Hooray for Brooke Jenkins!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/san-francisco-d-brings-charges-182209882.html
San Francisco D.A. brings charges against pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked Golden Gate Bridge
By Nathan Solis
August 13, 2024
Protesters blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in mid-April to call attention to the war in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinian civilians whose cities were being bombarded.
Now, authorities in San Francisco are prosecuting them for trapping people in their cars on the bridge for hours. The San Francisco Public Defender countered that officials were “weaponizing the law” against protesters; he wants the charges dropped.
The San Francisco district attorney’s office announced in a news release Monday that arrest warrants were issued for the 26 people who participated in the April 15 protest. All 26 surrendered to law enforcement, according to the California Highway Patrol, but they have not appeared in court or been assigned legal representation.
“While we must protect avenues for free speech, the exercise of free speech can not compromise public safety,” Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “The demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge caused a level of safety risk, including extreme threats to the health and welfare of those trapped, that we as a society cannot ignore or allow.”
The group, dubbed the “Golden Gate 26” by their supporters, could be represented by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, which blasted the charges and cited a higher moral authority for the protest.
“The protestors are opposing American tax dollars being used to fund ongoing attacks on the people in Gaza, which the International Criminal Court has deemed crimes against humanity,” San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju said in a statement. “Our attorneys intend to vehemently defend any individuals we are appointed to represent.”
The district attorney’s office charged the 26 with trespassing to interfere with a business, obstruction of a thoroughfare, unlawful assembly, refusal to disperse at a riot, failure to obey the orders of police and 38 counts of false imprisonment. Eight of the defendants also face a felony conspiracy charge, and the rest face a misdemeanor conspiracy charge.
Protests in opposition to the war in Gaza have taken over highways, college campuses and city streets since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, where militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 250 hostages, roughly 115 of whom are still missing. Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials in Gaza, who include both Hamas forces and civilians in their casualty counts.
The protesters gathered shortly before 8 a.m. on April 15 on the Golden Gate Bridge, where they abandoned their vehicles and chained their bodies together while holding up signs. The group’s members were warned repeatedly by police and other officials that they would be arrested if they did not move, but the group ignored them, according to the D.A.’s office.
A protester later identified as Sara Cantor told police that the protesters would not resist arrest, but the demonstrators who were interlocked between vehicles with a large metal tube would not voluntarily comply with authorities, the D.A.’s office said. All of the protesters were arrested and removed from the bridge, and the traffic lanes were reopened by 12:20 p.m.
Roughly 12,000 vehicles travel south and 8,000 vehicles travel north on the bridge between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon, according to the Golden Gate Bridge District, which the D.A.’s office claims lost more than $162,000 in revenue due to the protest.
Jenkins took to social media following the protest to ask for anyone stuck on the Golden Gate Bridge to come forward, because they could be entitled to restitution and have other rights guaranteed under state’s law.
The D.A.’s office said several hundred people were held against their will at the mercy of the protest. According to court documents, people caught in the middle of stopped traffic missed work and important medical appointments, and a mother with her baby did not have water for the infant formula.
Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Note: They didn’t just “plan” to block traffic. They actually did block traffic, and it affected a huge number of people. The PDF at this link has a lot of specific details, including multiple examples of sick people who missed getting medical treatment:
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/R-v-Hallam-and-others.pdf
Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Campaigners receive longest ever sentences for non-violent protest after being convicted of conspiracy to cause public nuisance
July 18, 2024
L-R: Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster and Daniel Shaw were given four-year sentences, while Roger Hallam (right) was sentenced to five years. Photograph: Just Stop Oil
Five supporters of the Just Stop Oil climate campaign who conspired to cause gridlock on London’s orbital motorway have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms by a judge who told them they had “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic”.
Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were found guilty last week of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for coordinating direct action protests on the M25 over four days in November 2022.
Hallam received a five-year sentence on Thursday, while the other four were each sentenced to four years.
The sentences are thought to be the longest sentences ever given in the UK for non-violent protest, exceeding those given to the Just Stop Oil protesters Morgan Trowland (three years) and Marcus Decker (two years and seven months) for scaling the Dartford Crossing.
All five had spoken on a Zoom call trying to recruit potential volunteers for the actions, which involved activists climbing gantries at strategic points on the London orbital motorway.
On the call, Hallam said they intended to cause “the biggest disruption in British modern history” in an effort to force the government to meet Just Stop Oil’s core demand, an end to new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.
Passing sentence on each of the defendants at Southwark crown court, the judge Christopher Hehir said: “The offending of all five of you is very serious indeed and lengthy custodial sentences must follow.”
Hehir admitted there was a scientific and social consensus that human-made climate breakdown was happening and action should be taken to avert it. “I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns motivating you are, at least to some extent, shared by many,” he said.
