Anti-Israel activists caused car crashes on San Mateo Bridge
and blocked emergency vehicles in hijacked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day protest.
We previously reported how, on Monday, January 19, 2015, Anti-Israel activists blocked the San Mateo – Hayward Bridge.
While the protest ostensibly was about the #BlackLivesMatter movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, it was hijacked as so many such protests are by the anti-Israel contingent, just like in Ferguson and to a lesser extent in New York City during the Eric Garner protests.
Subsequent to that initial report, we have learned that it was much worse than originally thought. The tactics used were designed to cause maximum traffic disruption and mayhem, including protester cars being abandoned on the roadway, resulting in several car crashes and emergency vehicles being blocked.
The activists used a dangerous tactic of blocking both directions initially, making the scene inaccessible initially to emergency vehicles:
Over 100 Stanford students and community members demonstrating against police brutality temporarily shut down the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge Monday afternoon, snarling the evening commute.
The group made their way on eastbound and westbound lanes of state Highway 92 on the bridge at the high-rise around 4:50 p.m., CHP Officer Daniel Hill said.
The protesters had been dropped off by cars on westbound lanes and briefly made their way to both sides of the freeway, he said.
As of shortly after 5 p.m., eastbound lanes were reopened for motorists heading to Hayward but westbound lanes were still closed off for cars traveling to Foster City, Van Eckhardt said.
Drivers were seen turning around at the toll plaza and going the wrong way on the bridge as CHP tried to find tow trucks to take away abandoned cars left on the bridge by protesters. The bridge was reopened shortly before 5:30 p.m.
(Image via Farah Salazar Twitter)
In this video taken by a stalled driver on the other side of the highway, you can see how initially traffic was backed up on both sides creating a dangerous situation high on the span (the initial comments seem to indicate the drivers thought it was an abortion protest until they got closer):
This local news report summarizes the overall traffic disaster, including some drivers going the wrong way on the bridge to escape the jam:
SFgate reports, MLK Day protest on San Mateo Bridge caused crashes, CHP says (h/t EdgeOfTheSandbox Twitter):
A Martin Luther King Jr. Day protest that blocked traffic on the San Mateo Bridge during the evening commute also caused several crashes, authorities said Wednesday.
Protesters describing themselves as Stanford University students and carrying banners and a Palestinian flag were dropped off in the middle of the 7-mile span just before 5 p.m. Monday and shut down westbound traffic for more than an hour. The action was held in conjunction with several other Bay Area protests during the holiday honoring King.
The demonstration had a reverberating effect on the commute, causing several fender-benders and snarling traffic for hours even after lanes were cleared.
“One officer reported handling at least four collisions that resulted in minor injuries or property damages,” said Officer Daniel Hill of the California Highway Patrol.
Officers responded to small crashes on both sides of the bridge, but it was unclear how many vehicles were banged up.
One driver ditched a Honda Accord on the span after it was sandwiched between cars in westbound lanes during the protest, the CHP said.
The vehicle had “major front- and rear-end damage and the person ultimately abandoned it,” Hill said.
There were at least four crashes according to local television, and emergency vehicles had trouble getting through.
(Source: KRON4 Video)
It’s nothing short of a miracle that there were no serious injuries and that no ambulances had to be redirected, as happened in Boston, or worse, were stuck in the traffic jam.
Sixty-Eight people were arrested, mostly Stanford University students, who somehow view themselves as the victims in this incident.
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Comments
Question: Can the protesters be sued for the damage and disruption they caused? Is this the same protest that was encoraged by a college professor? I think to have read something to that effect a few days ago. If that is so, can this professor or the university itself be sued?
Yes, I’d say the idiots doing this could be sued, their organization(s) sued, and often aiders, abetters, and conspirators can be liable, too.
When you break a law in doing something like this, that is usually negligence per se, which means some of the predicates for proving up negligence are already in place.
I see attempted murder here. After that, the civil suits flow.
There are also the elements of false imprisonment, too. This is California, and blocking traffic is deeply unpopular.
civil suit???
What are you going to do, sue to take away their birthday? These lowlife’s don’t own anything and never will. Get in line behind the $120k these clowns have in student debt they racked up to get their degrees in social justice.
Forget the lawsuits. Let the insurance handle it. This is anarchy.
