Two Oakland Protesters Are Run Down And Police Let The Driver Go (Photo included- Identify the perp)

[Huey P. Long]

Two Oakland Protesters Are Run Down And Police Let The Driver Go
Robert Johnson and Linette Lopez | Nov. 3, 2011, 7:38 AM

Oakland is in turmoil and as we parse apart this morning's reports, this story is at at the top of the heap.
Eyewitnesses on the ground report that the man in this picture drove his Mercedes into protesters after becoming frustrated by the delay the crowd was causing at an intersection.
Two people were struck and one dragged 30 feet. Reports are coming in that one of those injured has been critically hurt.
Witnesses say that once the car

One of the two men struck by the Mercedes struck the protesters it attempted to speed up and drive through the central group of people but was unable to do so and stopped.
Surrounded by the angry crowd, who dumped coffee on the car and flagged down police, the man attempted to switch places with his woman passenger, but switched back when police arrived.



Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/two-oakland-protesters-are-run-down-in-and-police-let-the-driver-go-2011-11#ixzz1cdx0iud4

=======

VIDEO-Protesters Hit By Car, Cops Let Driver Go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHnLpW4aJh0&feature=player_embedded

======

#OCCUPYOAKLAND PROTESTERS STRUCK INTENTIONALLY BY CAR, COPS LET DRIVER GO FREE

November 2, 2011 – 11:30 pm Pacific

Two #occupiers were hit by a car tonight in downtown Oakland – one was dragged 30 feet and sustained an “obviously” broken leg, photos of the other victim are below.

Eyewitnesses say that after hitting the pedestrians, the car accelerated, but was unable to break through a wall of other #occupiers, who were at critical mass. The angry crowd slowed the car to a stop, encircled it, coffee was thrown on the roof, and the driver of the white Mercedes (a white male, 18-24) switched seats with the passenger (white female, 18-24) in an apparent effort to disguise who was driving.

Once the police arrived, the crowd told the police of the drivers’ deception, and the pair sheepishly switched back to their original seats. After a moment, the driver took off. The crowd was surprised and immediately livid, shouting at the police officer, who left without addressing the crowd. Every single person at the scene was stunned that the driver could get away without being arrested. Why wasn’t the driver arrested? Perhaps this is an answer…

The driver had been waiting for for pedestrian traffic to clear, and in his growing impatience and recklessness, he struck the pedestrians. But with Broadway at complete critical mass – literally a wall of functionally unmovable humanity – common sense defies trying to brave the street in a car. But it didn’t stop this driver, and now people are in the hospital.

Both the victims were African American, the driver and passenger were both white and affluent. In the video below of the aftermath of the driver’s departure, other #occupiers shout that if the races had been reversed, the driver would have been arrested.

full-
http://www.pythagoreanism.com/occupy-protesters-struck-by-car-intentionally-cops-high-five-driver/

[IDemo]

1. "Sir, we'll let you go with a warning this time. Have you ever considered becoming an officer?"

[a kennedy]

2. OMG.....what the h*ll is going on there???

D*mn!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[Uben]

3. Vehicular homicide

Lock him up for the rest of his life in a hard labor camp. The motherfucking piece of shit deserves the death penalty but I'd rather see him suffer the rest of his poor miserable fucking life! No possibility of parole.

[Supply Side Jesus]

38. did he die?

or not?

[Ship of Fools]

4. WTF--certainly someone got plate numbers

AND THE COPS BADGE NUMBER. :grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

[nc4bo]

6. The tag's all over the 'net by now

what I find really sleazy is this guy was going to make his girlfriend get behind the wheel so he wouldn't have to take the rap.

Who IS this guy anyway?

Edit to correct spelling.

[reggie the dog]

109. I bet he is a Republican

i doubt a Democrat would try to place the blame on his lady friend, perhaps his driving a mercedes makes me say this but i find that drivers of mercedes and bmw's generally try to force their way in traffic as if the rules dont apply to them, yes i see porches and ferarris flying in the left lane of the expressway here in france, but the bmw and mercedes drivers are so quick to not respect right of way, pass you on your bicycle with their mirror less than an inch from your shoulder ect.

[crikkett]

125. i bet he had been drinking. the cop didn't administer a breathalyzer!

[crikkett]

123. 5LBS623

http://twitter.com/#!/jennessis8/status/132288527361773568

[nc4bo]

131. Really - that's not the one I saw...

Hmmm....

Guess we should get to the bottom of it, makes sure the #'s are on point.

