Driver arrested after hitting protesters in St. Louis

a reply to: amazing

A person can train all they want to real fights are not like movies. They are either over with the knock out punch or it is a drawn out affair the winner is usually the one with the most endurance which your training should teach you.

If there are 40-50 people in a crowd it takes 'one' smack to your head or specific parts of your body and you are down. I worked in my early years the door or security at bars and concerts. Second job for money. It was never the scary looking ones you worried about. It was the 45 year old soccer mom with the .380 or the nerdy dad with a taser. Saw a LOT of crazy things. What it taught me though is it simply be prepared and always have an escape if things escalate to quickly. It happens in a blink even to the most hardened and trained.

These situations have been rising over the last 8-10 years. As I stated before, go protest in a park or in front of the police station but when you are purposely blocking traffic it is a recipe for disaster.

Here is a much better video than the first one provided.

www.liveleak.com...

There are 40-50 people blocking an intersection and not allowing cars to pass. As the car goes to pull around watch immediately how it is surrounded. Watch. They start hitting the car. He tries to drive through. Remember in the other video he is honking his horn. As he turns you can see someone 'hanging' onto the car.

Then they chase him down the street.

This is a violent action against the driver and he is arrested? None of the protesters from what I have read. Not for damaging his car while in the middle of the road.

These idiots, if they want to 'stand' for something cannot whine and cry after the fact like it was a hate crime.

Link

The news promotes it as a man drives thought a crowd.

St. Louis Police say that the vehicle approached the protesters, the driver honked their horn and attempted to drive around the demonstration. Police say that protesters surrounded the vehicle and began striking it. They also kicked and jumped on top of the vehicle. Some of the protesters suffered minor injuries, such as scrapes and cuts, but none needed medical attention.

Finally, what are they protesting? The killing of someone who had stabbed someone and then stabbed an officer. Take transgender out of it and there is a special mindset of a group of people who would rally for a felon...just like Mike Brown and others.

a reply to: matafuchs

Well that's pretty cut and dry to me!! Release the driver with no charges....

Funniest part is the ambulance in the back turning around instead of helping the hurt protestors....I guess even they don't give a shot about their cause or if they get injured doing stupid things like standing in traffic for it!!!

a reply to: GuidedKill

You caught that to right? I think he wanted to avoid that call...

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
reply to: Wardaddy454 well you clearly are set on blaming the protesters here and not listening to solid reasons to do anything other than to support the driver so I see no reason to continue with this..

You are correct. Look at what they are protesting. They are protesting the death of someone who attacked a neighbor with a knife and then attacked police and was shot for it.

Do you think these protesters aren't looking to act out?

a reply to: matafuchs
Thanks for providing that video.

Makes things a bit clearer, eh?

Look at all of those maimed people lying on the ground afterwards!

Peaceful protestors!
Of course they mobbed the vehicle, beat on it, jumped on top of it and threw stuff at it. That is how they get the attention that they desperately seek.

originally posted by: Wardaddy454

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
reply to: Wardaddy454 well you clearly are set on blaming the protesters here and not listening to solid reasons to do anything other than to support the driver so I see no reason to continue with this..

You are correct. Look at what they are protesting. They are protesting the death of someone who attacked a neighbor with a knife and then attacked police and was shot for it.

Do you think these protesters aren't looking to act out?

Daddy. I looked at the title of the thread. "Driver arrested after hitting protesters in St. Louis''.
The topic of the title was the arrest of the driver. The driver who drove into a crowd of people. This, soon after the killing in Charlottesville and soon after the terrorists have begun to use vehicles as weapons of terrorism.

In my opinion the police were prudent. Arresting a driver who operated his vehicle OUTSIDE the parameters agreed upon by his accepting that privilege.

