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Car plows through protesters during Ferguson rally in south Minneapolis [W:349]

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Napoleon said:
He had a stopped car directly in front of him, a large mob in front of that car, and traffic flowing around him from behind. Your recommendation would have him backing into traffic to give him the clearance to go around the car in front of him and causing an accident. No, he made the right call and the right assumption that people should and would disperse from an illegal assembly in the road to allow him to get out of the situation.
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Right, he made the right choice to drive into the crowd:roll:
 
He should have put the pedal to the metal much earlier. No reason for him to become a Reginald Denny victim of a dancing 'Football' Williams. These morons had no right to be in the street to begin with.
 
Did you notice how no one pulled a gun on the car? I noticed.
 
Hangin' Chad said:
He should have put the pedal to the metal much earlier. No reason for him to become a Reginald Denny victim of a dancing 'Football' Williams. These morons had no right to be in the street to begin with.
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The correct answer is the police should have filled that intersection with teargas the moment the protesters entered it.
 
Bodhisattva said:
Fair enough and I agree with the slippery slope. What about:


EDIT: What happened to the guy that was hit for texting and driving even though he wasn't driving? Not gonna comment on that one now?...
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The texting and driving was just a crack anyway. I'm not going to get in a pissing match about who was justifiably afraid. For everyone who said the guy that hit someone was justfiably afraid because this other guy got hit, you could say that those protesters were justifiably afraid of getting run over.

Be it a legacy of racism or whatever, these protests show that something is badly broken in our society. People who usually will go on about tyranny and not trusting the government are all about trusting the government here, and vice versa. Sorry but if you have a problem with heavy handed government tyranny, you should have a problem with what happened in Ferguson. You should have a problem with using the military as a police force.

It's not about race as much as it's about the relationship between the government and the governed. This, the Tea Party and OWS are all about that. I know that many here are too partisan to see that, but it is true.
 
Jerry said:
The correct answer is the police should have filled that intersection with teargas the moment the protesters entered it.
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Right. You having to buy health insurance is tyranny, but heavy handed policing isn't.:roll:
 
rocket88 said:
People who usually will go on about tyranny and not trusting the government are all about trusting the government here, and vice versa. Sorry but if you have a problem with heavy handed government tyranny, you should have a problem with what happened in Ferguson. You should have a problem with using the military as a police force. It's not about race as much as it's about the relationship between the government and the governed. This, the Tea Party and OWS are all about that. I know that many here are too partisan to see that, but it is true.
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Its not about partisanship so much as it is about pointing out hypocrisy. In this case I think its clear that the supposedly justice-seeking mob featured in that video would have dragged that driver out of his car and torn him to pieces in the middle of the street had they succeeded in busting out his windshield. What these people really want is not something they are entitled to and that something is revenge for the wrongs they think have been done to them.
 
My initial view was there is nothing wrong with what the driver did, but I'm not so sure after watching in many times.

If you are in your car and a bunch of people are standing in the street for whatever reason and won't move, can you decide to just push thru them with your car? In my opinion no - no different than if people are annoying standing in a doorway talking (not rare) I can't just forcibly shove them out of the way.

The car was attacked ONLY have a teenage girl's leg was trapped under the car - for which if the car went forward further she could have been seriously hurt.

They driver changed lanes to the right to the slowly push thru the crowd, rather than to the left where a lane was open. The driver also could have simply backed up.

That was not a riot, it was a protest. My inclination now is against the driver. If 20 people are standing in front your car - whether it be in a St Patrick's street party, impromptu football game win, or a protest, I don't think you can just put it in gear and drive - since you could knock people into other people not even knowing what's happened - which is what happened.

I think the driver was likely in the wrong, unless the driver was being threatened BEFORE he started to drive into people. On the driver's behalf, he did stop when it appears he realized someone was knocked down and under his car. When she was clear, he then slowly drove on with the car under attack. I'm ok with that.

What I'm not ok is he deciding to push thru a group of people with his car when the people were making no threats - or least none I saw. Even then, he should have backed up.

Protests are very American. That was a protest, not a riot.
 
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Jerry said:
Did you notice how no one pulled a gun on the car? I noticed.
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Good observation Jerry.

When the car was "attacked" was AFTER that teen girl knocked down and her leg pinned in front of the wheel. Fortunately, the driver stopped. Fortunately, they got him to.

He shouldn't have drove into those people as he was under no danger, could have backed up and could have gone to the open left lane. I think the driver decided he was NOT going to be forced to turn right when he didn't want to, wrongly pushed into the people - then realized someone was knocked down, he stopped, the people rightly did charge to stop the car too - and him right to then keep going after she was clear.