[backscatter712]

26. The plate number's been on Twitter.

He's goin' down!

[crikkett]

124. on edit

I found a claim re: license plate

[defendandprotect]

93. That's the first question --- license plate ## --

[nc4bo]

126. Here..

Custom California Plate #AJHJR.

Some were assuming the "JR" was for Jr.?

[Huey P. Long]

136. Son/brat of a 1%er is my guess, but we will see.

[undeterred]

5. But we have to cover Lohan and the Kardashian divorce first on the news.

Nobody cares about this. :sarcasm:

[cui bono]

14. Lohan was married to the Kardashians?

Well that is big news!

[ehrnst]

27. Give it a week. (nt)

[cyberpj]

7. Another open example of how these protestors are considered useless and like cattle.

I hope someone got a license plate number althought the photo ought to help bring this more out into the open. Not glad that anyone was hurt -- but this IS another opportunity for more press.

[no limit]

8. Here is the video of the actual hit and run:

http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/raw-video-pedestrian-hit-by-car-in-downtown/vD4pp/

[Poll_Blind]

10. HOLY SHIT, that's cold-blooded attempted murder. Straight up.

No fucking around.

PB

[nc4bo]

11. The driver saw people in the street and kept trying to drive through...

quite frankly I can't blame the protester for hitting the hood, this guy looked aggressive and pissed off.

Driver deliberately hit this man and should be charged and protesters medical bills paid.

Thank goodness there is video and eye witnesses!!! :patriot:

The guy has a custom California tag #AJHJR - who IS he?

[cui bono]

22. Wait a second.... what?

You can't blame the guy for hitting the hood? Why? What was the reason for it? So if I see anyone that looks aggressive and pissed off it's okay to go hit their car? How do you figure? Also, not a smart thing to do.

And now for the obligatory that doesn't make the guy's reaction okay. But I'm just reacting to your thinking it's okay for someone to hit someone else's property because the guy looks aggressive and pissed off.

We need to exercise restraint and not take any bait. That guy could've kept walking across the street. Tensions are high on both sides, you gotta know what's important to the big picture.

[nc4bo]

24. Watch his car wheels.....and check out my post below..

Tensions are high on both sides. Protester may have felt threatened. Drivers wheels never actually stopped. Looked to me protester looked straight at the driver and asked was he trying to hit him. Watch how his arms and hands point to himself.

Hey - I'm just trying my damnest to sort all this out.

[cui bono]

32. You're right, I see now the wheels never stopped and looks like he did nudge the pedestrian.

I would've hit the guy's car too! That seems warranted. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Duende azul]

25. Well, I guess someone had to do this. Congrats.

You come as close to blaming the victim as tolerable on this board.
Wow.
Yeah, I get it, you don`t condone the drivers reaction. But how about the drivers first action?

Look at the video. Seems the car is touching the guys legs with the bumper. Hitting the hood is definitely an option. If you´re threatend by a car, sometimes it can be difficult to keep the eye on the big picture.
Maybe the gun-carry-advocates on this board would tell you, "if only the victim had been armed", he´d be better of by now. See?

[cui bono]

33. Oh please, spare me the dramatics.

As I posted above, responding to a rational person, I didn't see that the wheels hadn't stopped and that it looks like he did nudge the guy. That's unacceptable and I would've hit the guys car at that point as well.

See?

[Duende azul]

42. No dramatics intended.

Sorry.
But when I posted, you still hadn´t responded to the "rational person".
I appreciate it, when someone is able to correct ones views.

Btw, I consider myself a rational person too. If you could take that into account I would be grateful.

[cui bono]

47. Okay, thanks for the response.

:)

[itsallhappening]

65. The supporters don't believe in "property," so that's a lost cause.

[sabrina 1]

110. Which supporters do not believe in property??

[Kingofalldems]

135. Good question. Looks like a smear to me.

[Huey P. Long]

142. You've 'outed' yourself. Itsallhappening and itsoutofyourcontrol.

[reggie the dog]

114. i have hit the hood of cars trying to force their way

past crosswalks, where pedestrians have the right of way. oh noo, i may ding the paint on their private property,

[City Lights]

13. OMG!

I can't believe the cops let him go.

[barbtries]

15. chilling.

i want to know the victim's name and condition. haven't seen it anywhere.

[nc4bo]

16. Yes I would too.

Hopefully more info will be made available some time today.