WHAT the protesters were protesting does not even enter into that equation.
Yet, you seem to think it does. By your insistence that it does matter you are suggesting that vehicular open season is ok if you do not like what is being protested. Is that your thinking? Probably not, but I just do not understand how you seem unable to just see this just as the police did, as reckless driving. That is what he was arrested for was it not?

a reply to: Greven

As a pedestrian, the Prudent decision would be to get out of the way of a car, you have zero chance of surviving that exchange. Basically if you're on the road you might have bad things happen, stay off the road and things will be fine.

a reply to: matafuchs

I do see what your saying. And that is a scary situation.

I would just say that in our current conversation, those running over people and hitting protesters with cars and few and far between and most of those aren't your typical scenario you mentioned where they are afraid for theirlives. Most have been angry drivers, who could have made other choices. Not all, but most.

Update

So the injured people were on TOP of the car as he left the mob.

Wonder how they got there?

link

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire

originally posted by: Wardaddy454

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
reply to: Wardaddy454 well you clearly are set on blaming the protesters here and not listening to solid reasons to do anything other than to support the driver so I see no reason to continue with this..

You are correct. Look at what they are protesting. They are protesting the death of someone who attacked a neighbor with a knife and then attacked police and was shot for it.

Do you think these protesters aren't looking to act out?

Daddy. I looked at the title of the thread. "Driver arrested after hitting protesters in St. Louis''.
The topic of the title was the arrest of the driver. The driver who drove into a crowd of people. This, soon after the killing in Charlottesville and soon after the terrorists have begun to use vehicles as weapons of terrorism.

In my opinion the police were prudent. Arresting a driver who operated his vehicle OUTSIDE the parameters agreed upon by his accepting that privilege.

WHAT the protesters were protesting does not even enter into that equation.
Yet, you seem to think it does. By your insistence that it does matter you are suggesting that vehicular open season is ok if you do not like what is being protested. Is that your thinking? Probably not, but I just do not understand how you seem unable to just see this just as the police did, as reckless driving. That is what he was arrested for was it not?

Terrorists have been using vehicles since at least last year.

Secondly, we do not know what the police are thinking. We could speculate for instance, that they don't wanna take any chances after Charlottesville or, perhaps the police wish to "cover their asses" because they shot the person these people were protesting them for. If its the latter, I would say it very much does factor in.

ETA:

Police and witnesses offered differing accounts of what happened.

The vigil began at a community garden that honors transgender people. Activist Heather De Mian said Thursday that after the vigil, 40 to 50 people marched to an intersection and blocked it to protest Herring's death.

Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said in a news release Thursday that a car pulled up, stopped, honked and attempted to drive around the protesters before some of them surrounded the car and began hitting it with their hands and a flag pole. The injured protesters — two women and a man — had jumped onto the car and fell off when the driver pulled away, Jackson said. None of the injured requested treatment, Jackson said.

De Mian, who uses a wheelchair, was shooting video of the protest. She gave a different account. "I looked up and saw the car pushing through protesters," De Mian said. "I could see this car was being aggressive so other protesters were running up to try to stop it."

www.chicagotribune.com...
I wonder if Ms. De Mian's witness account is before or after people jumped on the car.

a reply to: Infoshill

Sounds like self defense to me!! Why was the driver arrested for exercising a legal right??

People putting this on the driver to turn around boggles my mind. I don't care to nor have to take the time to alter my life on account of some personally irrelevant protest. I have every right to freely drive anywhere I want. I am not finding an alternate route and becoming subservient to some illegal protestors. If the protestors block me and jump on my car they are getting plowed. That's not a protest it's a riot and I would have done exactly what that driver did.

I can't imagine the state of mind of people who would u-turn, or move down from an obnoxious bar patron and the whole general concessionary attitude. You have to stand up to bullies and sometimes fight, but never give in and let bullies determine what freedoms and rights you have.

edit: Attempting to pass through some protestors is in no way the same as driving down flooded roads and certain death.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: intrptr

Exactly.

It wasn't like these protesters were in the middle of a freeway and the driver had no where to go. He could have turned at the light one block back. He could have busted a u-turn.

Hell, he could have driven up and asked what they were protesting an they probably would have cleared a path.

Instead he drove at an unsafe rate directly into the crowd laying on his horn. Because right-wing programming is now, that if you're in your car and you drive into a crowd of protesters, it's okay to run them over.