“But the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law.
“And your fanaticism makes you entirely heedless of the rights of your fellow citizens. You have taken it upon yourselves to decide that your fellow citizens must suffer disruption and harm, and how much disruption and harm they must suffer, simply so that you may parade your views.”
Although all of the defendants ended the trial representing themselves, three of them – Hallam, Shaw and Whittaker De Abreu – instructed counsel to speak on their behalf in mitigation.
Each barrister sought unsuccessfully to persuade the judge that lengthy sentences could be avoided. Francesca Cociani, for Shaw, said the likelihood of his reoffending was lowered by the fact that the new Labour government had essentially met Just Stop Oil’s core demand by ending North Sea oil and gas exploration.
Gethin, who offered her own comments in mitigation, said: “I want to remind the court once more that my reasons for taking action were not beliefs or opinions. Earth’s life-support systems are breaking down due to human activities, whether we believe it or not.
“These are not beliefs or opinions and feeling strongly that this is wrong is greatly understandable, I would argue. I deeply regret that this action was necessary … I maintain that it was necessary and I stand by my actions as the most effective option available to me.”
Supporters of the defendants expressed outrage at the sentences, which came after a two-week trial in which the judge denied them any of the defences in law for causing a public nuisance.
Hehir ruled that the jury should not take into account evidence about climate breakdown, which the defendants wanted to point to as the key motivation behind their actions, and which they said provided them with a reasonable excuse for them.
Michel Forst, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who attended part of the trial, issued a statement at its conclusion.
“Today is a dark day for peaceful environmental protest” in the UK, he said. “This sentence should shock the conscience of any member of the public. It should also put all of us on high alert on the state of civic rights and freedoms in the United Kingdom.
“Rulings like today’s set a very dangerous precedent, not just for environmental protest but any form of peaceful protest that may, at one point or another, not align with the interests of the government of the day.”
Greenpeace UK’s programme director, Amy Cameron, said: “What sort of country locks people away for years for planning a peaceful demonstration, let alone for talking about it on a Zoom call? We’re giving a free hand to the polluting elite robbing us of a habitable planet while jailing those who’re trying to stop them – it makes no sense.
“These sentences are not a one-off anomaly but the culmination of years of repressive legislation, overblown government rhetoric and a concerted assault on the right of juries to deliberate according to their conscience. It’s part of the mess the Labour government has inherited from its predecessor and they must fix it by giving back to people the right to protest that’s been slowly being taken away from them.”
Separately on Thursday, three airports were granted high court injunctions against fossil fuel and environmental activists protesting at their sites. Leeds Bradford airport, London Luton airport and Newcastle international airport were given injunctions banning protesters from trespassing or causing a nuisance.
In December 2014, in Berkeley, Missouri, Alvin Henry Jones Jr., 62, died two days after Black Lives Matter protestors blocked an ambulance that was carrying him
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
June 4, 2024
In December 2014, in Berkeley, Missouri, Alvin Henry Jones Jr., 62, died two days after Black Lives Matter protestors blocked an ambulance that was carrying him.
Source: https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Medics-were-delayed-by-Berkeley-protest-6065429.php
In January 2015, in Milton, Massachusetts, Black Lives Matter protestors blocked an ambulance that was carrying Richard McGrath, 82. The protestors chained themselves to barrels full of concrete to make especially sure that no vehicles could get by.
In February 2016, after 10 of these protestors pled guilty to “willfully impending an emergency vehicle,” and were sentenced to six months of probation and 60 hours of community service, their spokesperson said that they were NOT sorry for what they had done.
In July 2016, in Memphis, Tennessee, Black Lives Matter protestors blocked an ambulance that was trying to get to a child, after the same Black Lives Matter protestors had blocked the same child’s parents’ car from taking him to the hospital.
In March 2016, in Chicago, Illinois, Black Lives Matter protestors blocked an ambulance that had its emergency sirens blaring. In this video, you can see that many of the protestors deliberately repositioned themselves so they were standing specifically, directly in front of the ambulance, even though its emergency sirens had already been blaring for quite some time:
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvCdAuBBh0U
In February 2017, in Hew Haven, Connecticut, anti-Trump protestors blocked an ambulance that was carrying a critically ill patient. Because of this, the EMTs had to perform an emergency medical procedure on the patient in the ambulance, instead of it being performed by doctors at the hospital.
The lawyer for these protestors said that it was NOT their fault that they blocked the ambulance.
Sources:
https://www.masslive.com/news/2017/02/connecticut_police_arrest_prot.html
In June 2021, in Oakland, California, people who were celebrating Juneteenth blocked an ambulance as it tried to get to gunshot victims.
Sources:
Zero jail time for blocking the Bay Bridge, but four years for blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
May 14, 2024
I hate this double standard.
