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Thousands Riot in Small Dutch Town After Facebook Invite to Teen’s Birthday Goes Viral

Sep. 22, 2012 7:06pm Erica Ritz

Thousands of Rioters Hit Haren, Netherlands After Facebook Party Invitation Goes Viral

(Photo: The Telegraph)

(TheBlaze/AP) — Thousands of revelers descended on a small Dutch town sparking a riot after a 16-year-old’s party invitation went viral on Facebook, authorities said Saturday.

Prosecutor Hessel Schuth said 34 people were arrested were arrested Friday night and in the early hours of Saturday morning and would be prosecuted for public order offenses. Several people were injured, but none were believed to be seriously hurt.

(Photo: YouTube)

“Scum ran amok in our town,” said Rob Bats, mayor of Haren, 185 kilometers (115 miles) north of Amsterdam.

“An innocent invitation on Facebook for a party led to serious rioting, destruction, plundering, arson and injuries in the middle of Haren,” he said.

Reuters has more information, and video of the party:

According to CNN, video of the incident showed the revelers throwing glass bottles and other debris at security teams.

Bats added that an initial analysis showed a core group of rioters “were very violent and well-prepared and deliberately sought confrontation” with hundreds of police who had been dispatched to the town amid fears of trouble.

Dutch media reported that the party originally was planned as a small celebration by a 16-year-old girl, but her invitation went viral when she posted it on Facebook. According to the Telegraph, roughly 30,000 people received it.

The Telegraph has more video of the party, and interviews with a number of the attendees:

“She posted the invitation on Facebook and sent it to friends, who then sent it to other friends and soon it spread like wildfire across the Internet,” a spokeswoman for the Groningen police, Melanie Zwama, reportedly explained for the Agence France Presse.

Apparently the town’s mayor convinced the girl not to hold the party in an effort to hold back the rioters, but was unsuccessful.

Some of the people arriving in Haren on Friday wore T-shirts emblazoned with “Project X Haren,” a reference to the film “Project X” that portrayed an out-of-control party.

On Saturday, another Facebook group sprang up called Project Clean-X Haren, urging people to help clear up the debris littering the town’s streets.

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Comments (48)

Swimming-with-the-Sharks
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:09pm
There really should be a feminine hygiene product named after Harry.

And not an effective one.

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JUSTANOTHEROPINION
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:10pm
This is what it is all coming to. I refuse to comply.

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The0bserver
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 11:17am
alcohol + youth + idoticy = idiotcy + mayhem
alcohol + youth = mayhem
anybody surprised?

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Ted Zeppelin
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 11:12am
.
I’m sure Hillary “Can’t Unite National Thinking” Clinton will use this to cover up the murder of our Ambassador.

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androyster
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 11:10am
Shotguns are great a great cure for riots.

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SycamoreFan
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:58am
Teenage birthday party turns into riot, oddly this is not surprising at all.
The Dutch after all are famous for sticking their finger in dykes.

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JACKTHETOAD
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:40am
Who gives an Amsterdam? A bunch of kids looking for a good time 2012 style. I’ll bet they’ll help clean up (I hope), as the Dutch are noted for their cleanliness. …just a little fun on the ol’ Zuider Zee…besides, the mayor is Bats anyway. :)

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- OhioRifleman
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 11:11am
  Be you taking lessons from Darmok, young Padawan?
  
  Report this comment
What the Heck
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 6:58am
Respect for other is lost on this generation. Lawlessness, is their way. That is what we get for eliminating consequences.

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- yougottabekidding
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 8:18am
  Would I be there if I thought I could get shot, let alone in the front of the line attempting to injure other people?
  
  Report this comment
What the Heck
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 6:56am
Dumb a s s e s on face book get what they deserve. Tell your business to just anyone, how stupid.

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team1blazer
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 12:18am
Police using sticks when they should be breaking out BARs.

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- Freedom316
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 10:13am
  Yeah shoot the little idiots no more parties thn!!
  
  Report this comment
pissantno.10
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 10:27pm
socalism at work they are all out of work or never had a job or do not want a job . they all had beer cans in there hands. nothing else to do.drink do drugs and die is all they have to look forward . and we are two steps behind them

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- SteakandFries
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 1:30pm
  The Netherlands has one of the lowest unemployment rates (5.2%) in the EU. It’s also a far cry from a Socialist nation.
  
  I can understand your mistrust of Socialism, but atleast get your facts straight.
  
  Report this comment
RightThinking1
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 10:26pm
What is this ‘Facebook’ of which they speak?

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- RamonPreston
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 2:30am
  If you don’t know, consider yourself lucky. Every brain dead idiot on the internet posts their picture and tells everybody what they are doing. People have even confessed to crimes on Facebook. CIA monitors everything on Facebook.
  
  Report this comment
- yougottabekidding
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:01am
  Like us of face book we need friends
  
  Or
  
  Like us on face book and you’ ll be entered in our contest. Nothing like a little corn husker deal!
  
  Report this comment
jespasinthru
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 10:26pm
Apparently the flakes in that country don’t get a chance to party much. That’s what you call being desperate to have a good time. Glad I don’t live there. When you send out party invitations on Facebook in America, the only people who show up are the ones who know they’re supposed to be there.

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- Sol Invictus
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:11am
  “When you send out party invitations on Facebook in America, the only people who show up are the ones who know they’re supposed to be there.” Really!? Glad I don’t live near you. lol.
  
  Report this comment
The_Jerk
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 10:02pm
Damn Muslims.

