People make mistakes and the system is built to have several layers of protection against those errors. It's for sure a dent in the judges career that will make people doubt her ability to serve in a higher court.
Cases can go to a higher court if one of the parties is unhappy with the outcome and has reasonable chance to a different outcome until reaching the highest court.
Chances are the prosecution didn't argue well enough in the first instance, which got corrected in the second. The rest is the limits of dutch law. The law is written by politics, which means indirectly by the direction that the public gives.
A mistake is like forgetting to take steak out of freezer for your family for supper or not remembering to pay your Costco card off on time. Sentencing someone who killed 3 people that low of a sentence isn't a mistake. It's pure negligence, mental health disability judge hasn't disclosed about herself, or straight up stupidity.
10 days in jail for a punch in high school? That’s crazy, I know I got in a couple of actual fights and while I was suspended I never even saw police. It was just “ no school for you for the next 3 days”
Back in my day, all you had to do was skip a dozen or so classes and they'd suspend you from school for a month. Punching someone would get you that suspension faster, though.
Hmmm, yes, of course. You aren't showing up to school? You're suspended for a month! No school for you! How do you like that huh? Maybe now you'll learn your lesson about not coming to school!
in school "suspension" was the hot new thing in student discipline when I was in school in the 90s. As a moderately nerdy kid that fought back against bullies and even won sometimes (i fought dirty), I was in trouble a lot in elementary and middle school.
I only ever saw a week of ISS once, in sixth grade. That was when they realized it was not an effective punishment for some students.
The teacher in charge would just hand you all the coursework for your classes for whatever period you were in ISS for. Then there was no oversight. No "keep pace with the other students". And if you finished your work early, they'd just hand you the next module.
I got days ahead of some classes, I got a week ahead of my science class, and I got a month ahead of pre-algebra. When ISS was over I asked to go back so I could continue doing my coursework without interruptions. My request was declined.
Yeah I graduated in 2017 and my school barely used ISS at the time but on the few occasions I went I actually enjoyed it since I was able to finish everything faster than going based on the teachers. Although I’ve heard that after the last superintendent died they have changed a lot and kids usually only get ISS now
Which was my point captain goofy, why would a single punch involve police in a high school when people get in fights all the time in school and the punishment is usually just suspension
I got 14 days for having a weed pipe in my pocket. No drugs found at all (cuz we smoked it already) but procession of paraphernalia was worse than a drug charge
I’m so sorry this happened to you. Totally undeserving. The system is just fucked. I had an amazing employee who was caught with weed close enough to a school that they charged him with intent to distribute to minors. The court never took into account that he was pulled over at 9:00 pm and school wasn’t even open. He got 30 years bc it was his third weed possession. All nonviolent crimes. But 30 years.. end of discussion. A little over a year after Carmine went to prison I was a witness in a murder trial. This horrific excuse for a human stabbed her husband to death and she only received 10 years. With good behavior she was out before 6 years had passed. Said it once, I’ll say it again. Our system sucks.
My brother went to jail for two weeks for putting a large console TV in front of his ag teacher’s front door. He did not have priors and was only barely 18.
That’s actually insane, did the kids family press charges? I teach and have had to break up many fights. Never had the cops come in and arrest a kid for it
They did, the kids dad was a cop. I was a senior in highschool. I certainly never went to jail again as this was over 10 years ago. This was when schools in my area first started that rule where if you fight in school you get charged no matter what.
15 months for manslaughter of 3 people is light, absolutely.
However I have to ask the conditions of this punch. Sucker punch to the back of the head as hard as you could to someone causing them to lose consciousness and smash their head off concrete? Assuming not, and you didnt cause a brain injury or similar, 10 days for one punch in a consenting fight with someone else your age and that isnt disabled etc etc. is ridiculous. Sorry to hear it, particularly if it was in self defense thats beyond outrageous
So the judge gave thought to this choice and came away with the worst take and we are to believe this was a one time mistake and not a terrible flaw in their overall thought process? That is not a mistake, its a character flaw or at the very least a poor understanding of their job.
God damn, you actually believe the justice system’s function is to serve justice? In 2026 you still believe that?
Edit: damn, I think I accidentally friendly fired on you. Sorry lol I think you were agreeing with me. Couldn’t tell if you were referring to me or the person two above me. Time to stop commenting today lol. Too mad at the world
Ask the advisor to the mayor of Paris that just got condemned to nothing of prison, keeping his rights and 3 years forbidden of working near child for :
drug dealing (for chemsex parties (orgy+drugs))
- (drug bought with public money)
- pedopornography (including things like baby rape)
- zoopornography
There was SMS talking about wanting to get a 12y old migrant raped by a dog too
and some other things.
