#blocking traffic

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Anti-Israel activists block bridges in NYC, California, halt Chicago airport traffic

Dozens arrested as demonstrators also block roads in Philadelphia, Oregon, Sea-Tac airport and elsewhere, as part of global 'multi-city bloc

CHICAGO, Illinois  — Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down as part of a coordinated day of action against Israel’s war in Gaza.

In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into O’Hare International Airport around 7 a.m. in a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine,” according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers.

Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland.Kibbutz Nir

Similar protests were held across the United States and around the world, after the group A15 Action called for coordinating a “multi-city blockade… in solidarity with Palestine.”

“In each city, we will identify and blockade major choke points in the economy, focusing on points of production and circulation with the aim of causing the most economic impact,” the group said on its website.

Protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes. Protesters also blocked roads Monday in Philadelphia, and anti-Israel rallies were held in Los Angeles and other locations.

Demonstrators chant slogans at an outdoor shopping mall in downtown Los Angeles during a “Strike for Gaza” protest calling for the US to stop funding Israel and for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, on April 15, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Robyn Beck / AFP)

Near Seattle, the Washington State Department of Transportation said a demonstration closed the main road to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Social media posts showed people holding a banner and waving Palestinian flags while standing on the highway, which reopened about three hours later.

Protests were also planned in Canada, Italy, South Korea, Colombia and Belgium, while the X account for A15 posted photos of demonstrations in Greece, Spain and Australia.

[electronicsquid]

New Year’s Eve in New York 

(John Phillips. 1941)

[secular-jew]

Darwin Award winner of the week:

Germany: Protester glued his hand to the road. Very strong glue. Very big idiot. Instead of ripping his hand off the road, the police cut out a piece of the road out and released him with his hand still stuck to the pavement. Let him deal with it!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Scummy Privileged Leftist Highway Protestors Hate Us

...and I hate them too

By: Adam B. Coleman

Published: Dec 15, 2023

Fewer people are lower than a leftist protester who disrupts the lives of regular people just to make a gesture that accomplishes nothing. They behave like scummy privileged children as they make themselves more important than people with real responsibilities.

And I truly mean this when I say privileged because they clearly don't know what it's like to have your job reprimand you for being five minutes late or driving an hour to a job that barely pays you enough money to take care of your bills.

The thousands of people they interrupted on the highway in Los Angeles suffer the repercussions of being unable to make it to their destination on time. How many parents were late picking up their children? How many had their jobs on the line as they sat in man-made traffic?

I remember a video of a man who was being held up by protesters on the highway and the man was pleading with them to let him pass through otherwise he'll violate his probation. They didn't care that his freedom was on the line and he was actually trying to turn his life around.

For them, the ends always justify the means and if it means you go to jail so their "message" can be heard, then so be it. What's become blatantly true is that these people who act like they're the saviors of the world don't care about the people who live in it.

They're trained to be "disrupters" to bring attention to whatever nonsense social cause at the time but it's really about bringing attention to themselves. They're narcissistic performance artists who are forcing you to patronize their public theatrics.

Any logical person knows that blocking the highway has zero correlation to a ceasefire in a region halfway across the world but the goal isn't to bring a ceasefire but to cease our comfort. It's the irony of the most privileged people taking away hard-working American's comfort.

They're the grown-up version of children who fell on the floor screaming at the grocery store when they didn't get the candy they wanted except now they lay on highways having public tantrums for an outcome they can't bring to fruition in the Middle East.

And just like those spoiled children, all they can see is what they want and have no care for who they impact along the way to get it. Their public theatrical showcase is more important than you providing for your family.

These people sleep comfortably at night without a care in the world for how many emergency vehicles in the Los Angeles region couldn't reach people in dire need. I mean, they risked their lives to bring peace to Gaza, so you can risk yours by not making it to the hospital, right?

None of the consequences come in their direction because they'll be bailed out of jail by leftist non-profits in hours and given lenient sentences by a justice system that lacks the balls to make an example of people who put the lives of others in danger with an unlawful protest.

They'll feel no shame because they'll get high-fives from equally shameless people. They'll get told how righteous they are for standing up for the oppressed while completely ignoring how they oppressed thousands of people so they could get public recognition.

So, I mean this with all of my heart: they're amongst the most despicable, unrespectable, and insufferable people that exist in our society. They don't care about the poor or the struggling working class because their actions never show this type of care.

They're sociopathic classists who exercise their privilege when they see fit and couldn't give a damn about how it impacts you. I don't use the word "hate" often because it's reserved for special people, but I legit hate these people.

And why not? They hate us too and it shows.

--

==

Woke Privilege.

[chippersweetbaby]

i’m glad the people in those cars are being so patient

[sarcasticcynic]

YAFH

In the wake of months of "Black Lives Matter" and other similar protests against racism and police violence, last April the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature passed a controversial bill designed to chill such protests. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis proudly described the new law as "the strongest anti-rioting, pro-law enforcement piece of legislation in the country, and there's just nothing even close."

This new law--which expressly covers non-violent protests--almost certainly violates the First Amendment's guarantee of "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Among other things, the new law:

Creates and/or enhances numerous criminal penalties for "disorderly assemblies";

Specifically makes it a felony "to obstruct traffic during an unpermitted protest, demonstration or violent or disorderly assembly"; and

Immunizes vehicle drivers who cause injury or death while claiming to be "fleeing for safety from a mob." (You know, like the white nationalist who murdered Heather Heyer in Charlottesville.)

DeSantis was particularly proud of the provisions making it a felony to obstruct traffic during an entirely peaceful but nevertheless unpermitted protest, bragging:

"All of a sudden you have people out there shutting down a highway. They start to do that, there needs to be swift penalties."

On July 13, a group of "SOS Cuba" protesters (unpermitted) "marched to block traffic on the Palmetto Expressway" for hours. These protesters--unlike "Black Lives Matter"--were "the governor's own supporters," blocking traffic to oppose Communism and draw attention to the plight of protesters in Cuba.

For some reason, the police decided not to enforce the law against people supporting DeSantis's own position. To the contrary, the police actively supported those obstructing traffic, waving protesters onto the highway ramp and asking drivers "to avoid the expressway and use the Florida Turnpike instead."

Unsurprisingly, DeSantis wholeheartedly approved of his supporters violating the law he'd touted to prevent this very thing:

"I think people understand the difference between going out and peacefully assembling, which is obviously people's constitutional right."

"People," of course, doesn't include black people. Only non-black people have the constitutional right to go out and peacefully assemble. Everyone knows that. Especially the police.

[isaacsapphire]

i parse the name 'reginald denny' as 'if they're in your way and won't move, close your eyes and mash the gas'. that was caught on tape a few times during the floyd riots. they always seemed so flabbergasted, like they hadn't realized that was an option for their prospective victim in the car.

Like I said, the truckers remember him, and don't wish to suffer his fate.

The thing about a strategy that starts by taking yourself hostage is that you are in a shit position if the other side doesn't decide to value your life over their own.

[schwifty-memes]