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bikerdogred1
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 8:57pm
Thousands riot,well who has his finger in the ****.

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samtree
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:53pm
This would make a good plot for a movie. A maniac posts invitations to flash mobs to come and riot at a secret location but when the rioters arrive at the destination they find it is booby trapped with Gatling gun beer kegs, human wood chippers disguised as porta potties, high voltage electrified human fish nets, hail storms of broken glass and all sorts of horrible death traps and all the rioters are slaughtered mercilessly.

Hey I’d watch that movie and come out whistling a happy tune.

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- thetreyman
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 9:17pm
  you may be on to something there. you should pitch that to a movie studio. i’d go watch it. i always did like slasher movies, not that torture porn they put out these days like “human centipede.”
  
  Report this comment
- GdHUs
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 9:30pm
  Make your party after the election. Obama needs the votes.
  
  Report this comment
- Mil Mom
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:02am
  @samtree
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:53pm
  
  This would make a good plot for a movie. A maniac posts invitations to flash mobs to come and riot at a secret location but when the rioters arrive at the destination they find it is booby trapped with Gatling gun beer kegs, human wood chippers disguised as porta potties, high voltage electrified human fish nets, hail storms of broken glass and all sorts of horrible death traps and all the rioters are slaughtered mercilessly.
  
  Hey I’d watch that movie and come out whistling a happy tune.
  *****
  Careful there, some of the trolls may suggest it to holders justice dept. Could show up on American news site as there next gotcha cam video.
  
  Report this comment
Capt_Gregg
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:48pm
Stupid teens tend to want to share EVERY aspect of their lives on Facebook, and it’s typical for a teen to have hundreds of online “friends.” Posting the original invitation — meant for a few actual friends — on Facebook wasn’t bright. Even if it only went to those for whom she intended, only one of them could, through a careless post, inform hundreds, who in turn would inform…, etc.

I hope that, at the VERY least, her parents have insisted on her closing her Facebook account. If she were my daughter, the next computer she had access to would be running Windows 20.

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- BarryHusseinOsama
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 4:59pm
  Yeah, I know at least one teen who has over 1000 “friends” on there, and I would be very surprised if she actually knows more than 50 of them. I wonder how many are sex predators.
  
  Report this comment
- Mil Mom
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:04am
  @BarryHusseinOsama
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 4:59pm
  
  Yeah, I know at least one teen who has over 1000 “friends” on there, and I would be very surprised if she actually knows more than 50 of them. I wonder how many are sex predators
  ****
  Probably half of them are on American Prison Library computers.
  
  Report this comment
1snake1
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:43pm
a bunch of white people. of course.

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possom
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:43pm
How long do we have to wait until they blame it on bush?

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- Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:55pm
  George H W Bush did like it on facebook, so it was partialy Bushes fault.
  
  Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:41pm
Poor girl

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- thetreyman
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 9:19pm
  i bet she never forgets her sweet 16.
  
  Report this comment
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:40pm
The problem was, there was an invite, the party goers thought they were being “Treated” to a party, but when they got there, they found out is was a BYOB party. They were told,” free the party”, but you were going Dutch. Hence the riot, no free booze, and there wasn’t enough cake.

Besides that, the clown they hired, really wasn’t very good, Melvin the Molesting Clown, he doesn’t get a lot of call backs.

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- Exrepublisheep
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 2:00am
  Not enough cake? People have some nerve!
  
  Report this comment
Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:38pm
And here I thought the Dutch were coming to their senses by disallowing Sharia in their country. Now I see this and can only think it’s only a few that have any sense.

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TJexcite
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:36pm
Some say that is how the Arab Spring started not the 20 year slow plan in the making. I can see this happened even more if not that Facebook wants real names. This would be the equivalent of sending pizza or a cab to a empty house now it is tweat a mob to a riot.

Somewhere the old press release to blame the Benghazi attack on Facebook is in someone computer recycle bin.

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leonardo44
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:32pm
The Dutch are really weird. It’s such a tolerant country, except they hate americans.What’s with all the pent up rage? What happened to the quaint country of windmills, cheese and wooden shoes? Instead it sounds more like a skinhead convention ….

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- 4truth2all
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:48pm
  Yo Leonardo44:
  
  Careful what you say … America is at the tipping point and we’re not so much the land of the free and the home of the brave anymore …
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:48pm
  I used to drive to Holland often when I was working Belgium, and on occasion while I was stationed in Germany. Never had a single problem with the Dutch. Practically everybody spoke English without an accent and were very courteous to Americans.
  
  Report this comment
- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 9:54pm
  Let’s see, something happened almost four years ago, what was it? Can’t seem to remember. It’s on the tip of my tongue. Stock market almost crashed, no, that’s not it. Housing market plummets? No. Something about a clown, Oreos, or a communist menace.
  Oh, I know, Tina Fey was doing an impersonation of Sarah Palin, while she was eating a cookie, saying she could see Russia from her house.
  
  Report this comment
- upadastra
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:58am
  No most Dutch do NOT hate America!
  
  Report this comment
blackyb
Posted on September 22, 2012 at 7:13pm
They probably had protests and blamed it on a party. These people are probably about as big liars as the Democrats here in the states.

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- JJ_Believer
  Posted on September 22, 2012 at 10:01pm
  More destruction blamed on free speech… Can’t help but feel like this is another advertisement for censorship. Hope they prosecute the rioters. If you let them get away with it, you invite more rioting… hmmm reminds me of something recent…
  
  Report this comment

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