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Thursday night, during a Black Lives Matter protest in Times Square, a driver plowed their Ford Taurus into a crowd of protesters. The protest was organized in New York following the release of details about the March killing of a black man named Daniel Prude.
A video of the incident shows protesters shouting, “No Justice, No Peace!”, a common BLM mantra. Then, a black Ford Taurus pulls up to protesters on bicycles, and is blocked from proceeding.
The motorist then honks before revving their engine and plowing into the crowd. Protesters are seen on the video getting out of the way before the car strikes them.
New York police have officially stated that the vehicle did not belong to the NYPD. An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Driving one’s vehicle into a crowd of people is not only dangerous, but also highly illegal. Reckless endangerment is the mildest charge one could receive for such conduct.
Sadly, 2020 has been a bizarre and trying year. While you were once able to log into the internet and see things like best rated washer and dryer prices, 2020 sees a new horror in the headlines every week.
Despite the rhetoric of some on the right, driving one’s vehicle into a crowd of people is extremely illegal. The circumstances of the incident rarely matter: whether protesters are blocking the road, surrounding the vehicle, or otherwise. Driving a vehicle into a crowd is extremely dangerous and could result in serious injury or death.
People who drive their vehicles into crowds of people on purpose are often charged with vehicular manslaughter, or even more serious crimes. In cases such as protests, prosecutors will often note the politically-motivated nature of the crime.
This is what happened following the 2017 Charlottesville murder, when a white supremacist drove his vehicle into a crowd. That incident resulted in the death of Heather Heyer, a protester who was in the crowd.
Her killer, Alex James Fields Jr., pled guilty to 29 of 30 charges of hate crimes. Should the person responsible for the Times Square incident be found by police, it is possible that prosecutors could charge them similarly.
Fields was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, as well as an extra 419 years due to minimum sentencing laws of the crimes he was found guilty for.
If you find yourself in a situation where you are driving in a city during a protest, take care to plot a course that doesn’t bring you near protesters. Otherwise, if you find your path blocked by protests, attempt to safely turn around and go another direction.