[quakerboy]

103. Yuppers

Its time for a few more Dox. The driver. That judge down in Texas. I am sure there are others

[cui bono]

21. Wow, that's messed up. That guy needs to be arrested for sure.

That was not cool. I'm sure he didn't like the guy pounding on his car but that reaction of mowing them over was soooo overblown!

Now, I'm not in any way saying the guy deserved it or asked for it, but it shows that in these situations of raised tensions it is of the utmost importance not to do anything to agitate like that, by pounding on the guys car. I live in road rage country and people get shot for a lot less than that. It's important to keep our actions totally on the up and up.

Again, I'm NOT saying running them over was okay.

[nc4bo]

23. I'm sure we've all ran into this type of person before...

usually it's when trying to cross a street or parking lot and drivers show their irritation that a two-legged person isn't getting across fast enough.

I always have to keep a close eye on my mom when crossing parking lots, she's old, legs bad, can't walk fast and you'd be surprised at how many people keep the wheels moving towards you. It actually feels threatening and your heart skips a few beats.

[csziggy]

84. Now that I can't walk very fast, I get those people

One that zipped by my got a fright. As he passed me, I banged on the side of his car with my fist and kind of lurched. He was scared - thought he had bumped me. Clearly, he knew he had gotten too close. I was devious and did not admit to hitting his car on purpose, said I was worried he was going to hit me and lost my balance. I think in the future he'll be more polite about waiting for infirm people crossing the road!

[999998th word]

104. I almost got nailed once @ the crosswalk w/my 5 yr old. A can of corn

well aimed at the right rear quarter panel of a stationwagon will do some damage and get attention.

Was scared and angry than, I can laugh, now, 20 yrs later Whack boom thump :rofl: :rofl:

[kestrel91316]

92. Drivers like this douche are common in SoCal. I have been nearly hit in crosswalks

WITH A WALK SIGNAL in my favor and much yelling and even hood pounding has ensued.

Attempted murder.

[Fire Walk With Me]

43. The protester shouldn't have pounded on his hood but the response is absolutely disproportional.

[Xithras]

52. What the protester did was incredibly stupid.

The car had the green light, the crowd had thinned, and the driver wasn't moving at more than 5MPH. No laws were being violated. There was zero reason for him to get in front of the car and start beating on it.

Doesn't justify trying to kill the guy though. Grab a cell phone, call 911, and tail him through the crowd until the cops can arrest him. There was zero excuse for lethal force in that situation.

[Fire Walk With Me]

56. Yeah, the protester could have gotten out of the way. I can understand their passion

however. But not the driver's.

[Xithras]

60. I think...

...the drivers passion probably came down to: "This bastard is beating on my car! Fuck him!" Clearly he should be charged for what he did. I've mentioned before that I have a California CCW (though I never carry), and they spent a crapload of time drilling into us what is, and what IS NOT, a justifiable use of lethal force. It was rather silly, because it can really be summed up in one sentence: You can use lethal force to defend your life, or the life of another. That's it. You can't use it to defend property. You can't use it to stop a crime in progress. You can't use it to play neighborhood superhero and chase off the gangbangers and taggers. In California, your lethal force rights begin and end with protecting human life.

His life was not in danger. Neither was his passengers. There was no legitimate reason to apply lethal force to that situation. What he did meets every definition of attempted vehicular manslaughter, and he needs to be nailed to the wall for it.

Still, I DO get why he'd be angry. If I were driving down the road and someone started beating the front of my car, I'd be furious and might be tempted to remove a few of his teeth myself. Running him over, however, wouldn't even cross my mind. I would hop out and do it the old fashioned way.

[ellisonz]

63. He brought it on himself...

...by refusing to wait until police allowed cars to pass. Oh wait - where were the police? Nowhere in sight.

If he wanted to do the right thing he would have got out of his Mercedes and enlisted protestors help in allowing vehicles through safely.

I doubt the victims even dented it.

[Xithras]

64. There was no reason for him to do that.

Legally, he simply needed to proceed slowly through the intersection, yielding to pedestrians as needed. Looking at his speed in the video, he did just that. There was no need for the protesters to stop the march and let him through (as you suggest), but he had a responsibility to cross the intersection carefully. He was doing that right up until the point where the other protester stopped in front of his car.

As I said above, there was no reason for him to hit the guy, but that protester had zero moral or legal reason to start beating on the other guys car. If you watch the newer video that you yourself posted, it looks like the protester actually got pissed off because he was being honked at. There was plenty of room between the car and the pedestrian, and the protester started hitting the car anyway. It doesn't justify attempted murder, but as I said upthread...it was a stupid thing to do. Even in the best case scenario, he'd have managed to needlessly piss people off and made OWS Oakland look bad. We all get to see what the worst case scenario was.

