A driver injuring pro-Palestinian protesters in Colombia is not an isolated incident

In Manhattan on Tuesday, witnesses said a man drove his car into a line of pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University, sending one of them to the hospital. On May 2, a driver in Portland, Oregon, accelerated toward a group of Portland State University students protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. According to police, the driver stopped his car, got out and sprayed pepper spray at the protesters before running away. In late October, someone drove into a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters in Minneapolis.

Reuven Kahane, the 57-year-old man who police say beat a woman in New York City on Tuesday, has been charged with second-degree assault.

These crimes were not sufficiently outraged. There are most likely two reasons for this. First, the affected victims protested for the people of Gaza. The second reason is that these aggressions follow a nationwide effort to denigrate protesters in general and to protect from prosecution and even fully immunize drivers who injure protesters with their vehicles.

Reuven Kahane, the 57-year-old man who police say hit a woman in New York City on Tuesday, has been charged with second-degree assault, prosecutors said. The 55-year-old woman who police said he hit suffered only minor injuries and was released from the hospital. She and another volunteer who was protecting the student protesters were also arrested. The injured woman was charged with unlawful assembly and criminal coercion for banging on the hood of Kahane’s car, according to police; Her 63-year-old volunteer colleague was also charged with criminal breach of trust, as was Kahane, who was accused of banging on the hood of his car. The district attorney declines to prosecute her.

Kahane, a New York developer, declined to discuss the events that led to his arrest when contacted by The Associated Press.

The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 exposed the country’s inherent anti-Black racism and the protests that followed – protests that often intentionally closed major highways, which of course sparked a white backlash.

That’s not the case in New York, but states across the country have begun passing laws that granted some immunity to drivers who injured protesters, essentially giving them the green light to use their vehicles as weapons.

In April 2021, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 1674, which states that a motorist who “unintentionally injures or kills any person shall not be held criminally or civilly liable for the injury or death” if the driver is “fleeing a riot.” … based on the reasonable belief that the escape was necessary to protect the driver of the motor vehicle from serious injury or death” and “exercised due care at the time of death or injury.” This does not appear to give drivers carte blanche to intentionally allow demonstrators to escape run over, but can very easily be abused by aggressive people who claim they were simply afraid.

“It will not be a peaceful protest if you impede the freedom of others,” said Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin McDugle, who authored Oklahoma’s driver immunity law, at the time. McDugle referred to a horrific incident in which a pickup truck plowed into protesters, seriously injuring three people: “The driver of that truck had his family in it, and they were scared to death.”

Months later, Iowa passed a law similar to Oklahoma.

A similar attempt in 2021 in Tennessee was ultimately thwarted. Still, the governor signed a bill Thursday that makes blocking a street or highway a felony, and a bill pending in the Louisiana Legislature this year aims to limit the liability of people who attack protesters approach the road.

When Joe Biden announced his 2019 presidential campaign via video message, he immediately invoked the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, “home to a defining moment for this nation in recent years,” where “a violent clash occurred.” . A brave young woman lost her life.”

Heather Heyer, 32, who stood up to racists in Charlottesville, was hit by a car driven by a man himself driven by hate.

But neither Biden nor other politicians on the right or left, local or national, have said much about the recent trend of cars driving toward or through protesters.

But neither Biden nor other politicians on the right or left, local or national, have said much about the recent trend of cars driving toward or through protesters. Is it because these acts didn’t kill anyone? Or is it because their goals are not worth shouting about?

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posted last month on “It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.”

The “nonsense” he refers to is legitimate anti-authoritarian political protest. And that’s exactly what the Republicans and their supporters really want to protect themselves against.

Whatever the reason people are no longer speaking out about these incidents, we must not become deaf to the depravity of people driving into a crowd with which they politically disagree. And we must not become deaf to the awfulness of politicians who use their words and their legislation to encourage such behavior.