Highway Blockade

In November 2017, two buses with protesters were stopped by white pro-Pete locals on the highway to prevent them from going to Dokkum in the north of the Netherlands to demonstrate against Black Pete during the arrival of Sinterklaas. The sudden blockade caused several collisions and a traffic jam. Police didn't take action immediately, just let it happen. In some way it seemed a replay of the Freedom Rides in the 1960's in the southern states of the US. After the blockades ended, the protesters, who had a permit to demonstrate, weren't welcome anymore in Dokkum and were forced to go home  by a police escort. The Martin Luther King statue was placed at the location of the blockade on highway A7.