They should both get the same punishment.
“Protesters who blocked Bay Bridge announce agreement with court, avoid jail time”
“Anti-abortion activist who led a clinic blockade is sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison”
https://apnews.com/article/lauren-handy-abortion-clinic-blockade-ab461332b6c83d1c4d7f4d6175d04fbc
Mary Osako, please explain why UCLA hasn’t fired the security guard who stood by, watched, and did nothing to intervene, as masked terrorists prevented a Jewish student named Eli Tsives from entering the university.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
May 1, 2024
This video from UCLA shows a security guard standing by, watching, and doing nothing to intervene, as masked terrorists prevented a Jewish student named Eli Tsives from entering the university.
https://twitter.com/persianjewess/status/1785021873555902744
After the video went viral, Mary Osako, the school’s Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications, issued the following statement:
“Yesterday some physical altercations occurred among demonstrators in Royce Quad. In response, we have taken several actions to significantly increase our security presence, including adding greater numbers of campus law enforcement, safety personnel and student affairs monitors.”
“There was also a report of a student’s access to class being blocked by demonstrators yesterday. This kind of disruption to our teaching and learning mission is abhorrent, plain and simple. As such, we’ve taken several, immediate actions: Our student conduct process has been initiated, and could lead to severe disciplinary action including expulsion or suspension. The barriers that demonstrators used to block this student’s access to class have been removed and we have staff located around Royce Quad to help ensure that they will not go up again. We have also engaged law enforcement to investigate.”
“While the demonstration remains largely peaceful, our campus must remain a place where we treat one another with respect and recognize our shared humanity — not a place where we devolve into violence and bullying.”
So Osako said that the school will be “adding greater numbers of campus law enforcement, safety personnel and student affairs monitors.”
So the school plans to hire additional security guards, so they, too, can stand by, watch, and do nothing to intervene, when this kind of thing happens.
So here’s my question for Mary Osako:
Mary Osako, please explain why UCLA hasn’t fired the security guard who stood by, watched, and did nothing to intervene, as masked terrorists prevented a Jewish student named Eli Tsives from entering the university.
By giving zero jail time to 78 protestors who blocked the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in November of 2023, the city was inviting more of this kind of behavior. And sure enough, the city got exactly what it asked for.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
April 20, 2024
According to this article from Associated Press, zero jail time was given to 78 protestors who blocked the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in November of 2023.
This sent the message that this kind of behavior is tolerated and acceptable.
So now in April 2024, a bunch of protestors blocked the Golden Gate Bridge.
Although I disagree with the city’s policy of inviting protestors to block the bridge, I don’t live in that city, and I have to respect the wishes of the city’s voters.
That being said, in this video, Matt Walsh said that stopping access to bridges is a policy that is used by the military during wartime, and he thinks that these civilian protestors who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge should get 100 years in prison. He says if this happened just once, no one would ever block a bridge in the city again. I think he has a good point.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators block traffic into Chicago airport, causing headaches for travelers
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pro-palestinian-demonstrators-block-traffic-163953766.html
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators block traffic into Chicago airport, causing headaches for travelers
By SOPHIA TAREEN
April 15, 2024
CHICAGO (AP) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked a freeway leading to three Chicago O’Hare International Airport terminals Monday morning, temporarily stopping vehicle traffic into one of the nation’s busiest airports and causing headaches for travelers.
Protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 around 7 a.m., a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine,” according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers. Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was also snarled for hours Monday morning as pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down both directions of the Golden Gate Bridge and stalled a 17-mile (27-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 880 in Oakland.
O’Hare warned travelers on the social platform X to take alternative forms of transportation with car travel “substantially delayed this morning due to protest activity.”
Some travelers stuck in standstill traffic left their cars and walked the final leg to the airport along the freeway, trailing their luggage behind them.
Among them was Madeline Hannan from suburban Chicago. She was headed to O’Hare for a work trip to Florida when her and her husband’s car ended up stalled for 20 minutes. She got out and “both ran and speed walked” more than 1 mile. She said she made it to the gate on time, but barely.
“This was an inconvenience,” she said in a telephone interview from Florida. “But in the grand scheme of things going on overseas, it’s a minor inconvenience.”
While individual travelers may have been affected, operations at the airport appeared near normal with delays of under 15 minutes, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Inbound traffic toward O’Hare resumed around 9 a.m.
On the Golden Gate Bridge in California, a small number of demonstrators stood by, as did police. Some protesters held a black banner that read “Stop the world for Gaza.” The iconic bridge was closed off to all auto traffic, bicyclists and pedestrians.
In Chicago, dozens of protesters were arrested, according to Falaneh. Chicago police said Monday that “multiple people” were taken into custody after a protest where people obstructed traffic but did not have a detailed count.
