2009 Queen's Day Attack

 2009 Queen's Day Attack (mid-level deep event?,  suicide attack?,  vehicular assault)

Seconds after hitting the crowd in Apeldoorn
Date	11:49, 30 April 2009 - 11:50, 30 April 2009
Blamed on	Karst Roeland Tates
Deaths	9 (including Tates)"(includingTates)" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 9.
Injured (non-fatal)	10
Description	A "home-grown lone wolf" suddenly quits his job and quiet life to almost kill the royal family with his small Suzuki, resulting in 9 deaths.

The 2009 Queen's Day Attack occurred when one individual named Karst Tates drove through a crowd watching the parade of the royal family and ended in missing the Dutch royal family at about 10 meters crashing into a monument on the square in Apeldoorn instead. Tates killed 8, and went knock-out shortly after explaining to an officer that the reasoning for trying to kill the Royal family was that Prince "Willem-Alexander was a racist and a fascist". The attack resulted in permanent increased police powers and counterterrorism measures at public events.

Official Narrative

200 investigators have not found any definitive reasoning or trace why he attempted to kill the royal family on Queen Beatrix her birthday, marking him a lone wolf, "but not having a condition" if having been investigated earlier, remarking 7 people recalled moments he did hint these intentions, but nothing dangerous, with commercially-controlled media agreeing it will be national mystery.

According to the Dutch State Investigation Service Tates "Suddenly decided to quit his job and stop his rent, lived in his car for a few days and decided to kill the royal family and at least a dozen of others because he thought Willem Alexander was racist, we don't know why. More powers for the police is what we need and let's forget about him further."

Background

Tates grew up in the small city of Huissen with his two sisters, brother and parents. According to friends he was a popular kid, finished high school and entered a hotel school, which didn't go well. He apparently moved numerous times in the 1990s, experimenting with different aspects of Dutch life including cannabis, but always maintaining contact with his family. He entered the draft and got his life together in the end of the 90's, working at a gas station, and getting a small apartment in the city of Apeldoorn, near the German border. He appeared to distance himself from his former friends during this time.

In the 2000s Tates - according to friends and neighbours - became quite more reserved. Being noted as a very accurate employee he quit his job at the gas station, quit his job in a factory for undisclosed reasons, not showing up, rejecting any onlookers or potential new renters asking to see his house he was planning on leaving within 60 days in May of 2009, something that occurred multiple times. At the end he began to lie about his new employee to his parents and neighbors, and he never appears to have looked for a new house when leaving his last one. His only occurrence in the police database appears to be for sleeping in his car for three days during this time. The police officers noted he sounded "suicidal".

Tates actually called his mother always as the first of her children to congratulate her on a birthday... one day before the attack, sounding "quite happy".

Attack

Tates drove his small Suzuki car through rows of attendants of the yearly royal parade of Queen's day, killing 8 people live on national-TV.

The parade (and attack) was live streamed on national-TV, it was the first national "terror" attack live broadcasted since the 1970s

He was reportedly seen with binoculars timing the moment the open bus of the royal family would turn up on the road in Apeldoorn and hit the parade watchers with 112 km/h (70 mph) resulting in a barrier hitting his head and knocking him unconscious and his car severely damaged before hitting a monument 10m left of the open bus. The royal family - having a front row seat - saw the event happening and Queen Beatrix teary-eyed recited the attack on TV.

The investigation noted his sole reasoning given to the first police officer that dodged him and arrested him hanging out of his car that "Willem-Alexander was a fascist and a racist", and confessing he wanted to hit the open bus. His only noted problem was his recent abuse of cannabis, but it was specially noted he was not high at the time. Some of Tates last words were spoken in German. Although he appeared to have spoken to some officers later that day as he did not die until the next night.

Working for the Royal Family

Apparently according to two different sources, one writer citing a security official and a close friend, Tates worked at a security firm for the royal family in the 2000s securing a castle during renovation. He got fired after pictures of the renovation were published. He took it personal that he was fired which seems strange given his dying remarks to the officer that escaped death and arrested Tates after hitting the monument that he wanted to hit "racist" Willem-Alexander. The authorities denied the allegations.

