#ShutDownDC Climate Change Protest Interrupts Morning Commute, Blocking Emergency Vehicles
Nothing says SAVE THE PLANET more than twerking in and littering the streets with confetti, plastic tape, and burnt textbooks.
The way to not get people to your side is disrupting their daily routine, especially in an already traffic-congested place like Washington, DC.
The #ShutDownDC rally caused even more traffic jams in DC, including holding up emergency vehicles like ambulances and fire trucks. Some videos show people throwing glitter and confetti because we all know they do not practice what they preach.
The Protest
The organizers targeted the busiest intersections in DC, which included “Farragut Square in downtown Washington, Columbus Circle near the Union Station train terminal, and Folger Park on Capitol Hill.” It led to complete closures at these intersections:
- New York Avenue is blocked at North Capitol Street
- Connecticut and K Streets are blocked
- New York Avenue and Florida Avenue
- North Capitol and Massachusetts Avenue
- 16th and K Street in Northwest
- 14th Street and Independence Avenue
News Center Maine printed DC’s policy on protests, which sounds reasonable:
People have the right to protest, but “reasonable restrictions” are in place to make sure everyone stays safe.
The policy states in part:
“…to protect public safety, persons, and property, and to accommodate the interest of persons not participating in the assemblies to use the streets, sidewalks, and other public ways to travel to their intended destinations, and use the parks for recreational purposes. It is the statutory responsibility of the MPD to preserve the public peace, to prevent crime, arrest offenders, and to protect the rights of persons and their property.”
Protesters used boats, cars, ladders, or anything else they could find to completely block off the streets. Some even chained themselves to the objects, which led police to cut them loose.
They wanted to “disrupt the systems that created and perpetuate the climate crisis.” One spokesperson insisted that climate change activists have learned the best way “to communicate the gravity of the climate change crisis” is to shut down a city.
Okay, bro.
Police arrested 32 people. Police Chief Peter Newsham said they will charge them with blocking an intersection. As of now, “that’s as serious as the charges get.”
So while these people cause disruptions and litter a conservative has actually done something that not only helps people but the environment.
Our wonderful environment and science expert Leslie Eastman has written about Scott Presler, who is also known as #ThePersistence. Instead of complaining and doing nothing, Presler went to Baltimore and Los Angeles to pick up the trash.
Social Media
Of course people flooded Twitter with pictures, videos, and reactions.
Cars and trucks are trying to turn around after meeting climate change protesters near New York Avenue and 395. #ShutDownDC pic.twitter.com/e8NIvIKOQh
— WUSA9 (@wusa9) September 23, 2019
.@AndrewCFollett is right: unlike what #shutdowndc is saying, their blockade is clearly and obviously impacting bus riders, and even WMATA is admitting to it: pic.twitter.com/fbbxTb6NpT
— Ashley Rae Goldenberg (@Communism_Kills) September 23, 2019
Making the commute difficult or impossible for lower-income DC workers who need to punch a clock while the wealthy and powerful can just work from home or come in late is some galaxy brain level tactics from the #ShutDownDC crowd.
— Aaron Ross Powell (@ARossP) September 23, 2019
Polluting to save the planet. All righty then. #ShutDownDC https://t.co/qAGIZmgm8M
— Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) September 23, 2019
I’m in downtown DC where climate activists with Extinction Rebellion have blocked the intersection of K and 16th streets with a big sailboat that says “rebel for life.” @WTOP @WTOPtraffic #ShutDownDC pic.twitter.com/NWIO1aRvM3
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) September 23, 2019
Saw on the r/washingtondc subreddit about #ShutDownDC – I’m all for climate change activism, and I think sustainable energy will be the future. But this is really going to hurt the people you don’t want it to hurt. pic.twitter.com/YrMRZ4fJ60
— Carly Anne Wooten (@CarlyAnneWooten) September 23, 2019
Severely inconveniencing people to the point of potentially threatening their livelihoods while haranguing them for not agreeing with me is how I usually get people to come over to my side of the issues. #ShutDownDC
— Adam Trahan (@AdamTrahan) September 23, 2019
Now #ShutDownDC has guys twerking while people throw confetti at them to… stop climate change? Littering confetti is a bold new tactic to stop climate change, let’s see how it works out. These people are not mentally well.
pic.twitter.com/AXsEqT1fdS— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 23, 2019
Climate protesters on my way to work decide that their protest is more important than a low-income worker’s job pic.twitter.com/DHuBjlMGqm
— Katrina B Haydon? (@katrinabhaydon) September 23, 2019
Police are throwing away the yards of plastic tape they confiscated from the protestors #ShutDownDC pic.twitter.com/P2sRAkN3W1
— Jane Recker (@janerecker) September 23, 2019
No word on officials on how action will be taken at Mass and 19. Looks like the protestors were burning textbooks. #ShutDownDC pic.twitter.com/Urk0hiaAyX
— Jane Recker (@janerecker) September 23, 2019
Traffic has been halted across DC.
This is one of the dozen intersections that has been hit.#ShutDownDC
— Joshua Potash ? (@JoshuaPotash) September 23, 2019
Some of these protesters are actually bound to each other inside these metal tubes linked to the sailboat. Seems like they’re in it for the long haul. #ShutDownDC pic.twitter.com/VJoNgKPRT9
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) September 23, 2019
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Comments
Is the twerk jerk an officer in their Army? If so this is going to be over quickly.
He’s just reacting to hearing the TRUTH about the FAKE “climate changes” Fake Show.