Protesters say they chose the location, in part, because O’Hare is one of the largest airports. Among other things, they’ve called for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Anti- war protesters have demonstrated in Chicago near daily since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people. Israeli warplanes and ground troops have conducted a scorched-earth campaign on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 33,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
124 protestors were arrested for trespassing inside the New York Times printing facility in Queens, and deliberately standing in the street to block the trucks that deliver the newspaper. I hope they all get prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
https://abc7ny.com/protest-ny-times-pro-palestinian-protesters/14523077/
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1768711032178933961
BLM protestors try to prevent prevent a black guy from driving to work to feed his six children.
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1754256180992454720
“Donated organs meant to be used for organ transplants were delayed in transit due to the protest”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/80-demonstrators-facing-charges-over-033958217.html
80 demonstrators facing charges over Bay Bridge protest that halted traffic
By O. Gloria Okorie
December 15, 2023
SAN FRANCISCO – Eighty individuals are facing charges over their participation in a pro-Palestine protest last month that brought traffic to a standstill for hours on the Bay Bridge connecting Oakland to San Francisco.
On the morning of Nov. 16, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the Bay Bridge demanding a ceasefire and an end to the war in Gaza during the APEC summit. Eighty will be charged “in connection with an unlawful public assembly on the Bay Bridge,” five misdemeanor counts of “false imprisonment, refusing to comply with a peace officer, unlawful public assembly, refusing to disperse, and obstruction of street, sidewalk or other place open to public.”
The protest started around 7:45 a.m. and ended before noon, resulting in 70 arrests and 29 towed cars at the time.
“While we must protect avenues for free speech, the exercise of free speech can not compromise public safety. The demonstration on the Bay Bridge that snarled traffic for hours had a tremendous impact on those who were stuck on the bridge for hours and required tremendous public resources to resolve. I would like to commend the California Highway Patrol and San Francisco Sheriff’s Department for their work to peacefully resolve this incident,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins in a statement.
During the protest, at least 200 protesters chained themselves together to the bridge before intentionally throwing their car keys into the bay.
California Highway Patrol Officer Art Montiel told KTVU the protest was “very well planned.” However, CHP Chief Ezery Beauchamp said later that they were not caught off-guard by the protest and that 150 officers responded to the scene, loading protesters onto buses to be cited and released.
Donated organs meant to be used for organ transplants were delayed in transit due to the protest, according to a spokesperson for UCSF. However, the delay was not expected to “affect the outcome for [the] patients.”
Those cited and released that day are required to appear in court for arraignments throughout next week.
Watch: Paramedic rushing to ‘life and death’ emergency begs police to clear Just Stop Oil protesters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkyAGOPiino
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/08/paramedic-life-or-death-emergency-just-stop-oil-protest/
Watch: Paramedic rushing to ‘life and death’ emergency begs police to clear Just Stop Oil protesters
Activists from eco group slow marched on Waterloo Bridge in London on Wednesday, causing carriageway to be shut in both directionsBy Ewan Somerville
8 November 2023
A paramedic responding to a “life and death” emergency begged police to let him through a Just Stop Oil protest.
Sixty activists from the eco group spent 30 minutes slow marching on Waterloo Bridge on Wednesday morning, causing the carriageway to be shut in both directions for an hour.
An ambulance arrived with blue lights and sirens, but was held up in the gridlocked traffic for about 10 minutes. The driver told The Telegraph: “I am responding to a life and death emergency – I am going to pick up a team from Guy’s and St Thomas’ to save someone’s life at another hospital but can’t get through.”
The paramedic pleaded with police officers to let him through on multiple occasions as he became increasingly angry. Officers said they were working to let him through as quickly as they could as activists lay down and hung off the central reservation, causing the road to be closed.
He was from the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Retrieval Team, a unit responsible for a temporary life support system for people whose lungs have stopped working properly.
St Thomas’ hospital, in Westminster, is one of just five centres that treat acute severe cardiorespiratory failure in adults in England.
As the ambulance came to a standstill, a member of the public shouted at the group from the pavement: “You’re stopping people from getting to operations, you idiots. Very good job, stopping a bit of oil. Protest in the right place.”
When a supportive member of the public ttried to calm down the man, he responded, referencing the world’s largest oil exporter: “Well I don’t think it’s OK – go to Saudi Arabia and complain. You’re very clever, Saudis Arabia would welcome you lot.”
The protest was the latest in Just Stop Oil’s new campaign of slow marches, in which activists walk along a road and halt all traffic. Unlike in previous months, the group is now refusing to leave roads until dragged off and arrested.
Waterloo Bridge was shut when the activists “went floppy” upon arrest and lay down in the central reservation, meaning police deemed it too unsafe for cars to pass.
