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HEERENVEEN, Netherlands (LifeSiteNews) — An investigation has reportedly been opened after Dutch police opened fire on a tractor driver as farmers wage a days-long protest against restrictive new environmental regulations that could cost them their livelihoods.
Video footage captured Tuesday night showed a Dutch officer shooting live rounds at a tractor driver as he drove past officers during the multi-day protest.
The police alleged the shots were fired because tractor drivers had “attempted to drive into officers and service vehicles.”
“At about 10:40 p.m., tractor drivers attempted to drive into officers and service vehicles. This happened at the entrance Mercurius/A32 in [Heerenveen]. A threatening situation arose. Warning shots were fired and targeted shots were fired,” Dutch police said in a statement.
The shooting did not reportedly result in any injuries, but officers arrested three people involved in the protest.
In a July 6 tweet, Dutch writer and former university lecturer and lawyer Sietske Bergsma reported that the target of the police shooting had been a 16-year-old boy named Jouke.
Bergsma, who has written for Dutch news and opinion site ThePostOnline and her own website The Fire Online, said that Jouke “was shot at while driving away and is now detained in Leeuwarden.”
Het zou gaan om de 16-jarige (!) Jouke, die al wegrijdend werd beschoten en nu vastzit in Leeuwarden. “Wilde gewoon naar huis, was het zat”. https://t.co/74BH5laOYN pic.twitter.com/h2AeHO4lgm
— Sietske Bergsma (@SBergsma) July 6, 2022
Dutch political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek also tweeted that “The bullet holes on his tractor show that they missed his head by only 2 cm.”
— Jens (@thematrixf_) July 5, 2022
Protesters reportedly surrounded the police station where the 16-year-old was being held, arguing the police officer who shot at him committed attempted murder. The boy has since been freed.
The shooting will reportedly be investigated by an individual affiliated with the Dutch government.
The incident came amid days of protests by Dutch farmers in response to a government proposal to cut emissions of nitrogen oxide, ammonia, and other pollutants by roughly 50% by 2030, Fox News reported.
According to the report, “Provincial governments have been given a year to formulate plans to achieve the goal.”
RELATED: Dutch farmers push back against ‘green’ tyranny, use tractors to block major highways
Dutch government data suggests that if enacted, the policy could shut down as much as 30% of livestock farms in the country, The Daily Wire noted.
The outlet also pointed out that after unveiling the plan late last month, the government had acknowledged in a statement that “[t]he honest message … is that not all farmers can continue their business.”
Thousands of Dutch farmers responded to the proposal by blocking roads, highways, and supermarket distribution centers with their tractors. In solidarity with the farmers, fishermen also blocked off ports, German news outlet Deutsche Welle reported.
HAPPENING NOW: Farmers who learned from Canadian Freedom Protesters are currently blockading the Netherlands/Germany border with tractors to protest the WEF climate change policies of their government. pic.twitter.com/I7UJTusAZT
— Keean Bexte 🇳🇱 (@TheRealKeean) June 30, 2022
According to the Dutch government, goals to cut emissions in half by 2030 and by 95% in 2050 had been “laid down in the Climate Act on May 28, 2019.”
“The Climate Agreement is an essential part of the Climate Plan, and of the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) that Member States of the EU are required to submit to the European Commission,” the Dutch government states on its public-facing website.
RELATED: World Economic Forum warns to expect ‘pain,’ inflation, energy shortages due to its climate policies
The Netherlands has also adopted as its “guiding principles” the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2030 Agenda has drawn widespread criticism from conservatives. In a 2018 article for The Epoch Times, writer Ileana Johnson argued the World Economic Forum (WEF)-endorsed global scheme is a “U.N. vision with communist undertones for the future which every ‘global citizen’ must subscribe to and adopt, under the false pretense of protecting and preserving the planet for the future.”
Over the past several years, the WEF has promoted a major shift away from traditional agriculture, switching to “alternative” protein sources like cultured meat or insects.
Likewise, Bill Gates, a prominent supporter of “sustainable” global pathways and the largest private owner of farmland in the United States, has openly suggested that “rich nations should switch entirely to synthetic beef.”