Squatting Amsterdam — Ep. 5: Squatting Artefacts from 20 Years Ago
In the previous episode 4 we had occupied our second squat in Amsterdam West. I wanted to end this series with how we got evicted eventually when the Dutch Squatting Ban got enforced. However, I was cleaning up some old boxes and actually found some cool items from my squatting period. So here's a bonus episode. Enjoy.
Gerard Dreese's Letter
When we entered the Ruyschstraat I told you about the body builder from episode 3 who was panicking on his balcony. We later got to know each other and he actually wrote us a letter in which he confirmed the flat had been empty for over a year:
"With this, I, Gerard Dreese Ruyschstraat 34-2 in Amsterdam hereby confirm that the flat on Ruyschstraat 32-1 has been vacant for over a year. I support the people who on August 13 2006 have entered this empty floor. I have no complaints of any nuisance."
I find it both extraordinary that I had still kept this and the old man had used a typewriter to convey his support to us. We had asked him to write a letter as this strong evidence if they had wanted to evict us based on claiming the apartment hadn't been empty for over a year.
The Small Squatting Manual
A summarized version of the more detailed one. This is basically the introductory course. The bigger ones explain the nitty gritty of doing everything related to squatting. In the big one I remember reading things like putting matches inside the doors to track activity. I found that so cool to know.
The Target Diary
Here are two excerpts from the booklet I used to track vacancies in my neighborhood. As you can see they were sorted on street name. The addresses contain dates when I spotted and confirmed the empty state. The strikethroughs were the flats that eventually didn't remain targets as some movement, change, or burning light, or story from a neighbor and subsequently the space was disclassified as potential squat.
Squatting Flyer
This was a call to gathering for the squat at the Ruyschstraat 32. I created this one and posted this into the letter boxes of the known squats in the east.
That's it for this bonus episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, please ask.
using lightning symbolism?!
ahead of your time, what a pioneer.
radical dude!
Oh how fun. You've never been on the other end of this I'm gonna guess. Never dealt with people occupying your property and couching their actions in some bullshit law to justify it? You think because the government is helping you take other people's stuff that makes it ok?
Having been thru the nightmare of criminal scum like you stealing my property while a corrupt and abusive government protected them thru a long, protracted ordeal which cost me dearly, I gotta say, you're a coward and a thief.
Didn't your parents teach you not to take other people's shit?
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Nothing was ever stolen, ser.
Cause you didn't pick up the house and take it with you?
Living in a house that doesn't belong to you without the permission of the owner is theft. Plain and simple.
You can continue to argue technicalities but you know what you did is wrong. And the fact that you used the power of the state to get away with your theft makes you a coward.
Funny story tho, I ended up scoping the place out for about a month, mapped the scum's comings and goings, and one day when she left the house, I brought a locksmith and finally got into my own house, packed up all the scum's shit, left it on the curb a few blocks away and waited in my house.
When she came back she was all confused about why her key didn't work. I came to the door and informed her that she can go fuck herself with a retractable baton, and went back in. She called the police, but when they arrived I produced the deed, and told them I had no idea what this lunatic was talking about. This is my house. So they left and she was finally out of tricks.
I can't tell you the joy I felt to finally have my house back. I can't even explain to you the absolute extasi of finally getting back my property which had been stolen from me.
I got justice on my own terms when a corrupt government failed to uphold my property rights, and defended a criminal instead. Could have been you. You did the same thing that this hag did to me.
So you're not going to tell me that nothing was stolen. You're not going to come here, brag about a crime you committed, and then tell people who have been victims of that crime that "nothing was stolen". Yes it was. If you don't pay rent, you're stealing. That's what you did.
So please, go find your own retractable baton, and make sure to insert it all the way inside of your ass, right up to the very end there.
Fuck you
fyi Squatting Amsterdam Ep: 5
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