It remained closed to traffic almost two hours after the protest began, as activists said they “refused to comply” with officers and had to be dragged into police vans one by one from the central reservation.
Dozens of officers made arrests under the Public Order Act, with the 60 activists initially congregating at Waterloo Station in plain clothes before putting on their orange vests.
It comes after the Met warned on Tuesday that Londoners were “bearing the brunt” of Just Stop Oil’s actions because of the number of frontline officers required to police the demonstrations.
Some 44 activists from the group were charged following another slow march on Monday, including two accused of causing criminal damage by smashing a painting at the National Gallery.
There have been 98 charges and 219 arrests of Just Stop Oil protesters since Oct 30, but the group has vowed to carry on “until we win”, with “thousands of arrests” expected.
Environmental protestors block traffic during LGBTQ parade. This is just too funny!
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-66074939
London Pride: Seven arrests as Just Stop Oil protest delays parade
July 1, 2023
Seven Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested while trying to halt the annual Pride parade in central London.
Images on social media showed police removing demonstrators who managed to briefly stop the march.
The Metropolitan Police said seven people were arrested for public nuisance offences.
Before the parade started, LGBTQ+ Just Stop Oil members called on Pride to stop accepting sponsorship money from “high-polluting industries”.
Organisers estimate more than 30,000 participants from across 600 organisations took part in the parade.
Speaking after the arrests, Will De’Athe-Morris, from Pride in London said he did not want the protest to overshadow the parade’s core message.
“Pride is a protest and pride is a celebration,” he told the BBC. “We are protesting for LGBTQ+ rights and for our trans siblings in a separate march alone.
“So for us anyone who tries to disrupt that protest and parade is really letting down those people who use this space once a year to come together to celebrate and protest for those rights.”
Police said the parade was briefly delayed for around 17 minutes while officers dealt with the protesters at Piccadilly’s junction with Down Street.
BBC Radio London’s Rob Oxley said the protesters “sat down in front of the Coke float for around 20 minutes”.
“The DJ on the float continued to play music and the crowd cheered as they were removed.”
I agree with these drivers and police who dragged the protestors out of the street
Videos: Climate ‘Protesters’ Thrown Around Like Rag Dolls By Angry French Motorists
And the police aren’t pissing around with them either
By Steve Watson
December 1, 2022
Everyday French people have had it with climate ‘protesters’ sitting in the road and blocking traffic, as the following footage shows.
Just like in Britain, people trying to drive to work are sick and tired of their daily commute being continually disrupted by people in orange vests crowing about the world ending in 800 days and gluing themselves to the road.
https://twitter.com/CatchUpNetwork/status/1598106691496972288
https://twitter.com/hushsupply_/status/1586395731845210113
https://twitter.com/gchahal/status/1591392916895051780
https://twitter.com/gchahal/status/1591392916895051780
The ‘protesters,’ reportedly with the group ‘Derniere Renovation’ which translates as ‘Last renovation’ (what?) have been blocking traffic near Paris and in other French cities.
“The only way that we everyday people have left to put pressure on the government is to literally go and sit on the road,” says Victor, 25.
Who are the everyday people? If you have time to sit in the middle of a highway sulking, it ‘aint you mon cheri.
Footage shows moment Insulate Britain protester was pushed by wheels of car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAiWVq-HKwM
Video description:
Guardian News
Footage shows moment Insulate Britain protester was pushed by wheels of car
October 19, 2021
Footage has emerged of the moment an Insulate Britain protester was pushed by a Range Rover by a woman driving her son to school.
When the protesters refuse to move the driver gets back into her car and inches it forward on to them.
Asked if she was hurt, during the incident which took place last Wednesday during the group’s protest on the A1090 in Thurrock, Essex, one activist said: “I think so, but I feel quite a lot of adrenalin pumping.”
The video was shared by Insulate Britain. A spokesperson for the group said this was the first time they had published any footage of the reactions they have provoked.
BLM kidnappers hold politician hostage for 2 hours, force her to sign list of demands
I hope these kidnappers get prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
This is yet one more reason why I think it should be legal for drivers to run over people who deliberately and illegally block traffic.
Activists block Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins until she agrees to demands
Confrontation turns tense as protesters push Jenkins to sign a list of demands.
By Liz Navratil
June 29, 2021
Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins and Mayor Jacob Frey on Tuesday condemned the tactics of protesters who shouted at Jenkins and blocked her from leaving an event in Loring Park until she agreed to a list of their demands.
A 23-minute video showing a portion of their lengthy confrontation Sunday circulated on social media. Throughout the video, protesters rattled off demands — some of which Jenkins quickly agreed to, and some of which she pushed back on, insisting she needed to represent the people who live in her ward.