Did you see how excited people were getting when they thought they could shoot people dead for vandalizing a statue?

What utter nonsense!!

So, what, every time we see any pedestrians in a road, we should just assume they are violent idiots, and take an alternate route??? Really???

No, just no.

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: Teikiatsu

I'm saying if you see a street filled with people, you avoid that street. It looked to be a well-lit street. It looked to me like the guy started honking well before he can upon them, so he knew they were there well ahead of time.

I'm not saying the protesters were in the right being there. I'm saying the guy knew what he was doing.

No, you do NOT. There are streets where we live, and other places I have lived, that usually have large crowds crossing the road, all night long. They don't close these roads to traffic, and these people don't swarm and attack cars, either. The fault here is with the attacking criminals, who pounded on the car and theatened the driver, NOT with the driver who fled a dangerous situation.

Just .

Here's an update:

"St. Louis man charged with driving into protesters, leaving scene"

Mark Colao, 59, faces a felony charge of resisting arrest and misdemeanor charges of careless and imprudent driving as well as leaving the scene of an accident, charging documents said. Colao remained in custody on Thursday, St. Louis police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said.

Police said officers attempted to stop the driver of vehicle, who initially refused to stop.

Source

It's not legal "run over protestors"(as defense, not intent) in this state-as far as I know, yet or otherwise-, as talked about with other states during the Pipeline issue. Even if it were, in his case where he is held on misdemeanor charges, hitting and running didn't help his claimed(on this site) cause.

On Wednesday night, members of the LGBT community gathered at the Transgender Memorial Garden in the Grove area to mourn Herring and protest her death. When the group stopped traffic at an intersection, other drivers turned onto side streets. But one motorist, driving a dark sedan, approached and began honking, police told the Riverfront Times.

The driver had decided to NOT turn down the other side streets as other drivers were doing.

That sounds pretty aggressive and meaning intent.

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the motorist had his middle finger raised as he stopped in front of the demonstration and then drove into the group.

Gonna have to go with the law enforcement's assessment on this.
Source

I have to add a few points.

1. No, the driver is NOT at fault here, for driving away from a clearly dangerous situation.

2. No, these were not pedestrians. These were terrorists, blocking a roadway, attacking a car, because they didn't like the fact that a trans crook with a knife got shot for attacking a neighbor and a cop.

3. No, he didn't blow the horn till AFTER they surrounded and started pounding on his car. That's clear in the first video.

4. The second video shows even more clearly that they attacked him, not the other way around. Anyone excusing this is excusing terrorism and crime.

5. ANYONE surrounding my car, and pounding on it, is placing themselves in danger. Don't care who they are, what they look like, or why they are there. Self defense is a right, and that includes in one's vehicle, against an angry mob.

Great. So blocking traffic is justification for manslaughter now? Cool. Didn't know human life has become so cheap.

That said, I'm even more irritated by the fact that these protestors were even there protesting the shooting. From all accounts that I ready, the shooting was justifiable. The trans woman in question not only had a knife, she had attacked and wounded an officer, so I am going to give the cops the benefit of the doubt here. She was already violent and attacking them. What the hell are they protesting?

originally posted by: intrptr

Attempted murder.

.


Uh, you're #ing insane. People were in the act of attacking the car. Tell me. If you had a dozen Neo Nazis beating on your car, are you serious going to just sit there?

You're a #ing liar if you say yes.

originally posted by: chuck258

originally posted by: intrptr

Attempted murder.

.


Uh, you're #ing insane. People were in the act of attacking the car. Tell me. If you had a dozen Neo Nazis beating on your car, are you serious going to just sit there?

You're a #ing liar if you say yes.

Only a dipstick would drive into a 'dozen Neo Nazis'.

a reply to: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf

Plus they had stabbed an upstairs neighbor which was why, the Police were there. Stories just gloss over the TWO knife attacks and are in "poor transgender" mode. Makes Transgenders look even more unstable, yet they want to showcase it, go figure