For a century and a half, the Dutch police and the army cooperated in combating civil disturbances. It was common practice that soldiers were called from their barracks to assist in maintaining public order. However, to deploy the army against civilians raised fundamental questions about its legitimacy. As a result some Dutch police forces began implementing military tactics and using military equipment to do the job themselves. The high watermark of this development lies in the years between the two world wars, when revolution and civic unrest always seemed imminent. The post-war years were marked by the Cold War and fear of communist insurrection. Militarized units were always kept in reserve. Nowadays, the army still renders assistance, usually not ‘manu militari’, but on matters that require special expertise.

This essay focuses on the parallels between the recently coined phrase ‘meaningless violence’ and the literary theme of the ‘acte gratuit’, developed by the French modernist author André Gide, but also represented in the novels of Dostojewski, Camus and Arnon Grunberg. From a philosophical perspective the acte gratuit can be connected with Nietzsche’s ‘Wille zur Macht’, but also with Bataille’s interpretation of violence as an expression of the will to break taboos and exceed the borders between the profane and the sacred.

How should the police operate in the media and in public debate? This question has become more urgent since the rise of populism in The Netherlands. The media expect the police to give its views when incidents, riots, shocking crimes etc. happen. But to communicate effectively with the public it’s nowadays not enough to stick to ‘the facts’ and take an independent position above the various parties involved. Doing this is often misunderstood as denying the needs of people suffering from social security problems and not taking them seriously. The author discusses which media strategies the police could adopt to effectively handle security issues and clarify its position in democratic society.