In the end, Jenkins signed a list of demands agreeing, among other things, to “leave George Floyd Square alone,” support the creation of a civilian-led commission to oversee police, and call for the mayor’s resignation. After she signed, people agreed to step away, clearing the way for the car she was riding in to drive off.
The encounter comes at a tense time, when re-election campaigns are escalating and residents are making conflicting demands as the city debates how to transform policing following George Floyd’s death. Over the past year, some elected officials have raised concerns about the tactics protesters are using.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Jenkins said she was “verbally attacked, berated and held ‘hostage’ against my will by a large group of angry protesters.”
She added: “Every citizen of this City has a right to bring forward their concerns, but no citizen has the right to detain and coerce anyone to do anything, that includes elected officials.”
Frey echoed that sentiment Tuesday afternoon.
“Holding people for hours against their will until they make a statement under duress is completely unacceptable,” he said. “It’s wrong.”
Activist D.J. Hooker, who posted the video to social media, said in an interview that the encounter lasted approximately two hours. He said he approached Jenkins after a Taking Back Pride event decrying police brutality. The event, according to a posting on social media, sought to prioritize the voices of people who are Black, transgender or queer. Jenkins was the first transgender woman of color elected to public office in a major U.S. city.
Hooker said he approached Jenkins to raise concerns about community groups contracted with the city to de-escalate tensions.
Hooker said he grew frustrated when Jenkins told him she didn’t have control over them and she wouldn’t commit to leaving George Floyd Square alone, so he said they would hold a peaceful protest outside her house. Hooker said he and Jenkins argued and someone jumped between them.
Hooker said Jenkins began walking away and he yelled, “Oh, you’re gonna call the cops on me knowing … what the cops have done to George Floyd, what the cops have done to Dolal Idd and Winston Smith and Daunte Wright.”
The video posted to social media begins with Hooker narrating and shows Jenkins sitting in the passenger seat of a white car, as people stand on three sides of it. A white post is behind the car.
Jenkins, who is on the phone, tells someone it might be “three days before I get out of here.”
Jenkins then sits quietly, her hands pressed together as Hooker expresses frustration that city officials haven’t done more to reduce police brutality.
Hooker begins reading off the list of demands, one by one. He asks if she will pledge her support for the creation of an elected, civilian commission to oversee police, for reopening cases in police killings, for dropping charges against protesters and releasing information about Smith’s death. Each time, Jenkins says yes.
Hooker then asks her to pledge her support “for Jacob Frey’s immediate resignation.” Jenkins laughs, shakes her head side to side and, after additional prompting from protesters, eventually says, “Jacob Frey resign.”
Hooker then asks her to “leave George Floyd Square alone. Period.”
Jenkins responds: “Don’t do my job, is that what you’re asking me to do?”
The two begin talking over each other, and Jenkins adds: “I was elected to represent that neighborhood, so what you’re asking me to do is to not do my job.”
Several people in the crowd begin shouting. Jenkins rolls up her window, saying she won’t sign anything, and people in the crowd continue to shout over each other.
A couple minutes later, Jenkins rolls down her window, and Hooker repeats the demand to leave the square alone.
“Fine, I’ll leave George Floyd Square alone,” Jenkins said. “I will not do my job.”
Eventually the person in the driver’s seat says this isn’t a negotiation. Someone in the crowd says they’re not asking, “we’re demanding,” and tells the person to “do your job and drive.” The driver raises their middle finger. Jenkins pushes the driver’s arm down, grabs the piece of paper with the demands and signs it. Protesters then ask her to print her name and date it.
Jenkins said she didn’t run to deal with situations like that.
“I ran to represent people. That’s what I did,” Jenkins says to the crowd. “You stand up and do that one day.”
A short bit later, people moved out of the way, and the car drove away.
Hooker said in an interview that they confronted Jenkins because they were tired of elected leaders making promises on policing and not following through. He said he would be surprised if Jenkins followed through on the document she signed.
Video: Juneteenth crowd blocks ambulance as it tries to get to gunshot victims in Oakland, CA
Video at https://www.bitchute.com/video/D2QQWfHY1NyV/
Michelle Fleming Morris and Valerie Lindsey chose to stand in the street in front of oncoming traffic. It’s their own fault they got hit by a car.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
May 25, 2021
This new video is from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It shows some idiots standing in the street in front of oncoming traffic. A car comes by and stops. Then the car starts going – very, very slowly. Two of the protestors deliberately allow themselves to get hit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDISoPWVOsk
NBC News wrote of this:
A white driver was arrested after she was accused of striking two Black women with her car during a peaceful protest over the death of Andrew Brown Jr., North Carolina authorities said Tuesday.
