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Latest Trend in #Ferguson Protests: Blocking America’s Highways

Latest Trend in #Ferguson Protests: Blocking America’s Highways

Comparisons to Tiananmen Square’s famous Tank Man being made.

A lot of San Diegans were caught in gridlock when a group of student protesters from my alma mater, University of California – San Diego, blocked Interstate 5 just in time for morning rush hour.

Dozens of UCSD students brought traffic to a halt on northbound Interstate 5 Wednesday morning to protest the decision of a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., not to indict a white policeman for killing an unarmed black teenager.

A crowd of an estimated 50 to 70 protesters marched onto the freeway at Nobel Drive at about 6:49 a.m., blocking the northbound lanes. They remained in the roadway for about 40 minutes until San Diego police arrived and removed them.

The protesters left the freeway peacefully and began marching on surface streets. There were no immediate reports of arrests.

The demonstrators, led by an unidentified man with a bullhorn, held signs objecting to the Missouri grand jury’s decision not to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed but allegedly came at the officer and, at one point, tried to take his service weapon from him.

Before authorities arrived on the freeway, several stranded motorists exited their vehicles and yelled at the protesters to move. At least one frustrated motorist got into a brief physical confrontation with the man holding the bullhorn.

The Fox 5 interview with one of the student protesters is chilling. The young lady lists race-based grievances that have not actually occurred, but which are fantasy scenarios concocted by the race hustlers in our nation.  She has not been educated, but indoctrinated.

The reports of highway- and byway-blocking demonstrations are coming from across the nation;

The American press is working hard to give these protests “meaning”. For example, comparisons are being made between a man who stood in front of a row of armored vehicles during protests in Ferguson with the iconic photo of the Tiananmen Square standoff between tank and citizen.

LI #28b

As I Tea Party organizer, I shudder to think about how my group would have been portrayed if we shut down I-5 during one of our rallies.

When President Obama indicated to the race-based advocates who had assembled in Ferguson prior to the decision that he wanted them to “stay the course”, I guess he meant that they were to block the roads.

This is one race drama that President Obama and race activists built. With over 40 percent of our nation’s roads in less than optimal condition, it is apparent they have more interest in building protests that block streets than working to repair them.

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I work for LAPD and we were on tactical alert the night of the grand jury announcement.

After an extremely busy 14-hour shift with no break, I was allowed to go home.

Five minutes later I was stuck on the 110 Harbor Freeway trying to get to the 10 West. I turned on KNX 1070 a.m. to find out “protesters” were blocking the 110 and CHP was waiting for backup. The 10 West connection was also closed.

The aggravating end to an aggravating day.

Have to remember there was basically no social media during the 1992 riots. Now it can be used to foment lawlessness and organize flash attacks. Once a critical mass of civil unrest is reached as the risk/reward quotient moves in the criminals’ favor, there is little law enforcement can do.

I think it was a mistake to make the announcement as darkness came. I’d have made it in the middle of the day during some televised NFL games. You can’t let them reach critical mass.

    I keep hearing that the prosecutor had no choice because Holder’s people were already leaking the decision out. And the microsecond the family got official wind Crump was putting out an angry statement to the media, etc.

This will be all fun and games until someone gets killed.

And they will.

First, I would like that first young lady to cite the source of her “28 hour” statistic.

Second, I would like the second lady to know that we do care. We care about truth as demonstrated by evidence. The truth is, Michael Brown was a POS thug wannabe, as demonstrated by a video of him robbing a store and roughing a clerk.

Third, ufff… can’t do this… It’s pointless. Can’t fit reason in a pea-brain.

I think we’ll see this evolve into armed blockage of major thoroughfares and highways as a kind of modern day train robbery.

A line of armed gangbangers stretched across a highway would bring traffic to a halt and the stuck and stranded virtual parking lot of trapped motorists would be easy pickings for armed gangs to rob and terrorize.

I think we’ll see it at some point in the future.

    LHC: I had not even considered that possibility when I wrote this piece, but I cannot deny that is a very scary scenario that could be in the future — given everything we are seeing now.

      LukeHandCool in reply to Leslie Eastman. | November 26, 2014 at 8:14 pm

      Leslie, I think social media is proving to be a double-edged sword.

      Once a critical mass of civil unrest is reached and law enforcement is stretched hopelessly thin, I would expect social-media wired gangs to take advantage of this easy corral.

        weenchit in reply to LukeHandCool. | November 26, 2014 at 8:41 pm

        If it ever gets that bad, then we’ll find out just how many people support the Second Amendment. At least that argument will be over.

    snopercod in reply to LukeHandCool. | November 27, 2014 at 6:52 am

    Only in California or NY where citizens are disarmed. Where I live, you’d see about 100 deer hunters take care of that little problem within 10 minutes.

      Bingo. Likewise in Florida. Know why we didn’t have this level of violence and mayhem down here after Zimmerman was acquitted? Strong self-defense laws and over a million concealed carry licenses in the hands of law-abiding citizens might have had something to do with it.