Investigation

5 main points the Dutch State Investigation Service concluded about Tates;

1. He did appear at times depressed and lost in life but not enough for a psychiatric condition.

2. There were signs that he had thought about this in his past, but we don't know if he actively tried to kill the royal family.

3. He was a lone-wolf, and he didn't plan the attack.

4. He didn't knew people would be standing at that side of the square, but we can't be sure he tried to evade the spectators.

5. He didn't act on behalf of radical or "extremist" motives, and nobody is really sure why he did it.

Public Events

The Dutch had never seen a "terror-attack" on live TV since the 70s. The closest they came to that was the filming of the death body of Pim Fortuyn, which made the Dutch quite ashamed and not at ease how to handle this. Not many activists or government-critics tried to do their own investigation, and Jan Peter Balkenende even refused to comment for the first months.

National security would never be the same again, and although the conclusive report mentioned the local and state security officials didn't neglect or failed in following procedures before and after the attack it was noted the security personnel didn't expect a vehicular assault and were in state of chaos on site as their mobile communication systems didn't work, according to officials that wanted to remain anonymous, new chains of command should be implemented, with the National Counter Terrorism Coordinator now being the leading organisation, being also responsible for deciding the local, state and national threat levels in case of such events with public officials, even regardless of threat-levels, and the chains of command to work in separate confidential "rings". A decade after the events, it appears to be, the events have increased police powers which according to internal studies, didn't really have the desired effect and noted the increased ring of command with even classified private security personnel resulted in breaches, with the police able to send random individuals home, telling certain dissidents to stay home and creating a strategy of tension.

At the Remembrance of the Dead day of 2010 with the royal family and government officials in attendance, during the 2 minutes of silence, a man screamed on the Dam Square in Amsterdam resulting in a massive stampede of 5.000 people (including the royal family and the coalition government) and 87 injured spectators.

Questions

Several questions still remain. Did Tates actually work for that security firm? What did he suddenly quit his job and left his house? What did he meant by his last words? Why didn't he leave any letter for his family? Why did the local police rejected the idea of the attack with a car? Tates could've not actually killed the open bus by hitting it, as there were even more secret service agents sitting in the bus and he was unarmed. So, why did a man - who was not under the influence, nor mentally disabled - attempt this? According to two police officers, he spoke to them during his transport to the hospital, why did they not question him with these questions knowing he would die from brain-trauma within the next days, which you could guess by looking at his car? Why did the local security officials just put one fence on the street Tates entered the road leading to the square where drove up to 120 km/h on, and why was there no officer standing along that road that could've reported someone attempting to hit his engine rev limit?

Was the attack an attempt to shift the public opinion for the continuation for the war on terror and war in Iraq or Afghanistan, at a point where Jan Peter Balkenende got cornered in parliament for not having support? A Wikileaks memo specifically acknowledged how "he kept his country a partner of the US in the middle east in fragmented Dutch politics". The US diplomats mentioned Balkenende coalition partner Wouter Bos tried to made Afghanistan and pulling out of it a break point to voters as most socialists were already against the war.

Some others questions were never answered either; One speculative piece also mentioned a very telling point; Tates was seen with binoculars timing the moment from the road where he would drive up to the square. If so, how did he not realize he couldn't see the open bus when attempting his attack due to the amounts of trucks, an army tank and jeep and the crowd blocking his view along with his... "small weapon"? How did - if he acted alone - even timed it right when the bus route was 20 minutes delayed, and his radio must have had a delay if that was his cue as his Suzuki had the radio missing, but Tates was precisely on time. The piece, recalled Ole Dammegård lectures and concluded the attack was a false flag.

Most of the questions will never be answered while the Dutch join the culture of fear and seemingly continued this weird trend of vehicular assaults in Europe in the 2010s.

 

The Official Culprit

Name	Description
Karst Roeland Tates	Tates tried to kill the royal family on Queen Beatrix her birthday in 2009 in quite the chaotic vehicular assault.

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