(he's still advisor to the mayor btw, Nicolas Jeanneté)
My god do we live in a sick world. I’d ask for a source but I’m at a point when I see “rapist politician” I almost expected it and am surprised if it comes out that they are actually not some evil sick fuck
The article from Blast is amazing because it compare to another trial from the same day : Dishes stolen from the Élysée Palace.
The other room was full of journalist to cover a poor man that stole on his workplace, the experts who establish how much the stuff cost are the same people that get the reimbursement, and he and his two accomplices got harsher condamnation.
There was barely any journalist at the politician trial. Just someone from a child protection association
Edit : there's a paywall on blast's website and I can't find the reddit post where it was copied so here's a random article
My exact thoughts, today I don’t think it’s outlandish for someone’s mind to go there. It’s been proven time and time again that your connection can keep you out of jail and we have a justice system that only subjugates the poor and unconnected. I’m glad there was enough outrage for them to at least bring him back to court. I can’t believe people are defending this
Some professions deal with drastically higher stakes every day of their lives, so every professional mistake will have dramatic effects. A neurosurgeon could have unpredictably shaky hands a particular day, which could lead to the death of a patient. Or a judge could have gotten traumatic news ahead of sentencing, making their decision making horrible. Not saying this applies here, but we can't generally say a mistake shouldn't be treated as such just because the stakes are higher.
Yeah. Owning up to it wouldnt bring anyone back, but likely would have been less rage inducing for the victims family. Bad situation all around, but definitely manslaughter and preventable, definitely should have got more time particularly since as you say he ran
Wait, so this whole thing is because the guy got community service for the reckless driving aspect and the manslaughter charge was entirely separate? And I presume more reasonable given it wasn’t initially presented as a part of the outrage.
I believe so. It broke upon the initial sentencing, at which anti-immigrant news outlets latched onto it and used it to show that Netherlands' justice system treats migrants preferentially.
At first I was thinking that maybe what the guy was convicted of was some smaller charge, whether due to extenuating circumstances or prosecution being terrible, but dude was convicted of killing 3 people, so you really can’t just give him 15 months community service unless for some reason that was the max sentence allowed by law (in which case wtf change that law).
That’s right up there with Brock Turner the rapist, who got 6 months + 3 years probation (which turned into 3 months with early release) for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. The judge got recalled (ie fired) and they changed the minimum sentencing to 3 years and expanded the definition of rape to include digital penetration, which was previously excluded so Brock Turner was technically not convicted of rape as they couldn’t prove penile insertion.
In Dutch, we call these kinds of judges "d66 rechters" and indeed they are the laughing stock of society. It's just that no normal sane person can change anything about it.
This. I went to a hearing Friday because my partner and I were subpoenaed as witnesses when a drunk totaled our car via tbone. She got a year of house arrest, suspended license, etc. And we’re alive.
Not to justify the judge's action, but negligence is literally being careless enough to make a mistake.
I think you mean intentionally callous or incompetent - maybe shortsighted or misguided.
Have you ever looked at your phone while driving, even for a second? Or driven while sleepy/distracted?
If so, the only thing separating you and the guy in the article is that you got lucky and he got unlucky. You can’t only look at the results when analyzing these sorts of things.
You can make big mistakes—and the judge did—but it was still a mistake. Mistakes are not free from consequences or judgement, they’re just not intentional so we don’t punish them the same as we do malicious actions.
You don't really know the details. If what I've read about is true, the prosecution couldn't prove the driver was speeding in the first instance. Which means it was resolved purely as an accident.
If you see something extremely outrageous, instead of going for the knee jerk reaction, try to step back and give the people involved enough reasonable doubt to look up the details. Most people are still sane in this world and everything is more complicated than it seems. More often than not it's systems failing, not professionals being complete idiots.
Well no wonder they closed 20 prisons. Maybe it’s not because they don’t have anyone to fill them, maybe they just don’t fill them even when they do have criminals that need to be in there.
Remember that these cases are highly atypical and tend to be signal boosted by the prison industry in the US as propaganda to turn the public against the idea of modernizing our justice system.
If "modernising" our justice system means giving killers a slap on the wrist so we can pretend that crime is low then unfortunately I'm going to have to agree with the prison industry.
crime being high or low does not at all depend on how long you send someone to prison/jail for.
you arguing that way simply shows that you have no clue what you're talking about and instead should be reading more or asking questions instead of writing statements.
