When you find yourself lost in an unfamiliar area do you speed through crowds of protesters?
This man, the passenger of a Jeep that chose to speed through a crowd of BLM protesters claims this was only done because they were lost. Here is his statement in full, from his youtube video:
In the video, he makes it clear that there was no prior indication of the demonstration occurring before they got onto the freeway. There were no barricades or signs redirecting traffic. He also states that the reason for their speeding was because their vehicle was being fired at by protesters with guns.
From this perspective, the actions of the driver become a bit more understandable as their lives did end up being treated by live bullets. In such a scenario I’m sure many people would panic and just look for the quickest way out of the situation. Unfortunately, for them, the quickest way out also happened to be through a crowd of protestors.
In his statement, he mentions that as they drove the people simply moved out of the way but the video shows that the protestors were also panicked as well. Surely by both the gunfire and the speeding vehicle coming at them. He also states that protesters instantly began to throw projectiles at the vehicle. This portion of his statement seems to vilify the protestors as acting instantly abrasive to the approximately 3,000-pound vehicle coming towards them but doesn’t factor in the reasons people may have been wary of a jeep coming at their protest.
Here’s the video of this event as captured by MSNBC
Events such as what occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia would make one assume that this driver is no different than the one who intentionally drove his vehicle through a densely packed crowd with the goal of causing as much harm to as many people as possible.
It’d be easy to paint either side as being wrong. Instead, it seems this issue sprang up from either the lack of information or just being misinformed. The driver/passenger likely see themselves as having just been trying to find their way to their destination, unaware of any demonstrations occurring. The protestors probably saw nothing but a vehicle being driven into their crowds and assumed the driver intended to harm them.
That being said, this definitely could’ve been avoided had the driver stopped when they saw a crowd of people and pulled to the side of the freeway or (granted the freeway was clear enough) take the risk of turning around back towards the nearest freeway exit/entrance.
The entirety of this situation could’ve also been avoided if the American Police weren’t so deadset on murdering innocent Black people. In such a case, there’d be no protest to even drive through and Elijah McClain (the man to whom the protest was dedicated to) would be alive and well with his Friends and Family.
