Dutch Riot Police Arrest 24 as Far-Right Rally in The Hague Turns Violent; Sacramento Rally Over Newsom Law Ends in Pepper Spray and One Arrest

Title: Dutch Riot Police Arrest 24 as Far-Right Rally in The Hague Turns Violent; Sacramento Rally Over Newsom Law Ends in Pepper Spray and One Arrest

The Hague: 24 arrested after fireworks, Nazi salutes at anti-immigration rally

Dutch riot police broke up a far-right demonstration in The Hague on Saturday, September 19, after protesters threw fireworks and other projectiles at officers, according to the Associated Press. Police arrested 24 people and deployed water cannon, dogs, pepper spray and baton charges against the crowd, which numbered around 500, according to Euronews and Al Jazeera.

The rally, called "Wij zijn het volk" ("We Are the People"), was organized to protest Dutch government immigration and asylum policy. Demonstrators had planned to march through the city center, but The Hague municipality banned the march and ordered the crowd dispersed after violence broke out at Malieveld, a central park, according to the Guardian and the AP.

Dutch news agency ANP reported that someone at the rally gave a Nazi salute and that a truck serving as a stage displayed a screen reading "The Netherlands is for the Dutch," as relayed by Al Jazeera. Justice Minister David van Weel called the scenes "disgusting" on X and demanded an "extremely firm" response, citing Nazi salutes, antisemitic chants, and fireworks thrown at riot officers. "Thanks to all the police officers who are once again standing up for our democratic rule of law," he wrote.

Prime Minister Rob Jetten said on X that demonstrators "deliberately sought confrontation with the police" and chanted "abhorrent" far-right and antisemitic slogans.

Not everyone at the rally was there for the antisemitism. Al Jazeera and Euronews both quoted Thijs Jansen, a 31-year-old mechanic, who told reporters: "We're losing our country. We're literally losing our country to mass migration." Immigration concerns are shared by many Europeans watching years of high migration flows strain housing, schools and budgets. Such grievances can be lost once protesters begin throwing fireworks at police and giving Hitler salutes on camera. A protest about immigration policy differs from one featuring Nazi imagery, and conflating the two lets extremists shape the terms of debate.

Saturday's clashes mirror what happened in The Hague a year earlier, when rioters set a police car on fire and attacked the headquarters of the centrist D66 party, now led by Jetten, according to the Guardian and KSAT 12. Dutch officials are treating the recurring pattern as an escalating problem rather than an isolated incident.

Sacramento: rally over the "Stop Nick Shirley Act" ends with one arrest

A different kind of protest clash played out earlier in the week at the California Capitol. Hundreds gathered in Sacramento on Wednesday, September 16, for a rally tied to what Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio dubbed the "Stop Nick Shirley Act," a bill introduced in February by Democratic Assemblymember Mia Bonta and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on August 21, according to the Daily Signal.

Conservative independent journalist Nick Shirley and other influencers promoted the rally. A self-described "antifascist" group calling itself NorCal Resist posted a flyer warning that the "patriot front" was heading to Sacramento and urged followers to "exercise caution," per the Daily Signal.

Counterprotesters showed up carrying flags tied to the transgender rights movement, communist imagery and anti-Trump messaging, according to footage cited by the Daily Signal. Police initially held a line between the two groups, then shifted it back, letting counterprotesters push closer to the rally barriers. An altercation followed between a protester and a rally supporter, and both were detained. A separate incident left multiple people pepper-sprayed. Witnesses on the ground disagreed about who sprayed whom, and it remains unclear from available reporting what triggered that confrontation.

California Highway Patrol confirmed to the Daily Signal on Friday, September 18, that three people were detained and one was arrested and charged with assault. Officials had not identified that person as of that confirmation.

Two rallies, one pattern

Both events fit a broader trend: protests tied to immigration or culture-war flashpoints are drawing counterprotesters spoiling for confrontation, and police lines are the thing standing between a rally and a riot. In The Hague, the extremists on stage handed Dutch officials an easy excuse to shut the whole demonstration down. In Sacramento, it's still not clear which side escalated first.

The open questions now are concrete. Dutch prosecutors have not yet detailed charges beyond "failing to comply with the order" and illegal weapons possession for the 24 detained, so what penalties they actually face is unresolved. In Sacramento, CHP has not named the person arrested on the assault charge or clarified who used the pepper spray, leaving the central factual dispute of that incident unsettled.