The Onion

There are no charges. So there is no record. It's called "arrested" for the paperwork, bureaucracy, but they are free to choose to not go. But what homeless person would deny a bed and warm meals when it's freezing. They aren't treated as arrested people in America. I don't know about the rest of the country, but in my city the police is forced to do so by the municipality. Our mayor is pro squatting too. "If you don't want sqatters in your building, you should have made sure it wasn't empty. There's a housing crisis, you should have created living space. But you didn't, so the squatters did." Keep in mind, squatters have a lot of rights in the Netherlands. Somewhat equal rights (even more in some way) compared to renters (which is much more than renters in the US). You can't evict squatters or renters in NL without a court order, which doesn't come easy.