More rioting in Amsterdam....

Let's hope this doesn't get worse...

Amsterdam police remained on alert Thursday following another night of rioting in the Slotervaart neighborhood in the western part of the city. Eight youths were arrested during the riots. Three of them were caught while trying to set private cars on fire. Five others were arrested for allegedly "disturbing public order," a police spokesman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Thursday.

Last week two violent incidents took place in Slotervaart. Both times Moroccan-Dutch youths were involved. In the latest incident on October 14, 22-year-old Bilal Bajaka attacked two police officers in a police station with a knife. One of them pulled her gun and shot her attacker, who died on the spot. During the following nights, youths set cars on fire and threw stones at the police station.

In a current affairs television programme late Wednesday evening Amsterdam police chief Bernard Welten said the problems in Slotervaart are caused by a "core group of no more than 35 youths aged 12 to 17".

Welten said the youths come from violent homes, adding that he would not be surprised if the riots would increase to the level of those in Paris last year. "Their parents have no authority over them whatsoever," he said. He indicated youths in the group were arrested frequently, only to be released soon afterwards, "because we want to be a constitutional state."