Lisa Michelle O’Quinn, 41, was charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill by use of a motor vehicle, one count of careless and reckless conduct and one count of unsafe movement, Elizabeth City Police said in a news release. Investigators said they were still determining if the incident was a hate crime.
The incident occurred about 6:45 p.m. ET Monday at the intersection of Ehringhaus Street and Griffin Street in the city, police said. In a video posted on Twitter, a white car could be seen hitting two protesters, causing one to fall to the ground.
The two victims were identified as Michelle Fleming Morris and Valerie Lindsey, both 42-year-old Black women. They were treated for injuries that were not life-threatening and later released from a hospital.
The protestors are not “victims.”
On the contrary – they are perpetrators.
Michelle Fleming Morris and Valerie Lindsey chose to stand in the street in front of oncoming traffic. It’s their own fault they got hit by a car.
The driver stopped. When the driver started up again, she was going very, very slowly.
There’s no way that the driver was “intending to kill” the protestors. If that had been her intent, she would not have stopped. And she would not have driven very, very slowly when she did start up again. On the contrary, if the driver had intended to kill the protestors, she would have sped up and driven as quickly as possible.
And there’s no way that this is a “hate crime.” The driver did not choose the protestors. On the contrary, it was the other way around – the protestors chose to stand in the street in front of the driver.
Maybe the reason the driver did what she did is because she didn’t want to end up like this driver from Portland, Oregon. Instead of driving through the protestors, this guy stopped his car. Then the protestors assaulted him, which gave him a partially collapsed left lung, two fractured lower vertebrates, five broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and head trauma. If he hadn’t stopped his car, the protestors wouldn’t have done that to him:
Protest in Manhattan: “protesters surrounded the driver’s car, while tapping and pounding on it. Panicked, the woman apparently drove forward to get away, striking the protesters.” So why did they arrest the driver, instead of the people who were pounding on her car?
Reporting on a protest from earlier today that took place in Manhattan, NBC News reported:
“According to two law enforcement sources, protesters surrounded the driver’s car, while tapping and pounding on it. Panicked, the woman apparently drove forward to get away, striking the protesters in the process, police said.”
The protestors attacked the driver.
Then the driver defended herself.
So why did the police arrest the driver, instead of the people who attacked her?
Trump praises drivers that Biden campaign says tried to run bus ‘off the road’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B30zHE7DJ0
Trump Praises Drivers That Biden Campaign Says Tried To Run Bus ‘Off The Road’
By Andrew Solender
October 31, 2020
President Donald Trump on Saturday offered praise to a group of pro-Trump pickup truck drivers in Texas who surrounded and slowed a Biden campaign bus and who the Biden campaign accused of trying to run it “off the road,” underscoring allegations that Trump encourages his supporters to act violently.
“I LOVE TEXAS!” Trump tweeted, along with a video of a dozen pickup trucks, sporting American and pro-Trump flags, following a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a highway in Texas.
The scene appeared to show the same incident chronicled in other videos posted to social media on Friday and Saturday showing the trucks following the bus and, in one case, ramming a white SUV accompanying it.
A Biden campaign spokesperson told Forbes the pickups “attempted to slow the bus down and run it off the road,” and that the campaign called law enforcement to escort the bus to safety and offload passengers, which included U.S. House candidate and former Texas legislator Wendy Davis.
The incident came after Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. told supporters to give Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who visited Texas on Friday, a “nice Trump Train welcome” to “show them how strong Texas still is as Trump country.”
The Biden campaign told Forbes it canceled a planned event at the Texas AFL-CIO out of an “abundance of caution,” while Texas state legislator Sheryl Cole said a joint event with the campaign and the Austin Young Democrats was called off for “security reasons.”
Cole said the pro-Trump drivers “escalated well beyond safe limits,” citing Travis County Democratic Party Chair Katie Naranjo, who alleged they “followed the Biden bus throughout central Texas” and “ran into a person’s car, yelling curse words and threats.”
The Texas Tribune reported that Texas GOP Chairman Allen West “dismissed questions regarding the incident,” telling them “It is more fake news and propaganda. Prepare to lose… stop bothering me.”
The White House referred Forbes to the Trump campaign, which did not respond to several requests for comment, nor did a local Trump Train organizer.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris – who was not on the bus – made three stops in Texas the same day the incident occurred and was met by Trump supporters during her visit. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, who campaigned with Harris, was also heckled by Trump supporters, who he called “a––holes with their louds horns.”
Conservatives took to social media Saturday to dispute the Biden campaign’s interpretation of incidents, noting that some videos show the white SUV and bus driving between lanes – although the trucks appear to be attempting to box the bus in as the white SUV tries to stay on its tail. Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler, a Republican running for reelection, told the Tribune the Biden campaign did not give advanced notification of its trip, adding “The planning of this was questionable.”