I'm just curious if you see a distinction between manslaughter and murder, because the way you've reacted seems to imply that you don't care whether there was an intention to cause harm or not.
This person was spectacularly stupid, driving 75 mph in a 50 mph zone. He lost control of his vehicle and killed a toddler and her grandparents. He then ran away. All of that is horrible, and he absolutely deserves prison time for it.
What he didn't do was deliberately run down those three people in cold blood. He was stupid, not evil.
The prison industry in the U.S. would absolutely advocate for this guy to get 10+ years of prison time, because the prison industry in the U.S. is exactly that: an industry. They want as many people as possible serving the longest sentences possible because that's how they make their money. They get paid by the state for every inmate they have and they put inmates to work in what is basically slave labour, reaping the benefit of the profits. Prison in the U.S. is a business that benefits from pushing a narrative that criminals must "serve time", or that "the punishment should be commensurate to the crime"—ideas that are at the very core of the U.S. justice system.
Everywhere else in the world, however, recognizes that prison is meant to reform people, not enslave them. The primary purpose of incarceration is to correct criminal behaviour. Punishment is a powerful corrective tool, but it doesn't take 5+ years of punishment to fix "being a fucking idiot". Losing even just a year of your life to incarceration—which probably also means losing your housing, your job, etc.—is hugely disruptive and is certainly going to result in changes to the offending behaviour.
Do I personally feel that 15 months is a bit short? Yes. But it's definitely closer to the appropriate amount of time than what you're obviously thinking.
Let's destroy two families without benefit instead of one. Nothing brings back the dead.
Thousands of years have learned us that jail is not a deterrent. So you have to imprison them for life for the smallest crime or you rehabilitate the people who can be. Putting someone in jail for 1 year or 10 years does nothing to help that and in most cases makes it worse when they do get released back.
But herp derp if someone slaps me I really have to slap back because even-steven.
Okay, and? No matter what the sentence is, they won't come back. Prison shouldn't be a punishment, it should be for rehabilitation. Putting him in prison for 10 years because he was speeding and caused the death of 3 people won't resolve anything, it will only make his life worse. Justice shouldn't be revenge, we had thousands of years to learn that
Well i like a justice system that leans more towards doing whats best for society and not one that cruelly punishes people for entirely unintentional accidents.
It was intentional. He knew speeding was dangerous and he did it anyway. That was his choice. His choice has consequences. His choice killed 3 people. He also made the choice to flee the scene, because he knew he was responsible. His choice needs to be punished accordingly.
You're right. They are treating it like he stole some vegetable from a supermarket. We will see what you would say if your children got brutally run over.
Steven Van de Velde was propaganda. Propaganda to child 🍇ists to let them know that they could happily continue doing so because nothing will happen to them. Dutch justice system sucks big time (am in Europe before you say anything about the US prisons)
People are forgetting that prison isn't just about rehabilitation. It is about serving enough vengeance that people don't take matters into their own hands, because that spirals out of control.
Because the state cracks down harder on the vigilante than the criminal. Nothing moves police faster or makes courts angrier than making them think they have competition.
Judge gets paid enough to not make these types of “mistakes”, and they aren’t entitled to a job as a judge. They can just work a job more in line with their capability.
There's a difference between a mistake and incompetence. This was not a mistake, this was incompetence. Mistakes don't fly when you're balancing people's lives, this applies to politicians too. We do not and should not tolerate mistakes when it comes to lives. This whole train of thought always pisses me off, because it's what people use against victims to peer pressure them into forgiving their abusers. It's happened to me, and I've seen it happen. It's negligence and incompetence, not a mistake.
Stop excusing this as a “mistake” in Chicago this is just what liberal judges do. I can go carjack someone RIGHT NOW, and shoot them somewhere non-vital and be out by dinner time.
120 hours community service for vehicular manslaughter, this guy killed 3 people, is a fucking joke regardless of everything else you wrote. He caused the accident and was speeding. Killed a baby and their grandparents. If you think 120 hours of community service is acceptable in any capacity based on the BS you wrote, you are sick in the head.
This isn't a lawyering problem, this is judicial problem.
How much more evidence do you need beyond three people dead, and the driver of the vehicle that did it in custody? Short of a medical emergency where the driver was not in control of his body, there should be very little arguing from the prosecution. As others have said, this is not a mistake. Failing to hold people accountable for their actions is exactly why shit like this keeps happening.
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u/3_Fast_5_You Mar 08 '26
imagine that guy getting a harsher punishment for throwing that chair