    A line of armed gangbangers stretched across a highway would bring traffic to a halt and the stuck and stranded virtual parking lot of trapped motorists would be easy pickings for armed gangs to rob and terrorize.

    Only if you live in a state where you’ve willingly allowed your government to disarm you and leave you defenseless. “Elections have consequences”.

    That would not work well with this old lady.

    Mr. Branca, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!

The background on the YouTube video: Tyree Landrum told 10News he was on his way to work at an area Ross store when he was caught in the standstill. He got out of his car, and in front of 10News cameras, he reached out and pushed one male protester towards the center-divide. The protester was chanting “no justice, no peace” into a bullhorn until Landrum wrestled it away from him to shout his own message.

“Hey, I feel you; we ain’t got no justice either,” Landrum announced.

Landrum told a 10News photographer, “I got to go to Ross right now, homie. If I don’t get there, I’m going to get fired. I’ve got six f****** kids to feed, homie … m*****f****** get shot every f****** day. Deal with it the right way, not like this.”

http://www.10news.com/news/angry-driver-pushes-student-protester-on-blocked-i-5-112614

    Ragspierre in reply to Leslie Eastman. | November 26, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    And THAT is why you really don’t need to worry too much about the ‘armed thug’ blockade.

    It might work for a day or two. After that, the thugs would need to be car-proof and bullet-proof, ’cause we all got places to go, and noooooobody gonna slow us down, turn us ’round…

      April 29, 1992, Los Angeles, CA: Assholes were blocking Santa Monica Blvd in some kind of “protest” about the L.A.P.D. officers’ acquittal on charges of excessive force in the arrest of Rodney King. The protesters were stopping every car on the road, and letting the cars through only one at a time. As soon as the car in front of me was allowed to drive on, I drove through the protesters at about 2 miles per hour, refusing to stop for them, and brandishing a 1911 semi-auto pistol to keep the protesters from attacking my vehicle as I drove through.

      I have that very same 1911 with me this week, and I do not intend to stop for protesters who think they can block a road! I will bet my 2 ton car will do a lot more damage to flesh and bone than a few protesters will do to my car! I will slowly push through, but I will push through!

        Milhouse in reply to Mike45. | November 27, 2014 at 6:15 am

        Unfortunately it’s illegal, and you could get in deep legal trouble for it. That’s not how it should be.

I am going there.

This is obviously a co-ordinated exercise, and the organizers are trying to get somebody killed. Pushing large numbers of people across freeways is obviously dangerous, and the likely outcome is the injury or death of one or more of the participants.

I have driven in several of these cities, and the idea of stringing people across a highway like I-5 in La Jolla is terrifying.

If anybody is injured, I would find the organizers of this cluster*ck, and charge them with attempted murder.

    Ragspierre in reply to Valerie. | November 26, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    Two other deadly scenarios….

    1. chain-reaction pile up (with gasoline tanker special sauce), or

    2. ambulance with LEO, fireman, sympathetic child (who dies in the log-jam)

    Really, given these were often conducted after dark, it’s a marvel nobody was killed yet.

    Yes, they had months to coordinate, and, apparently, they couldn’t come up with a better plan.
    One day cannon fodder will realize that they are cannon fodder.

    Exiliado in reply to Valerie. | November 27, 2014 at 8:47 am

    If anybody is injured, I would find the organizers…

    I would not wait for somebody to get injured.
    I would find the organizers BEFORE anyone gets hurt and stop all this nonsense. They are putting people in danger, and I am sure there will be LEGAL ways to make them stop.

    But this is obama/holder’s justice department. They have a funny definition of justice.

The Milwaukee police chief gives the speech of the year at about the 9:00 mark.

Absolutely brilliant.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/11/26/time-magazine-op-ed-defends-rioting

I saw one in NYC, I think, where they started to block the intersection and a car knocked one over.

That’s the spirit!

Block a busy highway or road, don’t be surprised when you find yourself greasing the wheels.

    Milhouse in reply to Estragon. | November 27, 2014 at 6:13 am

    Unfortunately it’s illegal, and if you hurt or kill someone you’ll be in a world of trouble. It shouldn’t be illegal. It should be a principle of law that a person lawfully going about his business has the right to do so unobstructed, and if someone deliberately blocks his way he is consenting to be run over. I don’t care whether it’s anti-military protesters blocking trains, anti-development protesters blocking bulldozers, or union picketers blocking access to a plant, if they don’t get out of the way when requested then they should be fair game.

      Ragspierre in reply to Milhouse. | November 27, 2014 at 10:15 am

      You’ve gotta be one of the strangest ducks on the interwebs.

      First, WHAT is “illegal”?

      Driving through picketers with depraved indifference WOULD be illegal. And it always should be.

      Driving through a rioting crowd who give every appearance of trying to extract you from your vehicle is NOT illegal. And it never should be.

      Deliberately (or carelessly) running down demonstrators who peacefully block a street IS ILLEGAL. And it always should be.

