A few weeks ago I posted about an engaging Turkish-Dutch fellow named Deniz Üresin. The rascally Mr. Üresin is a wily entrepreneur who has been exploiting a loophole in Dutch law to create a thriving business selling laughing gas (nitrous oxide) on the streets of Amsterdam. Now Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has banned the businessman from the city center.
In the following video Mr. Üresin bewails the official persecution directed at him, and also complains about being given a black eye while in police custody.
Many thanks to C for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 00:00 | I’m banned from my city. I can’t even go and have a drink anymore. | |
| 00:07 | You’re saying you’re now putting on a prison suit? —Yeah, man. | |
| 00:11 | This is what you get in a police cell? —This is what you get in a police cell, man. | |
| 00:15 | I have a whole wardrobe full of these. —At the beginning of September, | |
| 00:19 | Deniz Üresin was the first laughing gas salesman who was targeted by Mayor Halsema. | |
| 00:23 | A few turbulent weeks later, she imposed a month-long restraining order | |
| 00:26 | against him for the city centre | |
| 00:29 | after he had violated the rules twice before. Which by the way had nothing to do with laughing gas. | |
| 00:34 | The law concerning weapons and ammunition. Apparently this is weapons and ammunition. | |
| 00:38 | These are motor-cross gloves. You use them when riding a trike, scooter, motorbike, bicycle. | |
| 00:43 | it protects your knuckles from damage and things like that. | |
| 00:47 | but it’s not something that’s banned by law. —These are not brass knuckles? | |
| 00:52 | No, man, absolutely not, man. —And you don’t use them that way? —No, man. | |
| 00:56 | But somebody made a note of it. They’re making up reasons, man. | |
| 00:59 | Deniz insists he’s only running a delivery service. | |
| 01:02 | Nevertheless, he and his colleagues have been arrested several times this month | |
| 01:06 | for illegal street selling, which Deniz claims can be seen in this video he made. | |
| 01:14 | I got this from the police. —You’re saying they gave you a black eye? | |
| 01:18 | It’s not the first time! It’s not the first time! —Police cannot confirm this, | |
| 01:22 | since they don’t talk about individual cases, a spokesman says. | |
| 01:26 | According to city council, less laughing gas is being sold since Halsema’s offensive started. | |
| 01:31 | However, despite the arrests, and the fact he’s banned from crossing the bridge to the Leidseplein | |
| 01:35 | for a month, Deniz is still not thinking of quitting. | |
| 01:38 | It’s not illegal, because if city council wants to go after me, | |
| 01:41 | they should go to Brussels, yeah? They should change [the law so that] | |
| 01:45 | laughing gas is no longer a consumer good. | |
| 01:48 | But as long as it’s just like pizza or cola, what can I do? | |
| 01:53 | Why is my smart entrepreneurship destroyed by my own government? | |
| 01:59 | It sucks. It sucks. | |
| 02:02 | But our legal fight continues. This isn’t over yet. |
Interesting, although no Islam-related. What do those who by laughing gas on the street do with the gas?
They inhale it to get a feeling of euphoria. Weren’t you ever given laughing gas as a kid at the dentist to relax you?
I was.
I had my tonsils and adenoids removed under general anaesthetic aged around four, so c1952. In those days, there was no premed to relax you first; the mask was clamped over your face while conscious (and parents weren’t allowed to stay in the hospital afterwards), and it must have traumatised me; on subsequent childhood visits to the dentist’s just the rubbery smell would set me off screaming and fighting.
I don’t know why they didn’t use a local anaesthetic, as is usual now.