They were both asses. Arrest the driver. Scorn the victim.

[ellisonz]

67. How do you react when someone uses a car aggressively towards you?

A couple weeks ago I was crossing in a marked walkway in a supermarket parking lot to the store entrance. A man in a SUV actually accelerated towards my mother and I before hitting the brakes. I was wearing a baseball hat and turned my head towards him in a wtf reaction without saying anything and he proceeds to start becoming agitated in his windows up tinted SUV at us. We proceeded to the curb and stood there watching him and the guy had the temerity to put down his window and try to say something about how we were in the wrong. I was pissed and the thought crossed my mind to walk up in lecture him on parking lot etiquette (I used to direct a lot of traffic). I was angry for about 15 minutes afterward in a store. A motor vehicle can cause major injury or kill - it is a weapon.

The driver was clearly using his vehicle in an intimidating manner and did not hesitate to use it as a weapon. The victim only pounded on the car 3 times because the guy was not going slowly and deliberately through the crowd and was already showing disregard for other peoples safety. Throw the book at him. Senseless.

[Xithras]

77. Different situation.

If I were jaywalking through an intersection against the light, and a car that had the legal right of way and was otherwise obeying the law honked his horn at me while moving slowly through the intersection, I would probably flip him off and keep walking. I wouldn't stop, make gestures at him, and start banging on his hood.

You said: "The victim only pounded on the car 3 times because the guy was not going slowly and deliberately through the crowd and was already showing disregard for other peoples safety."

I think that's where you and I are disagreeing. From the moment his car started moving to the moment the protester stopped him again, his car never exceeded 5MPH. I really doubt he was even going that fast. No police officer would ever cite him for the way he proceeded through the crowd, because he did wait for a gap and proceeded slowly. The driver was operating his car legally right up until he got into the confrontation with the protester. That's when everything went to hell.

I agree with throwing the book at the driver, and I've said so in every post in this thread. Looking at both videos, I simply disagree that the driver provoked the initial confrontation. The protester provoked it, and the driver wildly overreacted. The driver should definitely be prosecuted for that, but that protester still had no business doing what he did.

[ellisonz]

81. Watch the first video very closely again.

http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/raw-video-pedestrian-hit-by-car-in-downtown/vD4pp/

He still has people in his path. The guy stops puts both hands up open faced. The car moves forward again slightly twice and then the pedestrian begins hitting the car because the driver isn't indicating he's going to wait for all of the crowd to pass. There are other people still walking behind the pedestrian while he's trying to stop the car. If the driver had proceeded he very well may have struck one of them. There was no clear path. He used very poor judgment in trying to force his way through the crowd. When he takes off he misses hitting several other people besides the victim in his girlfriend by no more than several feet.

[Blue State Bandit]

89. California State Vehicle Code

"Right-of-Way at Crosswalks"

21950. (a) The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.

(b) This section does not relieve a pedestrian from the duty of using due care for his or her safety. No pedestrian may suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. No pedestrian may unnecessarily stop or delay traffic while in a marked or unmarked crosswalk.

(c) The driver of a vehicle approaching a pedestrian within any marked or unmarked crosswalk shall exercise all due care and shall reduce the speed of the vehicle or take any other action relating to the operation of the vehicle as necessary to safeguard the safety of the pedestrian.

(d) Subdivision (b) does not relieve a driver of a vehicle from the duty of exercising due care for the safety of any pedestrian within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.

The driver's aggressive approach in close proximity to crossing pedestrians warranted the reaction by the protester. The driver's action prior to the obvious assault was a clear violation of 21950c, and would in and of it self landed him in trouble with police any other day of the week. I've seen cops pond on cars in that exact manor before citing drivers for similar behavior many times.

[Xithras]

79. And just because I was curious...the car was moving 4.4 MPH.

You said that you thought it was moving in a dangerous manner, and I thought it was moving relatively safely. It occurred to me after that last post that it's an incredibly simple argument to settle. Since we can see the rims rotating, we can figure out exactly how quickly the car was moving. I grabbed the video, pulled it into my editor, and did a little math. This is based off the first video posted, and begins based on when the front tire enters the frame, which was its fastest point before the confrontation:

1) Top spoke of the front tire rim enters frame at 0:08:02 (a hair over 8 seconds). I'm basing my rotation off this spoke and the one just to the right, to compensate for compression artifacts.

