Recently, a man tried to crash his car into a bus carrying Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. The Netherlands generally has enjoyed low rates of violent crime, and the fact that someone would want to attack the Queen came as a shock to the populace.
It reminds me of a story by Bill Bryson, although his story is about Copenhagen, not Amsterdam:
"In 1982, a year for which I just happen to have the facts at my fingertips, there were six murders in Copenhagen, compared with 205 in Amsterdam, a city of similar size, and 1,688 in New York. The city is so safe that Queen Margarethe used to walk from Amalienborg Palace to the shops every morning to buy flowers and vegetables just like a normal citizen. I once asked a Dane who guarded her in such circumstances, and he looked at me with surprised and replied, 'Why, we all do," which I thought was rather sweet." -From Neither Here Nor There
image: Queen Beatrix, by Carla Rodenburg
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