He should not have pushed into the people. He should have backed up.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
I don't think the video shows enough to determine how it started to be honest with you. There's no 'before bodies contacted the vehicle' to see so maybe they jumped on the hood - maybe he ran into them intentionally.
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In the the 2nd part of the video, starting at 0:51 you can see an overhead shot of what happened. The car was not being accosted as it pulled out from behind anothe car and approached the protesters. Then he starts plowing into the crowd, knocking some people over and almost running over that kids legs just before it stops. Then, and only then, do protesters start attacking him, so he takes off knocking some other people over.

The driver should be charged with vehicular assault and thrown in jail
 
joko104 said:
Good observation Jerry.

When the car was "attacked" was AFTER that teen girl knocked down and her leg pinned in front of the wheel. Fortunately, the driver stopped. Fortunately, they got him to.

He shouldn't have drove into those people as he was under no danger, could have backed up and could have gone to the open left lane. I think the driver decided he was NOT going to be forced to turn right when he didn't want to, wrongly pushed into the people - then realized someone was knocked down, he stopped, the people rightly did charge to stop the car too - and him right to then keep going after she was clear.

He should not have pushed into the people. He should have backed up.
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It'll be an interesting court case....on the one hand yeah he should have sat there instead of trying to roll through the crowd.....on the other hand he can't go a diferent direction safly, the crowd were occupying the intersection illegaly, and the cops did nothing to clear the road or control car traffic.

I think everyone's in the wrong on this one.
 
sangha said:
In the the 2nd part of the video, starting at 0:51 you can see an overhead shot of what happened. The car was not being accosted as it pulled out from behind anothe car and approached the protesters. Then he starts plowing into the crowd, knocking some people over and almost running over that kids legs just before it stops. Then, and only then, do protesters start attacking him, so he takes off knocking some other people over.

The driver should be charged with vehicular assault and thrown in jail
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As should everyone in the intersection and the police Watch Commander.
 
Bodhisattva said:
Wait... what? Do you even know what happened? Guy drives down street. People in way. He tries to slowly drive through.
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The video shows you are wrong. It shows that cars were able to avoid the crowd by turning left. Instead of waiting, he passes the car in front of him on the right (it's illegal to pass on the right) and plows into the crowd knocking people over and nearly running over someone's legs. Then, and only then does the crowd hit and surround his car. Before that, no one was even near his car.
 
Here's an interesting little bit about Mr Rice, the driver of the car
Rice’s driving history in Minnesota includes three drunken driving convictions, with the most recent coming in 2003, according to court records. He’s also been convicted of driving with an open liquor bottle, and driving after his license was canceled and in violation of restrictions placed on his license. The most recent of these convictions came in early 2008.
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Lord Tammerlain said:
Just sort of bumped into a few people?

If a black man did that most conservatives would support the shooting of the driver and claim self defense
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You were able to discern the race of the driver? To this very moment I don't know it.

And who cares about what conservatives would support anyway?
 
sangha said:
Here's an interesting little bit about Mr Rice, the driver of the car
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And still the State gave him another driver's license.

Those protesters should thank this guy because if it wasn't for this incident the nation wouldn't care at all that some random people in an unrelated town were protesting lawful self-defense by a cop with an illegal protest.
 
haymarket said:
You have to wonder what would be the response of the usual crowd here if the people in Ferguson insisted on their right to keep and bear arms as they protested?

Okay - I was being an obvious smartass as we don't have to wonder at all what their reaction would be.
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There were armed protesters.

There just isn't anything to talk about because nothing really happened with guns. I don't even know that business owners protected their property with firearms at all.
 
haymarket said:
I certainly sympathize with those concerns. I also sympathize with people who do not want to be isolated off in their protest zones because they are an inconvenient pain in the ass to everybody else. I happen to think that is one of the purposes of a good protester - to be an effective pain in the ass.

Is there not some middle ground that people of good will and those who respect all rights cannot agree on?
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Sure. They have their protest in an empty parking lot.

....not in the middle of an active intersection.
 
rabbitcaebannog said:
The girl who was hit by the car did not jump on the hood.
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Common sense says if you enter into an active intersection you will likely be struck by a moving vehicle. She does bear at least half the responsibility here.
 
rabbitcaebannog said:
....because he hit someone.
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Then I trust we can see all of them in court for performing an illegal citizen's arrest.

Anyway standing in front of a car which just hit a crowed is not wise at all. The best way to disable the vehicle is to plug up the exhaust; the engine will stall and won't restart until cleared. At least slash the tires so that car can't travel far. Take one of those protest pickets and jam it in the radiator causing the engine to overheat and, depending on the year of the car, shut the car down automatically.

If you stand in front of the car you will just get hit, as is what happened.
 
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