Man Arrested After Nearly Running Over Protesters in Washington
Police have arrested a man in Vancouver, WA, after he drove dangerously close to a crowd of protesters marching on Sunday. The unidentified driver, whose black Chevy was adorned with American flags and a Confederate flag decal, sped through the demonstrators after a Patriot Prayer rally that took place earlier in on Sunday afternoon. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.
According to Willamette Week, the driver initially approached antifascist counter-protesters as they walked down a street near downtown Vancouver. While he drove forward, protesters threw rocks and water bottles at the truck — prompting him to impulsively put his car in reverse and accelerate towards the protesters.
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Here’s how Willamette Week described the scene:
The driver continued to drive in reverse for nearly a block, stopping at the next intersection and revving his engine.
The protesters yelled for everyone to clear the street and changed their path to escape the truck, walking down 6th Avenue to Washington Street. At that point, however, the truck re-appeared cutting the marchers off.
Mike Bivins, a journalist covering the Patriot Prayer rally and counter-protest, shared a video of the driver accelerating through the crowd:
And Bivins also shared a photo of the driver:
Here’s the driver from another angle, shared by Andrew Dymburt, a journalist in Portland, OR.
Sunday’s Patriot Prayer rally reportedly attracted roughly 80 people, which is a lot more than showed up a similar event planned by Joey Gibson — the group’s leader — in San Francisco, CA. Patriot Prayer rallies are notoriously and consistently lackluster failures, but there is a glaring parallel between Sunday’s incident and the tragedy in Charlottesville, VA, where a white nationalist rammed his car through a crowd of activists, killing Heather Heyer.
Given that Fox News once shared a video called “a highlight reel of cars plowing through protesters trying to block the road,” I’m guessing this right-wing fantasy will continue to endanger lives across the country. This is Trump’s America, after all.