Today in the Telegraaf and Metro Amsterdam
Written by Jelmer Geerds
Amsterdam
It’s 17th of January 1999 around 2 am when Bruno Jonker decides to go home after a cozy night in the pub. The then 43 years old clogfarmer enjoyed life, his succes was worldwide. Until this night, he was riding his bike on the Valkenburgerstraat. He wanted to cross the road, but got hit by a full speed unnoted police car. That moment ruined his life.
The police car was chasing a passenger car that made earlier that night a traffic violation. Jonker saw the passenger car, he waited till the car passed the crossroad and thought he could go now, not counting on the following police car with full speed. The clogfarmer gets hit real hard and ends up in the air and falls to the ground. He gets several injuries, one of them is a brain damage. He sigh and says: ”Since then I’m not the same person anymore. ”I don’t reconize myself in the mirror. I wake up every night with pain in my neck, the tinnitus is almost unbearable, the flashbacks keep comming back. All those years were exhausting and drained me. I’ve spend those days as a zombie. The eccident didn’t ruined my life, but the way the police and justice handeld this situation did. For fifteen years i’ve been in a fight for justice and admission. All the time they’ve been lying. They never admit and said that it was their responsibilty and that they were liable for the accident. There has been tampered with the speed of the police car, witnesses have been manipulated and they’ve destroyed the file. They offered me twentythousand euro’s if I would shut my mouth, but that amount didn’t even cover my medical costs, not to mention that’I’ve lost everything: my store, my girlfriend and my life. This accident had a traumatic effect on me physically , i’ve got PTSD, a serious whiplash, neckhernia, brainstem damage and ringing ears I am pondering with this for years now.“
The end isn’t there yet. According to Jonker the last court case was judged on the incomplete and manipulated files. That means the clogfarmer only had to be compensated for fifty procent, because on that time he had alcohol in his blood and they see that as ‘recklessness’. ” Because the the police and justice are playing filthy games like this, it feels like unjust to me. But I’ve promised my mother (who past away November 2014) that I wouldn’t go under, although my daily survival battle.
For her and my friends who continue to support I will continue to fight for justice.
Bruno Jonker is in 1981 begonnen als Edelsmid Atelier in het Nederlands Centrum Voor Ambachten, daarnaast heeft hij het klompenmakervak geleerd en is in 1986 De Klompenboer van Amsterdam geworden. Knuffels is een samenloop van omstandigheden wat op deze website te lezen is.