By David Futrelle
Yesterday, at an alt-right “Patriot Prayer” rally in Vancouver, Washington, the driver of a Confederate-flag-bedecked truck sped backwards into a group of AntiFa counterprotesters; luckily those in his path were able to jump out of the way.
Here’s how Willamette Week described the incident:
A black Chevy Silverado with Oregon plates and two large American flags and several small flags hanging from its windows (along with a Confederate flag decal displayed on the back window of the cab) drove up to the marchers. It was driving slowly down a street flanked by people dressed in black bloc clothing.
As the crowd parted to clear the way for the truck to move forward, protesters filled the street behind it and started throwing rocks and water bottles at the truck.
The driver suddenly put his vehicle in reverse and accelerated toward the protesters. As he sped up, people jumped out of the street.
The driver continued to drive in reverse for nearly a block, stopping at the next intersection and revving his engine.
The incident was captured on video by journalist Mike Bivins; unfortunately the camera angle makes it hard to see what was going on behind the truck as it backed up.
Whoa, dangerous stuff. People throwing stuff at this truck pic.twitter.com/9PJvK31euB
— Michael (@michaelbivins44) September 10, 2017
Shortly afterwards the truck was pulled over by police, the driver was briefly detained, then released without charges.
The driver was apparently quite pleased to remain a free man, posting a brief video of himself literally wrapped in the American flag and shouting out “no arrest for this proud [unintelligible] patriot!” His brother went on to praise his actions on Facebook, as Mother Jones journalist Shane Bauer noted in a tweet.
https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/907282637747716096
Despite the obvious similarity to the car attack in Charlottesville that left antifascist activist Heather Heyer dead, this incident has gotten almost no coverage in the media. Given that Wilson faced essentially no repercussions for what he did, I suspect it won’t be long before we see this terroristic tactic used again by someone else on the far right.
@Dali
They are, that’s a depressing thought that they wouldn’t even care, though. : ( Maybe I’m using the wrong word. Dems, liberals? Though I’d have figured they are basically centrists too, and effectively right wing by my UK standards. Either way, ideas like ‘upholding law and order’, ‘protect and serve’ are already seen as status quo even though it really doesn’t happen in practice, what needs improving/reframing are the ideas about what that actually means. While to me, an idea outside the status quo would be trying to change the whole system so we don’t need protecting from anyone to begin with. Under the current system, if, once in a blue moon, someone can get justice, even if it’s unfairly hard to get, it’s theoretically possible for the system to be reformed to obtain that outcome more. There are still some decent, progressive lawyers, right? Over here in the case of the hunts, despite the legal bias and bias in enforcement, there is a law that, despite the intentional loophole, could be enforced properly, and public opinion would support it. In this case, status quo supporters need to at least want protesters to be protected from the violent far right, and the risk of the use of vehicles as a weapon – would they at least say they wanted that already? It doesn’t sound totally outside status quo?
@Leo
Centrist usually means between the two party positions, which in the US means a fascist sympathizer. Liberals are no better, though, and everything I’m saying applies equally to them. In the UK, a centrist is more of a classist POS, although genteel racism never lurks far below the surface.
‘law and order’= lock up brown people and keep the poors in their place.
‘protect and serve rich white men‘. They leave a big part of the motto off mostly, for PR reasons.
That’s what leftists are after. Although 5he police don’t protect anyone worth protecting now, so getting rid of them hasn’t qn obvious downside.
Not necessarily.
Why would that matter?
@Feline
Can we just go over the part where anything I said had anything to do with egg-sucking ? Because I honestly don’t see that part.
I don’t know if it’s something I said or my tone or some obscure ESL mistake I made, but I’ll gladly correct and repost in a manner more becoming of my age (which FYI is old enough to have used modems, though I also don’t get what that’s got to do with anything).
@Sinkable John:
Sorry, that wasn’t directed at you, it was a general frustrated scream at the world spring-boarded off of your comment.
My bad, I should have been clearer.
@Feline
All good, and sorry about the passive-agression there. I’m glad we cleared that up.
About sums him up!
I’m so upset I missed this. Sharing widely. Thank you, David.