Raise for Gilly Emanuels

Gilly Emanuels bij Eva Jinek 

Analysis of the intentional neglect by the Mayor and Police 

Gilly Emanuels is a kind lady who used to run her own ice cream shop in Hilversum.

Gilly was doing well for herself, until she became the target of abuse by a group of racist boys. They started terrorizing her shop and her personally, vandalizing her property, destroying her terrace, breaking a window and even going as far as finding a Surinamese flag to smear with feces and drop it through her mailbox. She spent every morning cleaning the messes they would leave, while enduring continuous,  horrific racist abuse when they saw her in town, going for groceries with her 2 year old child.

She suffered through this for over years, repeatedly calling the police, trying to find some form of alleviation or support, but none came. The police would not come by, the mayor was unresponsive, and Gilly was driven to desperation. 

Finally, one day they started throwing rotten fruit at her while she had her young child with her, and she knew they wouldn’t care if they harmed her child. She got a broom from her shop and was flailing around with it to get them to leave, they filmed the situation, calling her the n-word, and eventually attacking her. 

The outcome: the police told the abusers to file a suit for assault against Gilly, they brought the boys to the station the same day.

Gilly was told by the police that they had no time for her, she wasn’t allowed to file her own complaint until 3 days had passed. 

Her complaint was downgraded to a single count of ‘offensive language’. The police didn’t consider the racist terms as discriminatory, and would only file it against one person.

Finally, Gilly had to get a lawyer to fight against her own prosecution, financially devastated and traumatised, she was forced to close her shop and move to a different city. She lost the job she had found because of the lawsuit against her, and has never seen anyone account for what they did. The police, mayor and the attackers failed to apologize or recognize any mistakes on their part. The boys were all 20, none of them were prosecuted.

No one should have to endure even a fraction of Gilly’s story, although justice was not served for her, this fundraiser is aimed at showing her that contrary to what she was made to believe, she is not alone.

Gilly is an outstanding woman, strong and still sensitive, she deserves better, and hopefully one day, she’ll open up her ownshop again. Until then, we vow to support her, and not forget the injustice she endured. ❤️