/06/2008 10:31:08 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: Cicero

Looks like they’re going back to the sort of total government control they had there just a bit more than 60 years ago.


50 posted on 12/06/2008 10:33:38 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: Cicero

Well Amsterdam..step in the right direction. Under mayor Guiliani New York City cleaned up the seedy Times Square Section which had degenerated into X-rated shops, peep shows, etc....The area is much improved now...but the city streets look dirty again under 3rd term mayor Bloomberg.


51 posted on 12/06/2008 10:36:48 AM PST by tflabo (:)
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To: The KG9 Kid
Zillions of jihadi-looking Arabs

Ah, a mention of the real problem. The fact that the Dutch authorities feel a bit embarassed over kow-towing to barbarian prejudices, and offer some other exucse for moving a step toward sharia, is a slight, but only a very slight, glimmer of hope.

52 posted on 12/06/2008 10:38:28 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: Sherman Logan; All
I thought if these industries were legalized it would automatically drive organized crime out of them.

That's certainly the mantra that the pro drug forces use. Legalize drugs and gangs won't exist because they're a source of income. I guess common sense wins out over Utopian fantasy. There's a good reason why illegal drugs remain illegal.

53 posted on 12/06/2008 10:39:33 AM PST by DouglasKC
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To: KoRn

Decline? Hmmmm. I’m not sure you can decline past zero??


54 posted on 12/06/2008 10:52:19 AM PST by Doc Savage ("Are you saying Jesus can't hit a curve ball? - Harris to Cerrano - Major League)
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To: Zakeet

is the Hotdog/Steak sign for a restaurant or is it a kind of sex that cannot be described?


55 posted on 12/06/2008 11:29:06 AM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: DouglasKC
That's certainly the mantra that the pro drug forces use. Legalize drugs and gangs won't exist because they're a source of income.

Drugs aren't legal in Amsterdam. They do not prosecute on small quantities of marijuana and that is why they have the coffee shops. But it is still illegal to grow or sell the drug so of course there are gangs to provide that part of the equation.

The other problem Amsterdam has is that since it is the only country with lax pot possession laws, tourists flock there, which makes it lucrative for the gangs.

But marijuana use among those who live in the Netherlands is half what it is in the US.
56 posted on 12/06/2008 4:10:22 PM PST by microgood
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To: tflabo

Bloomburg’s only contact with the city’s streets is when he has to have some sort of soundbite or picture opportunity. Otherwise he doesn’t need to touch them so why should he care.


57 posted on 12/06/2008 5:37:09 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: microgood

According to government statistics ~ I assure you the government is not to be believed in that country.


58 posted on 12/06/2008 5:38:44 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: DouglasKC
Amsterdam, the murder capital of the Netherlands, had a murder rate of about 3.6/100,000 in 2007. San Jose, one of the safest cities in the US with a population over 500,000, had a murder rate of 3.5 in 2007.

Sources:

www.expatica.com/nl/articles/news/Record-low-murder-rate-once-again.html

city-data.com

59 posted on 12/06/2008 6:00:12 PM PST by Ken H
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To: muawiyah

Hmmm...does that mean I can disqualify all government data from any country? What would make, say, our data more believable than theirs?


60 posted on 12/07/2008 2:09:49 AM PST by Nate505
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