I think the least of their concerns are going to be the police and Israel if this keeps up.
It looks to me that the CHP made short work of this. They made the arrests swiftly and had traffic controlled and moving in short order, all things considered. CHP officers can be real pricks, but they usually handle disasters very well and don’t pull their punches.
Nice work.
I wonder what would have happened if about 15 or so drivers grabbed their tire irons and confronted these guys? And surely somebody had some gasoline that could have been thrown on that Pali flag. Most states have a “false imprisonment” statute that makes blocking somebody’s way a felony. It would seem to be self defense if you had to use violence to break free. But since this happened in the land of fruits and nuts, who knows. But if they tried this on me I’m gonna hurt them. Real bad.
The land of fruits and nuts has more conservatives residing in it than in any other state. They just happen to be outnumbered by leftist Nazis and are forced to contend with a ‘pub party that ceded its power and nearly all its voice to the loonies two decades ago.
I’m curious just what the legal situation would be if you eased up on the brake and just let your car roll forward. Seriously, they caused car accidents and were blocking emergency vehicles.
If you injure or kill in this situation with your car, you are liable for the damage you cause. This will not be tolerated. Don’t even think about it.
Better: get your cameras out, confront the jerks loudly and eloquently, and post the videos.
I agree that injuring somebody (or worse) with your car in this situation is a felony and you will be prosecuted. I have another question though: If I get out of my car with my phone and ask them politely to move out of the way and they don’t respond and say no, then I would ask them if they are holding me against my will and if they don’t respond I would take that as a yes… so do I have a case and evidence for false imprisonment…?
I contend that I have a legal right to defend myself and that I have a legal right to escape false imprisonment. I contend that it is perfectly justifiable for me to (1) drive through these “peaceful” protesters at a slow rate of speed, and (2) brandish a firearm if necessary to get through the barrier that these people have created with their bodies.
These students are supposed to be among our brightest? I’d say no. Not bright, but gullible, privileged, arrogant, and mis-guided. Their sterling records should reflect this idiotic and destructive action.
What we see is an outburst of terrorism. They are not hudlums but terrorists with changed tactic. They are driven by purely fascist ideology directed against whites in general and Jews in particular. They deny Holocaust, deny existing civil rights promoting division on racist and antisemitic grounds. It is extremely dangerous phenomenon. It is not a peaceful demonstration based on the 1 st. amendment.
Italian and german fascist movements also started in similar acts for PR purposes. Government should do something.
The massive police presence is there to keep the protesters from being thrown off the bridge or otherwise murdered, which is the natural human reaction.
They should be liable.
But we have an administration and a justice department that agree with their “cause” and with their methods.
Maybe the only way left to deal with these a-holes is indeed to get out of the car with a tire iron in your hand and make them move out of the way. Enough people should do so..
Were it a just world, every one of the protesters would be arrested and booked. And if the criminal justice system can’t serve up a well-deserved punishment, then the names and addresses would serve for service of a civil suit class action by all the John and Jane Does whose use of public roadways was deliberately denied them, and for all the implications of the lost time and other pain and suffering caused by the exhibitionist twerps with the flags and the chants and hollers.
Otherwise, if there’s no relief by our paralyzed governing class, there’s very little objection to the blockaded parties taking the law into their own hands.
Sooner or later there will be a motorcycle group like the Hell’s Angels, Mongols, or Bandidos who will be inconvenienced by such demonstrations. Several demonstrators will go to the hospital and a few more might get killed. That would be an awful crime.
Or Teamster truck drivers. Or shift workers just let out of a steel plant or trying to report.
Or.. God help the demonstrators if they block a road on the day welfare checks go out.
Why don’t they seize their cars, like they do for those accused of DUI (and they often keep the car, even if the charge is disproven)
I was thinking of sending their abandoned cars to the nearest junk yard which has vehicle crushing equipment. Maybe, some of these obnoxious Arabs should be placed in their trunks first.
Leftist “protesters” seem remarkably immune to civil and criminal suit. I expect nothing less this time.
You have to blame the city for this as well. As long as these protesters get the publicity they crave and then a slap on the wrist when arrested, they will keep doing it.
Their university could help (but won’t) by warning them a criminal record might harm their academic records.