“There’s a Biden bus and it’s surrounded by pickup trucks on a highway all with Trump signs,” Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro said of the incident. “I mean it’s just ordinary Americans taking this election into their own hands and getting out there and being real clear on what they stand for.”
“The words of a president matter. And time and time again, Donald Trump has callously used his to incite violence, stoke the flames of hatred and division, and drive us further apart,” Biden tweeted on Saturday, after Trump praised the drivers. “It’s time for it to end.”
1 point. That’s the size of Trump’s lead in Texas in the FiveThirtyEight polling average. The state has been hotly competitive this year, despite Trump winning it by 9 points in 2016, with the Biden campaign sending Harris, as well as Jill Biden and Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, to campaign there.
The incident is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Tribune reported.
Video: Rioters block, attack truck and horse trailer, driver runs them over
https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/rioters-hit-by-truck-horse-trailer
Rioters Block, Attack Truck and Horse Trailer, Driver Runs Them Over
By Courtney Kirchoff
June 1, 2020
This one is personal for me. A mob of rioters tried blocking and stopping a truck towing a horse trailer, likely with horses inside. The driver said hell to the no. Mowed through them, and possibly rolled over a one or two. Lest anyone be wondering, I have zero sympathy for the rioters who got pancaked. I’ll explain after the video:
https://twitter.com/MikeCollierWX/status/1267256431222366210
At least the rioters had their COVID-19 masks on. If you’re trying to bock a moving one ton Dodge Ram, better be safe.
Now, the personal part. As maybe seven of you know, I have horses. I have driven across states towing my horse trailer with my Queen safely inside. I have horse trailer towing experience, is what I’m getting at. One cannot easily stop a trailer, nor can one easily turn around. So if you see shit up ahead of you, and you’re pulling a rig, there’s shit you can do about it. Rigs do not flip U-turns like a Prius, you feel me? So if people are saying this driver should’ve turned the ship around, no. A truck towing a horse trailer, especially the one in the video above, has all the agility of Titanic.
Secondly, woe be upon anyone who tries to inflict harm on my horses. If you want to see a person at their most dangerous, threaten their steeds. My Queen agrees to step inside and travel in the aluminum wheel box because I asked her to. She steps inside because she trusts me. I do not take this trust for granted. Based on the barbaric behavior I’m seeing from these rioters, there is no way I would allow them anywhere near my horse. These rioters would most certainly harm my animals either on purpose, or by accident. F*ck them and f*ck them hard. No lubricant.
Thirdly, interstates are for cars. Not for brainless asshats looking for a reason to rage.
Now you’re in the headspace of the driver above. I can’t tell if it’s a gal or a guy. Typically in America, with horses, it’s mostly ladies, so I’m heading out on that limb that it was a chica. The rioters blocking her truck were trying to stop her truck. And thus, stop the trailer with horses inside. Horses that are already terrified out of their tiny minds.
What I’m saying is, were I on a jury for this driver, she wasn’t in the wrong. These idiots could’ve gotten out of the way. They thought they’re little bodies against the Cummings engine would prove victorious. They thought their little bodies up against a horsewoman (or man) would be enough. Incorrect.
I believe that black lives matter. But here are 50 reasons why I do not support the organization that calls itself “Black Lives Matter.”
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
September 12, 2020
I believe that black lives matter. But here are 50 reasons why I do not support the organization that calls itself “Black Lives Matter.”
1) In this video, Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors says, “We are trained Marxists”
Black Lives Matter was founded by three people: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
In this video, Cullors says, “We are trained Marxists.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EvOyW5vIdg
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels says:
“In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
Marxism is such a horrible system that even the people who claim to be in favor of Marxism never actually move to Marxist countries.
On the contrary, all immigration related to Marxist countries is away from Marxist countries, and never into them.
Every year, thousands of Cubans risk their lives on homemade rafts to leave the country.
Meanwhile, none of the U.S. college professors, celebrities, or social justice warriors who praise Cuba ever actually moves there.
When the Berlin Wall came down, all of the immigration was from east to west, not the other way around.
In the U.S., none of the college professors, celebrities, social justice warriors, or other people who claim to be in favor of communism, ever actually moves to a communist country.
No one who was born in South Korea ever moves to North Korea. But people who were born in North Korea risk getting shot and killed by armed border guards while trying to escape to South Korea.
Marxists are so evil that they have actually murdered far, far more innocent civilians than the Nazis did.
Marxism is an absolutely despicable and evil ideology.
2) Here’s a video from Oakland, California, from August 2020, of Black Lives Matter protestors saying “Death To America”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ACQm06xlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ACQm06xlM
3) Here’s a video from Seattle, from August 2020, where Black Lives Matter protestors demand that homeowners give up ownership of their homes
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 