What Americans have with firearms, the Dutch have with identification cards, passports and privacy. For years, probably since the Second World War, there was always a broad opposition against any law that forced citizens to show any ID card in public. I remember that earlier attempts to enforce this kind of law were dutifully rejected by members of parliaments, frustating law enforcement. Eventually the Dutch reached a compromise: ‘could everybody pretty please carry an ID?’. As in “yes, really, pretty please”. I remember the barrage of jokes when people were asked to carry their passports, voluntarily of course. ‘Ausweiss bitte!’ ‘Jawohl, mein Fuhrer!’. Or ‘Look at the pretty picture, that’s me and my dog’. Or ‘Do you want me to have a picture with wooden shoes’. Imagine that in a multicultural society.
So, I’m surprised to find that the current administration wants to enforce the Dutch to carry IDs. As in ‘If you don’t have it you break the law’. Better yet, the current Justice minister says that there is a ‘crucial difference between the obligation to show ID as opposed to having to carry it’. Yes, it is that crucial difference that always made this law not make it through both Legislative branches.