“Black Lives Matter” was displayed on shirts and signs at the protest on the Dam Square, Amsterdam, in 2016. About 150 people demonstrated for the Black Lives Matter movement following the shooting of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in the US.
Both were killed by police shooting upon their arrest. Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man in Baton Rouge, was arrested because the police were responding to a report that a man in a red shirt was selling CDs and that he had used a gun to threaten a man outside a convenience store. Later on it became clear that he wasn’t the man they were searching for.
Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black man, was shot at a traffic stop in Minnesota. He was driving his partner, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter when he was pulled over by the police. After being asked for his license and registration, Castile told the policeman that he had a firearm that he was licensed to carry. The policeman replied that he did not have to reach for it. Philando didn’t have time to answer when he reached for it. The policeman did not wait for his answer and shot him at close range.
During that demonstration in Amsterdam in 2016, demonstrators also drew attention to the dubious death of Mitch Henriquez, a 42-year-old Aruban man in the Hague. He was arrested at a music festival in the Zuiderpark in the Hague on June 27, 2015, and died one day later from mistreatment. Following his death, there was a lot of commotion surrounding the circumstances and cause of death.