yeah so um

I think I saw the wannabe terrorists who have been bombing my neighborhood

they almost hit me and Odin in their getaway car (we are okay)

the police were like ten seconds behind them and I helped point out which way they'd run after ditching the car after almost hitting me

this was right by the Jewish community center and the kids in the car matched the description and within two minutes the neighborhood was absolutely flooded with police so I'm pretty sure it was them

#amsterdam

thirty seconds before this happened, I was giving a man standing outside the playground behind the Jewish community center the ol' motherly eye of suspicion because he was at a weird distance if he was the father of one of the boys playing basketball

but then it occurred to me he was probably staking it out, pretending to be a dad watching basketball, and was the one who summoned the cops

your girl has given a witness statement in shaky Dutch while shaking from adrenaline crash

(I don't think it was anything particularly useful, since I didn't see their faces or clothes closely enough to ID them, though I did find out they have one of the kids in custody)

I checked if any of this was on the news sites yet (it's not) but please enjoy this very Dutch headline about business as usual in Amsterdam: "Everyone saw Brad Pitt, except our reporter."
This is pretty intense, I hope you're OK, but it also supports my suspicion that I witnessed Odin from a distance a few weeks ago, which is something of a silver lining

@bnuyaminim.bsky.social oh I’m pretty transparent about where I live since I feel much safer than in the US (hahahahaha), I live right by the main entrance to the Amsterdamse Bos and Odin gets walkies all over Buitenveldert and up to Zuid station

You should have come over! 😭

@0xabad1dea look after yourself this evening, this is intense

@0xabad1dea

Whoa! So now the bombers are kidnappers too?

I've been following the news on the Dutch news service @NOS (in Dutch), I had no idea you lived so close to this.

@bobjonkman by kids I mean the kids driving the car that almost hit me. Not small children, but not proper men.

@0xabad1dea

Ah, I misunderstood that completely.

Good that the police have caught one of the suspects. Hopefully the rest will be caught soon.

This rampant antisemitism and islamophobia is not at all how I remember the Netherlands (but I was only eight when we moved to Canada, and last visited in the 1980s, so what do I know).

@bobjonkman things have been very ugly here the last few weeks specifically due to The Reasons, and I am not Jewish myself or anything but I do live in the Jewish neighborhood with the Jewish civic infrastructure.

@0xabad1dea

Throughout the Netherlands Amsterdam's Jewish section "De Jordaan" is famous for actors, singers, musicians; I thought there'd be more appreciation and less hate. De Jordaan is only a couple of km from the bombing.

For those who aren't up on Dutch news, here's a randomly picked news item: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/03/bomb-blast-targets-jewish-school-amsterdam-neighborhood/

Netherlands: Bomb Blast Targets Jewish School in Amsterdam Neighborhood | The Gateway Pundit | by Robert Semonsen

           A deeply troubling series of attacks targeting Jewish institutions in both Europe and the United States has heightened concerns about rising anti-Semitic violence across the Western world.

The Gateway Pundit
@0xabad1dea Wow! Glad you and Odin are okay physically, and sending comfort and support for you to recover emotionally.
@0xabad1dea yikes! That’s pretty scary.

@0xabad1dea Fuck!

That's amazing and frankly well done on your observation and reactions.

You and Odin OK? πŸ€”

@simonzerafa I am shaking but I will be okay eventually

@0xabad1dea

Good to hear! Don't be surprised though if you have after-effects at some point.

As you probably know, these shorts of "interesting" events can affect you days or weeks later.

DM or Signal if you need to chat with a random geek πŸ™‚πŸ––