Senseless violence

Senseless violence (Dutch: zinloos geweld) is a term frequently used by among others the media, politicians and NGOs to define the nature of several shocking events in Belgium and the Netherlands in recent years[when?].

The term "senseless violence", in the meaning used in this article, was first used in 1997 by Cees Bangma, district chief of the Dutch police unit Midden-Friesland.

Before 1997 the term did not carry the same moral connotation in Belgian and Dutch culture, and typically referred to overseas warzone violence.

Bangma used it in a letter written to the Leeuwarder Courant, a Frisian newspaper in which he made an appeal to the Dutch population to have a minute of silence for Meindert Tjoelker, who was killed on 13 September 1997.

[1] Documented deadly incidents include Guido Demoor, a train-driver who died after being struck on the head on an Antwerp bus by six youths he had asked to calm down, on June 24, 2006, [2] and the death of an MIVB employee after being struck by a man in April 2012, leading to a multi-day strike by the Brussels transport services.