Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

DetlefK

(16,423 posts)
Thu Jul 9, 2020, 12:44 PM Jul 2020

Incidents of vehicular attacks on protesters are on the rise, and the cops are SUPER-okay with that.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/8/1959309/-As-meme-fueled-casualties-of-vehicle-ramming-attacks-rise-police-seem-oddly-nonchalant

The casualties from vehicle-ramming attacks—amid a tide of right-wing social media memes celebrating and encouraging such violence—at anti-police brutality protests keep piling up around the country. But the response by police investigators to the attacks remains disturbingly muted, seemingly blaming victims themselves for the violence and not the perpetrators, who often are far-right extremists.

In Seattle, a woman was killed early Saturday morning by a driver who hit a cluster of protesters at high speed—following which, state police responded by vowing to disallow future freeway protests despite having blocked all traffic around the march. In Indiana, there were no apprehensions in two separate incidents of vehicle ramming—one in Mishiwaka, the other in Bloomington—in which protesters were injured. And on Long Island in New York, a driver who injured two marchers by plowing into them with his SUV was issued a desk appearance ticket and released by police.

...

Witnesses in Long Island were similarly frustrated with the nonchalant handling by police of a similar attack. A man driving a grey Toyota RAV4 SUV pulled up to a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters and then accelerated into them on Monday. Police pulled him over and video showed the protesters urging police to arrest the man.

However, after impounding the man’s vehicle, police only briefly arrested the man—identified as 36-year-old Anthony Cambareri of Coram—and charged him with third-degree assault (the equivalent of a fistfight) and issued him a desk appearance ticket, NBC News reported.

“You wonder why people are frustrated,” a witness named Matthew Williams told NBC. “Look at this man. He just walked away with a third degree misdemeanor as if he pushed someone in the mall. You hit someone with your car and you kept going, this is not okay!”
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Incidents of vehicular at...