      Cripes…

        Milhouse in reply to Ragspierre. | November 27, 2014 at 2:54 pm

        Why should it be illegal? Why should they be allowed to prevent you from going about your lawful business by deliberately putting themselves in danger and expecting you to care about their lives when they clearly don’t? There is no such thing as “peacefully blocking a street”; by definition that is not peaceful. It’s passive violence, but it’s still violence, and should be treated as such. Anyone who deliberately puts themselves in the way of a vehicle should be deemed to have consented to be run over.

        Ragspierre in reply to Ragspierre. | November 27, 2014 at 4:44 pm

        See?

        Asperger’s syndrome?

This starting to look like the perfect storm. I hope there is someone out there ready to hit back hard against any attempt at marshal law.

Let’s maintain a bit of perspective here. These highway stoppages are going to come and go quickly. They are just too dangerous, and there are too many people who just won’t stand for them, including a lot of good black leaders.

On the other hand, there is a call for “disrupting” Black Friday (yes, there’s a pun in there, but it ain’t mine). That could be somewhat more effective, in terms of hurting the US, which…let’s face it…is the goal here.

Ergo, if you are inclined to shop on Black Friday, go with power up. Show them you won’t be intimidated.

I sure will be, in every way I can contrive.

And, remember this, too: this is NOT a black/white issue. That is just the exploitable crisis de jour. This is the Collectivist/anarchists.

“This is the Collectivist/anarchists.” Do these groups have any affinity with the Chicago branch of the New Party.

I know how the late Gov. George Wallace would handle this ….

Hope nobody in those freeway blockages ever worked for Chris Christie.

Recall how the media torched him because of the ‘risk to innocents’ (ambulances delayed, PEOPLE COULD’VE DIED) but no problem with these thugs blocking the Lincoln Tunnel. Heroes of The Struggle.

….and when the first person is killed in one of these protests we will see the return of “Kip’s Ma”. BTW, whatever happened to the first “Kip’s Ma”? Cindy Sheehan?

Simple solution: Pass a law that removes any criminal or civil liability for running over pedestrians who deliberately block a freeway.

Call it the “Speedbump law”

    Milhouse in reply to myiq2xu. | November 27, 2014 at 6:19 am

    Yes, this. Exactly. I have been saying this for about 30 years, ever since I heard a great fuss being made about somebody who got his leg cut off by a train because he was on the tracks trying to stop a military train from going through. And I thought it was a pity he only lost a leg.

    I’m also thinking of those people who went to Vieques to stop the bombing. If I were president then, I’d have ordered the Navy to keep on bombing, and ignore anyone who had no right to be in the way. If you knowingly walk onto a bombing range you are consenting to be bombed.

      objection in reply to Milhouse. | November 27, 2014 at 6:30 am

      I guess you have never driven in New York City. Either drive through crowds of pedestrians or risk the very serious ire of other motorists. If you stop on green because the crosswalk is clogged — heaven help you. The people scatter.

      The action is not per se illegal. It is subject to all the laws covering defensive action in the face of a threat.

        Milhouse in reply to objection. | November 27, 2014 at 2:59 pm

        On the contrary, I have both driven and walked in NYC. Often. And I do my best not to enter an intersection that I can’t get out of; if the drivers behind me sound their horns, that’s their problem, not mine. I wish there were an app I could use to photograph drivers “blocking the box” and upload them to the NYPD to be ticketed.

        None of that has anything to do with the subject, which is people deliberately blocking a driver’s way, for the purpose of preventing him from proceeding.

          objection in reply to Milhouse. | November 28, 2014 at 6:24 am

          Just curious, are you a Manhattan resident who kept a car there (it is 500-600+++ a month to park), or did you drive in regularly from the suburbs?

          If you really drove in Manhattan, (as I did safely and daily for decades) you would understand that you don’t stop your car on a green light when other cars are moving forward. You proceed with traffic. If pedestrians are blocking an intersection by crossing on red, they part like the red sea as you push through. Done right it is a safe well choreographed ballet.

      I’m picking up a “Death Race 2000” kinda vibe from you, man.

    Ragspierre in reply to myiq2xu. | November 27, 2014 at 10:23 am

    In a lotta places, pedestrians are already barred by law from a freeway.

    Still, it shouldn’t be a capital crime. It is Darwinian enough already.

      Milhouse in reply to Ragspierre. | November 27, 2014 at 3:03 pm

      No, of course it shouldn’t be a capital crime. Once they’re off the road they should get a relatively minor penalty. But while they’re blocking the road drivers should not be required to stop for them, or to take any care not to kill them. Not as punishment for their crime, but simply as acceptable collateral damage.

      Milhouse in reply to Ragspierre. | November 27, 2014 at 3:05 pm

      For that matter, burglary isn’t a capital crime anywhere, but in many places it’s lawful to kill a burglar.

There’s a very easy fix for this: you just take your foot off the brake.

can’t find it now (every search just brings up Ferguson) but thought blocking an interstate was a federal crime.
anyone know if this is true and the applicable statute?

Interesting that no one suggested another consequence of these highway blockages, public outrage. They are totally counter productive and indeed stupid acts. There is no better way to turn large masses of people against a cause than to block them in traffic and make their lives miserable. You don’t win friends and influence people that way. You make enemies who will support suppressing the blockers by any means.