Two Men - One on Each Coast - Drove Cars Into Crowds of Protesters This Weekend

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

09 June 20

Neither came away with a scratch when they were arrested.

f you’re keeping score at home, on either side of the continent this past weekend, some dude with murder in his eyes drove his automobile into crowds of protestors gathered to be heard on the subject of police brutality. In Richmond, this guy was named Harry Rogers, and he proudly he announced that he was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. From the Richmond Times-Leader:

In her statement, Taylor said Rogers was driving recklessly down Lakeside Avenue in the median on Sunday, drove up to protesters, revved his engine and drove through the crowd. One person was evaluated for injuries. "While I am grateful that the victim’s injuries do not appear to be serious, an attack on peaceful protesters is heinous and despicable and we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law," Taylor said. She added: "The accused, by his own admission and by a cursory glance at social media, is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology.”

Look at that face. Unmarked. There are people who have lost their eyes to rubber bullets just because they were standing in the street.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, and not to be outdone, the murderous yahoo added gunfire to the festivities. From the Seattle Times:

The shooting apparently happened while the gunman was still in the car. Dressed in blue jeans, a black sweatshirt and a black baseball cap, he then got out of his car, gun in hand, and made his way through demonstrators toward a line of police before he was taken into custody. B.J. Hayes was standing nearby when the black car barreled down Eleventh Avenue from Pike Street toward hundreds of protesters. As the vehicle approached Pine Street, some demonstrators shouted, ran alongside and tried to slow it down by blocking its path with a metal panel taken from a police barricade.

“I thought he was plowing right into the crowd,” said Hayes, who has attended several of the recent protests. “I totally thought I was going to see a bunch of bodies flying through the air.”

Both of these guys are alive today, unbruised and unbattered and in custody. No cop knelt on their necks. No cop pepper-sprayed them, or felt threatened enough by them to shoot them dead in the street, and this includes the guy in Seattle who actually had a gun and had used it moments before. Policing in this country is so very broken. Luckily, there are involved citizens who know where the real threat lies. Also from the Seattle Times:

They were drawn by rumors of a looming threat: Antifa activists were planning to bring chaos to their community and damage businesses as days of massive protests decrying the death of George Floyd, police brutality and racial injustice swept cities, including Seattle just 30 miles to the south. Some in the crowd socialized and drank while carrying assault rifles, handguns and other firearms. At least one Confederate flag flew from the back of a pickup truck. As the hours passed, the predictions of mayhem never materialized.

It was an evening the local police chief later described as “festive” during an emergency City Council meeting later that week. The comment drew outrage from some residents as the self-declared protectors’ militia-style presence and the local, nightly protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have underscored stark divides in the community..."It was like tailgating with an excessive amount of large military-style rifles — lots of guns, open alcohol consumption, Confederate flags,” she said. “I felt very uncomfortable and I’m a white woman.”

"Festive”?

Correction: Everything is so very broken.