THIS IS DIFFERENT

Families that persistently behave badly and harass their neighbors are to be evicted from city-run housing projects and moved into trailer parks that have “minimal services” and are under constant police supervision. The new housing camps have been dubbed “scum villages” by the Dutch media, because the plan appears to echo a proposal by right-wing populist Geert Wilders, who urged last year that asocial urbanites be “sent to a village for scum. Put all the trash together.” A city spokesman denied that the plan would create ghettos of uncontrollable troublemakers on the outskirts of Amsterdam. “On the other hand,” he said, “the aim of this scheme is not to reward people with a brand-new, five-room home with a south-facing garden.”