Anti-Israel San Mateo Bridge blockaders: Police violated our rights!
Dangerously trapped motorists and caused accidents, yet claim their rights were violated when police arrested them.
We previously reported how anti-Israel activists hijacked a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day #BlackLivesMatter protest and turned it into an anti-Israel event.
They trapped hundreds, if not thousands, of motorists by setting up a protest line at the highest point of the bridge span, and also abandoning their own cars on the bridge to block traffic.
This was an extremely dangerous maneuver.
Unlike the blockade of Route 93 in Boston, for example, there was no possibility of motorists exiting. If an ambulance or someone in need of medical care had been trapped, there would have been no way out and no way to redirect ambulances or other emergency vehicles that needed to cross the bay.
This maneuver created havoc on the bridge, with motorists driving the wrong way near the toll area in a desperate attempt to escape.
(Source: KRON4 Video)
For extensive video and photographic coverage, see our prior posts:
- Anti-Israel activists block San Mateo Bridge
- Anti-Israel activists caused car crashes on San Mateo Bridge
Here’s a video we have not previously posted:
Initial reports indicated that because of the seriousness of the blockade, more serious charges could be brought, perhaps even felonies:
At one point, protesters had blocked both sides of Highwy 92. The sudden blockade caused accidents and injuries. This was the first time protesters shut down the San Mateo Bridge, the longest bridge in the state. The district attorney says demonstrating on the nine-mile bridge is dangerous because there are no exits or turn around lanes.
“This particular protest caused several collisions involving property damage and minor injuries, as well as some hit-and-run crashes,” California Highway Patrol spokesman Daniel Hill said.
Sixty-eight protesters were arrested and charged with creating a public nuisance and obstructing people’s right to travel. The accidents and injuries could now mean harsher penalties than just misdemeanors.
“That makes it more serious that there’s been harm,” San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. “Restitution ought to be paid and so you look to see what the harm is as with any action.”
But it appears there may not happen.
The Stanford University student newspaper reports that the protesters may not even be charged, and are claiming their rights were violated, San Mateo bridge protest led to traffic accidents, according to Highway Patrol:
According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), there were several traffic accidents related to the demonstration, some of which involved property damage and minor injuries.
San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said that his office had not yet decided whether to file charges in the case, but that if charges were filed they would be infractions or misdemeanors rather than felonies….
Wagstaffe said that the harm the demonstrators caused could be taken into account when his office decided whether or not to file charges….
One participant in the bridge protest, Kristian Davis Bailey ’14, accused the CHP of violating protocols.
“[W]e weren’t given a clear option to disperse,” Bailey said. He added that demonstrators tried to leave the demonstration but were not able to do so.
Bailey also expressed concern about what he said were incidents where female demonstrators were patted down by male officers contrary to the wishes of the demonstrators….
Bailey said that no new charges had been communicated to the protesters related to the reported traffic accidents. According to him, all of the demonstrators arrested were being represented by a team of four lawyers who specialize in cases of mass civil disobedience.
The demonstrators had received considerable support from the Stanford community and that Stanford affiliates had sent more than 75 emails to the protesters offering support of various kinds, according to Bailey.
“It’s been really amazing to see the outpouring of support from the Stanford community over the past few days,” Bailey said.
Bailey was more than a participant; he is one of the national leaders of the movement to turn #BlackLivesMatters protests into anti-Israel protests, as we documented in our prior posts.
This was more than a protest. It was a public endangerment.
I have a call in to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office to find out about the status of the investigation and possible charges.
[Featured Image: ABC News7 Video]
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Comments
Because nothing says “I’m down with the struggle” like rich, entitled white kids from a prestigious university blocking traffic on a bridge used by blue and pink collar workers who commute for an hour or more each way to work.
The people involved in traffic accidents because of their infantile behavior should sue the little cretins – and their parents.
But NOTHING says “I’m down with the struggle” like throwing rich, entitled white kids from a prestigious university blocking traffic on a bridge used by blue and pink collar workers who commute for an hour or more each way to work, off the bridge.
That qualifies as must-see TV. Sadly, it is not to be in the land of granola.
a tea partier would have been (rightly so) charged with federal crime which it is.
ironically I don’t think it should be fed crime and a state crime only but as it stands now there are applicable fed charges.
Since this seems to be the trendy tactic for leftists the various states should pass some specific legislation with some teeth in it.
OTOH, since this seems to be the trendy tactic for leftists I don’t expect any of the blue states where this is a problem to do anything about it.
Criminal law, ordinary tort law, and a class action suit, are already applicable.
