(Aug. 31, 2017) Roelof “Dutch” Oostveen, a man who grew up under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, threatened a newly elected member of the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors last Friday and repeatedly referred to the woman, Dr. Colette Horn, as Gestapo.
Oostveen was first to the microphone during the public comments portion of the meeting.
“I’ve been humiliated by a board member who [he] told people not to vote for,” he said. “And she sent the police to my house. We got a Gestapo system here?
“This lady owes me [an apology],” he continued. “I have nothing done wrong to her. [She] sent the police to my house? Is that what Ocean Pines is – that we live in a Gestapo system?
“She owes me [an apology] and if she don’t, she gonna regret it,” Oostveen said.
Board Vice President Cheryl Jacobs called the remarks “a threat” as Oostveen sat down. No other board member responded.
Oostveen reportedly confronted Horn at a local restaurant during the campaign. Horn, during a candidate forum on July 22, said she was threatened by a man, but did not name him.
Oostveen then took credit for the incident during a public meeting on July 28, when he got to up speak twice. After he spoke for the second time, Horn stood behind him and waited for him to finish, then gave her own account of the incident.
“I am intimidated and rattled by Mr. Dutch continuing to attack me, but I will not be silenced,” Horn said at the time. “And I will do all that I can, if elected, to better this community.”
Oostveen, in a letter published in the Gazette on Aug. 10, said the initial confrontation was overblown.