“Popular Conservative Banned from Fox for Telling the Truth About Climate Icon
HE TOLD THE TRUTH
According to The Washington Post, Mr. Knowles said two unforgivable words — mentally ill. On The Story on Fox News Monday night, Knowles said, “the climate hysteria movement is not about science. If it were about science, it would be led by scientists rather than by politicians and a mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left.”
https://www.independentsentinel.com/popular-conservative-banned-from-fox-for-telling-the-truth-about-climate-icon/
The child has an array of developmental disorders and mental illnesses including Autism, ADHD, OCD, depression, anxiety, and once had selective mutism and would not eat which stumped her growth.
The left is exploiting her and will discard her when she is no longer useful.
https://www.independentsentinel.com/climate-icon-greta-thunberg-collaborates-on-behalf-of-antifa/
Sign boards and colored graphics rely heavily upon petroleum products for manufacture. Same for fancy footwear with swooshes on ’em. And smart phones. And yellow crime tape. And all the means of transportation these ‘activists’ employed to arrive in D.C.
Also, those boat trailers didn’t coast into town by themselves. Did they properly dispose of that yellow and pink paint cans?
Mostly, stop eye pollution!! Ban twerking twinks. Good grief.
Typical Left: Do as I say, and I will do what I want.
more beta males and butt-ugly women–right
“Showing your ass”
Yeah, that’s a good way to change hearts and minds.
These are not attractive people. In any sense of the word.
Remember, these people believe they are our betters
None of this was ever about the climate or the planet. That’s just the excuse du jour.
It’s really about feeling important by thumbing their noses at “regular” people. It’s just luck they didn’t put on black masks and bring baseball bats and concrete flavored milk shakes.
Exactly. They’re playacting.
That was a small sailboat. And they basically ruined it by painting it. So, why try to maintain it?
It looked like the people chained themselves to the trailer, not the boat. So, I would have gotten a bunch of guys to lift the boat onto the tow trailer. We’ve done it to get boats off the rocks after a storm. Or get a tow truck with a good winch to lift it. Even if they had used chains to “tie” the boat to the trailer, it would have been easier to saw those things off than be bending in odd positions to saw off whatever was around the arms and wrists.
Then, bring a second tow trailer in and lift the boat trailer. The people would have been forced to follow the trailer. Then, just leave the boat and the trailer/people in the impound yard for a while.
But my first impression was to just hitch that boat/trailer to a good pickup and start moving. After a few feet of road rash, they would have been screaming in pain.
The road rash solution would be my choice. ATGATT
These are people who were probably damaged in childhood. Someone molested/neglected and/or abused them.
We have to quit tolerating the acting out of the dysfunctional. And we certainly should quit humoring them, letting them think they have wisdom to impart to us.
My wife flew to DC this morning. I saw what was happening up there and warned her about these loonies. She said she didn’t run into any. I’m grateful we don’t have to live in a city. This world is stupid and crazy.
That guy has one serious problem, no matter the cause.
If someone had simply driven through the protesters and ended up injuring or even killing some of them, and I was on the jury when it came to trial, I can guarantee you that the jury decision would end up being either not guilty or a hung jury, because I would absolutely refuse to vote to convict them of ANYTHING.
I’ve been saying for at least 30 years that it should be legal for anyone who is going about his lawful business, and is blocked by people standing in his way, to drive through or over them. The same applies to those who lie down on train tracks, or invade shooting or bombing ranges. Ignore them, and if they get hurt it’s their problem. I don’t care whether they’re political protesters, union picketers, “activists” for some cause, or enemy saboteurs; they have the right to express their opinion, but not to block traffic.
Author Lee Harris called this a “Fantasy Ideology.” In his book “Civilization and Its Enemies” he tells of a similar protest from his youth during the Vietnam War protests, when he and a friend disagreed about a protest meant to shut down DC bridges. He felt that the protest would be counterproductive to the goal and might turn people against the cause.
“And what it did for him was to provide him with a fantasy — a fantasy, namely, of taking part in the revolutionary struggle of the oppressed against their oppressors. By participating in a violent anti-war demonstration, he was in no sense aiming at coercing conformity with his view — for that would still have been a political objective. Instead, he took his part in order to confirm his ideological fantasy of marching on the right side of history, of feeling himself among the elect few who stood with the angels of historical inevitability. Thus, when he lay down in front of hapless commuters on the bridges over the Potomac, he had no interest in changing the minds of these commuters, no concern over whether they became angry at the protesters or not. They were there merely as props, as so many supernumeraries in his private psychodrama. The protest for him was not politics, but theater; and the significance of his role lay not in the political ends his actions might achieve, but rather in their symbolic value as ritual. In short, he was acting out a fantasy.”
That’s all these idiots are doing. They’re LARPing, playacting as brave climate warriors engaged in a life-or-death struggle. They don’t care whether they anger people or even turn them against the movement, because the other people don’t matter at all.
So climate change protests are now a bunch of white guys making POC late for work and dumping trash in POC neighborhoods. OK, got it.
and driving thru/over them is a crime……ain’t the law wonderful….
There is a right to protest, in public, in this country. There is also a right to travel freely. When these two rights clash, then those exercising those rights should be free to settle the matter between themselves, in any manner that they desire. And, even in DC, most motor vehicles still have tire irons.
…and now thanks to Dick Heller and Wrenn vs DC several thousand vehicles (~1,900 as of November 2018) have legally carried concealed firearms as well….
No. Those blocking traffic do not have the right to use force. Those being blocked do. In the first instance the police should forcibly open the roads, but if they refuse then the victims, i.e. the drivers, should be entitled to self help.