Article doesn't even give you the full story. It's hard to get the whole story. This small town has one active legal team working hard to wipe out the rumors by any means necessary:
So here's how the "horror" started:
Bodegraven-Reeuwijk, a town of around 35,000 inhabitants in the middle of the Netherlands, has been the focus of conspiracy theories on social media since 2020, when three men started spreading unfounded stories about the abuse and murder of children they said took place in the town in the 1980s.
The town was just mind it's own business WHEN...
Five years later, and more than 7,000 kilometres away, the town of Bodegraven in the Dutch province of South Holland experienced its own Pizzagate moment. One weekend in February 2021, as the Netherlands was experiencing its biggest snowstorm in a decade, the Vredehof cemetery at the edge of the town was overrun with flowers and supportive messages overnight. The bouquets were laid by strangers, many of whom had travelled long distances and had no connection to the town. “For all the victims who are traumatised for life,” read one of the notes left behind on gravestones and along the cemetery driveway. They had been placed in honour of the alleged victims of a network of satanic child abuse, which was rumoured to have occurred in the town of Bodegraven in 1982.
Oh no! NO! Not Flower Wreaths and supportive messages!
They came in the dead of night in a blizzard in the Netherlands! They must've known this town well and caught them off-guard.
What did the town do?
“By Monday the police came, and we had to move the flowers into a shipping container and take them away from the entrance and the graves.” When the flowers were removed by the municipality, threatening notes appeared throughout the town. The town hall was also bombarded with phone calls, with messages ranging from genuine concern to extreme aggression.
They rushed in police and removed the "dangerous" flower wreaths and supportive messages and dispose of them as fast as possible like Satanists being burned by Holy Water.
Oh wait, we're not supposed to accuse them of that.
Just like Pizzagate,* the Bodegraven story also centred around the idea of a satanic paedophilic cult, this time operating out of a playgroup and kindergarten in this picturesque town in the western Netherlands*. The claims came from a former resident, Joost Knevel. In March 2020, Knevel, who has lived in Spain for several years, sent an email to the popular Dutch conspiracy theorist Martin Vrijland, in which he claimed to have recovered memories of satanic abuse and murder from his childhood in the 1980s. Knevel also claimed to have been involved in an MKUltra brainwashing experiment, a CIA operation in the US which ended in 1973. Knevel then joined forces with Wouter Raatgever, a “personal leadership coach” who had been involved in spreading anti-vaccination information, and Micha Kat, an ex-journalist and long-time conspiracy theorist. Soon, the story spread like a wildfire.
Well since we know the fact-checkers disproved Pizzagate...
He named a local doctor as the central perpetrator of this abuse. But when Raatgever and Kat became involved, a crucial character was added to the narrative. The name of Jaap van Dissel, a key advisor to the Dutch government during the coronavirus pandemic, was also inserted as one of the murderers. A professor in infectious diseases at Leiden University, van Dissel rose to prominence in the Netherlands in 2020 as chairperson of the Outbreak Management Team, a position which led him to become a central target of anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination activists. There is no evidence of him ever having lived in Bodegraven.
They lock onto "He didn't live there", but ignore "Did he ever visit there?" I bet he doesn't want to answer that!
One of the few YouTube videos which has not been removed by the platform, states that “thousands of people are joining the fight of the three warriors [Kat, Knevel and Raatgever, ed.].” It contains references to the QAnon conspiracy, such as “from dark to light,” a hint at the belief that QAnon followers are fighting a battle between good and evil, and “where we go one, we go all,” a popular rallying cry of the movement.
Oh no! Q strikes again! Followers were instigated to terrorizing a town with flower wreaths and supportive notes! The horror!
And they WON'T STOP!
If you cycle five minutes along the Oude Rijn river to the Vredehof cemetery at the very edge of the town, you can see one of the few pieces of evidence that things were not always so tranquil. An “Emergency Ordinance” notice, dated 17th March 2021, still stands at the entrance to the cemetery car park. It outlines the measures that the municipality has taken to combat the actions of the conspiracy theorists. “Since 3rd February 2021, dozens of unknown persons have repeatedly laid flowers in the vicinity of the Vredehof cemetery in Bodegraven and at the graves of children, some with texts that refer to alleged child abuse and/or ‘satanic paedo-terror’.”
It continues to describe how these actions caused “great unrest and grief among the next of kin, and seriously disturbed the peace of the graveyard and invaded the privacy of dozens of people.” For these reasons the notice, signed by the mayor, stated that from 17th March to 14th September 2021, anyone who is not a partner or relative of a person buried in the cemetery is prohibited from entering the area other than to attend a funeral. Since the ordinance was put in place the cemetery, which is surrounded by fields as far as the eye can see, has gone back to its usual serenity. Jan and his colleagues at the municipality haven’t had to remove unwelcome flowers and messages in months. “We are just hoping that it stays this way,” he said.
Terrorized by flower wreaths!
In February 2021, both the municipality of Bodegraven and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), filed complaints against the three men for defamation, slander, and sedition. In June 2021, the national association of municipal health services (GGDs) also filed a complaint related to the Telegram message group operated by the men, The Batavian Republic, in which they had threatened workers at the vaccination centres.
That "small" town sure acted fast. It got men in different countries arrested on SEDITION?!
Roswell needs their legal team. They could stop those UFO conspiracy theories fast with these lawyers. This is one well-represented down.
However, falsehoods about Bodegraven continue to circulate online, and for those at the centre of the conspiracy—the relatives of the deceased, the accused, and the authorities—the ordeal is not over. While legal proceedings are ongoing, and Knevel, Raatgever, and Kat are all currently imprisoned, their followers are still active on social media.
You mean while they work to purge the internet of any mention of this. Me thinks the lady doth protests too much.
Article doesn't even give you the full story. It's hard to get the whole story. This small town has one active legal team working hard to wipe out the rumors by any means necessary:
So here's how the "horror" started:
The town was just mind it's own business WHEN...
Oh no! NO! Not Flower Wreaths and supportive messages!
They came in the dead of night in a blizzard in the Netherlands! They must've known this town well and caught them off-guard.
What did the town do?
They rushed in police and removed the "dangerous" flower wreaths and supportive messages and dispose of them as fast as possible like Satanists being burned by Holy Water.
Oh wait, we're not supposed to accuse them of that.
Well since we know the fact-checkers disproved Pizzagate...
They lock onto "He didn't live there", but ignore "Did he ever visit there?" I bet he doesn't want to answer that!
Oh no! Q strikes again! Followers were instigated to terrorizing a town with flower wreaths and supportive notes! The horror!
And they WON'T STOP!
Terrorized by flower wreaths!
That "small" town sure acted fast. It got men in different countries arrested on SEDITION?!
Roswell needs their legal team. They could stop those UFO conspiracy theories fast with these lawyers. This is one well-represented down.
You mean while they work to purge the internet of any mention of this. Me thinks the lady doth protests too much.
I hope this gets the Barbara Streisand Effect that it so rightly deserves.