© Omrop Fryslân, Willem VermeltfoortJouke Hospes (16) from Akkrum, the Netherlands.
On July 5th, Jouke, a 16-year-old farmer's son from the Dutch village of Akkrum, and his 17-year-old brother Sytse joined a group of farmers to protest at a distribution center near the Dutch city of Heerenveen. Around 10 PM they decided to go to McDonald's and then drive home in their tractors.
As Jouke drove around a police barricade near highway A32 in Heerenveen, following other tractors who had done the same,
his tractor was shot at by the police.
According to the police, "tractor drivers tried to run into officers and service vehicles." As a 'threatening situation' arose, the police fired warning shots and also shot at a tractor - it was Jouke's. Soon after, his tractor was seized and he was arrested. A
picture shows a bullet hole in the frame of his vehicle, near the cabin.
Mother of the two boys, Tjitske,
explains that the brothers encountered a police barrier at the start of highway A32 in Heerenveen and that Jouke did not drive towards the officers. "
He wanted to drive around it, over the slope. I don't understand why they pulled the trigger. I really don't. And if you decide to shoot, why not aim at the tires? The bullet hole is near the cabin. He could have died."
Footage on social media show a cop shooting at a tractor with trailer that drives over the slope and then drives away.
The vehicle is not seen driving towards police officers.Meanwhile, Jouke's family is shocked by the events. "My son has just graduated from agricultural livestock farming. We are livestock farmers ourselves, we have 120 cows, and that is what Jouke wants to do.
But we are in an area where we have been told to reduce our nitrogen emissions by up to 87 percent. Can the business even continue with these measures? It's because of these questions that the boys are protesting."
A day later, Jouke was released and according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM) is no longer suspected of attempted manslaughter due to 'insufficient leads'. The OM said he's still a suspect, but they're not revealing on what grounds. The family's lawyer
suspects that, if anything, he'll get a note of traffic violation. A couple of hours after his release, Jouke thanked many for their support and kind messages in a
message posted on one of the farmer protest groups on social media. In addition, he said:
I'm lucky I'm still alive. I was also very shocked by it all myself. [...] I was driving very slowly and carefully and suddenly I hear a BANG in my right ear. My ears start ringing. In a panic I quickly drove away before a second shot was fired. I thought it was a rubber bullet, but I was shocked once I saw the bullet hole in my tractor. It's really incomprehensible. A lot of things were going through my head. I would've been finished if I drove a bit faster or a bit slower, then I wouldn't have been able to tell you all this. I still can't figure out why the police were shooting, the footage also clearly shows that I'm not doing anything wrong. [...] It was shock after shock, but thankfully I was freed today.
On whether on not the family will sue the police, the lawyer
said that 'it's a personal decision of the family', but that he can imagine they'll file a report.
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