I have seen/read news reports of recent protests that have involved drivers and/or passengers in cars being pulled out of the vehicle and beaten. Absolutely no justification for that action and I condemn it. (Assuming the vehicle didn’t first hit the protesters.)
But now I’m seeing some of my “friends” on social media posting memes about running down any peaceful demonstrations that hinder traffic because so many people have been pulled from their cars.
My question is—how many times has this happened? Is there an accurate count of how many people have been pulled from their cars and assaulted?
Could you link to any of these news reports that you have seen?
Any of them? Maybe just one. This is not something that I’ve seen, even after a relatively extensive search.
By my best estimate the answer to your question is 0.
I think a better question is: has it happened?
How credible/unbiased is the news source? I would believe the NYT, the LA Times, Washington Post before Fox News for instance.
In the case of videos, not only consider the source but remember how easily video can be edited or faked.
Social media is a treacherously unreliable news source. Pass it on. Especially if you are going to base driving into pedestrians on said sources. The judge will not look kindly on you.
So, we are back to: has it happened?
Maybe I haven’t been paying attention, but I haven’t seen video footage of that happening to anyone since 1992.
Preventative vehicular homicide?
The beating of Reginald Denny and the start of the LA Riots.
From that story: “Video from the scene shows the woman appearing to accelerate into a crowd of protesters.” It’s implied in the OP that, that isn’t the sort of situation they are looking for evidence of.
Thanks. The Buffalo story is the one I had seen the headline. I didn’t read to see that she had driven into the crowd.
That really justifies threatening to turn your neighbors into human speed bumps. I hate idiots.
There was a video during the start of the current protests of protestors on a freeway in California I think smashing the drivers side windows of stopped cars, not pulling them out exactly but still deliberately messing with drivers trying to get them to either get out of their vehicles or drive through them.
So, it appears as though we have managed to come up with two examples.
One from 30 years ago, at the beginning of one of the worst series of riots our country has seen. Not really recent enough to consider relevant to justify actions based on it.
And the other one is from after a car accelerated into the crowd, injuring people. If anything is to be learned from it, it is that committing vehicular assault is more likely to get you dragged from your car than not trying to run people down.
And we also need to distinguish between protestors doing this, and rioters doing it. Those are two different sets of people, with very little overlap.
But you said in the OP,
Have you seen other reports, or just this one you misremembered the details of?
Locally for me protesters didn’t pull someone from their car, but shot somebody who attempted to drive on the road they were blocking:
https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/provo/protest-aftermath-police-seeking-information-regarding-shooting-hit-and-run-incidents/article_70804b23-1aca-5931-9a00-db341c41c4eb.html
The incident that probably got the most attention was the truck driver in Minneapolis who was beaten by protesters after unintentionally driving into a protest on the highway.
A man in Madison, WI, was beaten and robbed by protesters after driving into their path. He wasn’t pulled from his car; he got out after a bike was thrown at his windshield. He was a Black man who described himself as a supporter and later said he had no ill will toward the protesters.
https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/newsroom/incidentreports/incident.cfm?id=26636
Summary
This text will be hidden
A driver in Santa Rosa, CA was punched in the face and had her windshield shattered after she drove up to a protest. There were allegations that she drove aggressively (whether in approaching or trying to leave is not clear), but the police didn’t seem to think that was the case.
There was an incident in Louisville where protesters accosted a driver, who them hit one of them as she drove off. She wasn’t pulled from her car, but she was pursued, and one protester pointed a gun at her. She said that she was driving away in fear, because protesters had reached into her car and assaulted her, pulling out one of her dreadlocks.
There were a few drivers attacked in Oakland, CA, during the first weekend of unrest, with one being injured by a thrown bottle.
Protesters are reportedly swarming cars in Columbus, OH, with one driver reporting that someone tried to crawl in through his sunroof. No official accounts reporting these incidents, but the article says there is some video.
A driver in NYC was accosted and pursued after being surrounded by and then trying to back out of a group of protesters. The police said the driver panicked, and he was not charged.