The crime is any of half-a-dozen traffic violations. The torts are attempted murder and false imprisonment. The classes are every motorist inconvenienced or otherwise harmed by the delay, versus the protestors and anyone who aided or abetted them.
Bind the cites with half inch iron plates for book covers, and throw them at the jerks.
Repeatedly.
“[W]e weren’t given a clear option to disperse,” Bailey said. He added that demonstrators tried to leave the demonstration but were not able to do so.
As if we’re supposed to believe this nonsense…
Narcissism has reached new heights.
Well of curse they couldn’t leave, the reason that they couldn’t leave was because they had caused such a disruption in traffic. What a moronic statement.
They weren’t handcuffed and tossed off the bridge, were they?
Then they should count themselves lucky.
That would be pollution. All that oil…
Does patchouli oil make oil slicks?
I must confess I find that suggestion attractive.
Illegal, but attractive.
It’s only illegal if it’s prosecuted.
These idiots seriously need to be given the tire iron treatment.
If they were blocking the bridge with their own cars, then pushing said cars off the bridge would be fair, no?
This country is going downhill faster than a Olympic ski jumper.
For starters, number of people stuck, multiplied by the total time that they were stuck, well how about that for jail time? Throw in payback for accident damages, and a hefty amount for injuries, and make sure each wingnut pays. A judge needs to be creative here.
The prosecutor would have to be really creative. The closest to a felony under California law would be ‘false imprisonment’ which is a wobbler (also a misdemeanor), and also requires the element of threats of violence to detain a person.
Still it is rich that they act as though it was a protest and they claim the right to be told to disperse. Blocking a roadway is a crime and they were subject to arrest without a courtesy warning to ‘get off the road’. I think perhaps a 5150 hold (72 hour psych hold for a person suspected of mental disorder which could make him or her a danger to self and others) may have been warranted. They were certainly a danger to others, and it is crazy to walk out onto a California freeway.
Add on that they have to pay the cost of their 72 hour hospitalization or spend time in jail.
Couldn’t they be charged for the time that the drives had to wait on the bridge for them to be removed. Maybe 20,000 * $100 * 4 hours is quite a bit of money. Each protester should be out about $80,000 which about the right amount of pain to inflict on these idiots.
Wait isn’t that a toll bridge? Charge them with what they would have made from the toll bridge during the time it was blocked. So if they blocked the bridge for an hour and in that hour 10000 cars go through that toll bridge on average, the charge them what the 10000 cars would have paid. That could be each of their fines.
I love the creativity of the law-and-order types.
There is a little voice in the back of my head that is saying; “Just make it legal to plow right through them, bet they won’t be blocking the street after a few of them are made into impromptu hood ornaments.
I really do try not to listen to that little voice, he is way to efficient, practical and scary.
In the mid-90s, I worked in that area and often crossed that bridge driving a battered 1973 GMC truck. I would have had no qualms in ‘removing’ an offenders’ vehicle from my lane. Just not over the edge – don’t want to hurt the fish!
Those drivers who were trapped on the bridge by these idiots should have left their vehicles and performed a citizens arrest on these criminals with lots of necessary violence.
Frankly I am surprised that no one road raged on them. Not that anyone could be blamed for doing so.
Class action lawsuit? Is their a lawyer in the house?
they should have been tossed over the side…
There is no civil right to protest and stop traffic on a bridge and endanger lives.
Protestors do not have the right to sit in restaurants and harass patrons either.
Someone is going to have to actually die (senior citizen trapped in a hot car for hours, patient in or waiting for an ambulance…) before we get serious about cracking down on this.
I’d love to see it handled with lawfare, though — like a class action suit for lost time. No idea how plausible that is. (IANAL)
I’ve seen forklifts rigged to carry 55gal drums. Pick them up and set them to one side of the road.
I would suggest a “creep”. just let the car idle forward with just a bit of break and don’t stop. If the city has a j-walking law then you could argue that you can’t be held liable that they got in front of you outside of a cross walk, lol.
I would have just loved, depending on wind direction to see a couple of officers with OC foggers just calmly walk along the bridge holding the triggers down and let the love float to the morons.
Oh and for the “Peaceful Protest” morons. It ceases being a “peaceful” protest the moment a law is broken or it infringes on someone else’s rights. Like the general right to freedom of movement we enjoy here in the US.
“[W]e weren’t given a clear option to disperse,” Bailey said.
Oh, ‘MOVE YOUR ASS’ isn’t clear enough for them ? Or maybe they wanted free limos provided ?
“Bailey also expressed concern about what he said were incidents where female demonstrators were patted down by male officers contrary to the wishes of the demonstrators….”
Tough titty. And I’m sure they were (tough). I think those officers are entitled to a good hand scrub / boil at end of shift.