2) Front tire completes half rotation at 0:08:28 (a hair under 8.5 seconds) just before vanishing behind another protester.

3) Doubling the numbers to account for a full rotation gives us a total revolution time of 0:0:56 seconds, or just under one second.

4) The car appears to be a mid-2000's Mercedes C class (so identified by the bumper strip down the doors, which isn't on the newer models). There is a crystal clear shot of this car in the second video, so it wasn't too difficult to identify.

5) A 2005 Mercedes C class was equipped with 205/55-16 tires, which have a diameter of 25 inches.

6) A tire with a diameter of 25 inches travels 78.5 inches per revolution. I'm going to round here very slightly just to make the math easier, but the car was basically moving 78.5 inches per second.

7) 78.5x60x60 = 282,600 inches per hour. Divide that by the 63,360 inches that exist in a mile, and we get a vehicle speed of 4.4MPH. That was his maximum speed in the intersection, before the confrontation.

Rather than debating suppositions, I thought it might be useful to have the actual numbers involved.

[ellisonz]

82. 4.4 MPH is enough to crush someones foot.

See my above response.

He needed to come to another complete stop once people continued walking in front of him. The driver had tunnel vision.

[ret5hd]

130. Is this you???

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQAfyYTMFsyEbXnYLF-GxG5rnXWipOoWd3ufCyHy-BOHZs--FcE-OHdUmKV

[reggie the dog]

116. i have kicked cars and dented them more than once

one time i was crossing on my bike as a 12 year old, had the green, and a woman in a cadillac decided to turn right on red (i was on the only sidewalk along a 4 lane road and she arrived at the road that ended at a T intersection) she pulled out and hit me with the front of her car as she basically floored it when i was directly in front of her (she had the red). she then rolled the windoow down and without taking the cell phone from her right ear (she had the phone on her right ear that is why she couldnt turn her head right to look for me before she gave it gas) and bitched at me to get out from in front of her car (she hit me and i ended up on the hood, the hood ornament was caught in my jacket and my pedal was stuck in her grill of her car but she still hit the gas again and bent my pedal arm and dragged me a few feet and yelled (stop vandalizing my car you little shit) so i ripped the hood ornament off with my hands, ripped my bike out of her grill then ripped the grill off the pedal and threw it all against her windshield, threw the hood ornament and hit her in the face with it, spit on her face and kicked her door about five or ten times, then, as my bike was damaged but workable, just fucking left her. i never got busted for that and it happend right near my house and i was one of few long haired leather jacket wearing kids in the neighborhood. fucking luxury car drivers dont like us working class people.

[ellisonz]

137. To me it looked like he was using open hands and not balled fists...

Not likely to dent.

[RoccoR5955]

85. BS. Doesn't a pedestrian have the right of way in a crosswalk,

no matter what the state of the traffic control device (light, or sign) is? Someone should look this up in the CA Vehicular Laws. I know that the pedestrian has the right of way in NY, and I know that in MA, a pedestrian ALWAYS has the right of way, whether in a crosswalk or know. If you put a foot over the curb and cars stop.

[Cali_Democrat]

45. And the cops just let him go?

:grr:

[Poll_Blind]

9. Who...is....THIS...man?

Was he given a sobriety test? Just what the fuck is going on down there for shit's sake?

PB

[City Lights]

18. He'd make a perfect Bond villian.

Angry. Psychotic.

[Poll_Blind]

19. And, in trying to switch seats, perfectly willing to pass the blame to someone innocent.

Nasty fuck.

PB

[City Lights]

20. Total coward.

:nuke:

[ehrnst]

28. Perhaps under the influence? (nt)

[sabrina 1]

49. Could be he has a record or he's undercover law enforcement

and didn't want to be id'd. So he thought he'd switch drivers. You don't do that unless you have something to hide.

[reggie the dog]

118. and his girlfriend loves being treated like that because she gets

to ride around in a mercedes.....you gotta love right wing family values.

[Oilwellian]

31. We should be seeing...

his mugshot. Freaking smug psychopath.

[Lorien]

78. He doesn't look at all cocerned, so I'd say he's a cop

the laws don't apply to them.

[Huey P. Long]

95. Right. A cop, or 'connected'...but the switch? Clandestine or wormy?

Not wanting a record or just sleazy? Maybe he is unlawful in some way, but so arrogant in behavior. Maybe he is a 1%ers spoiled son. Maybe he is a bratty child at his dad's dock? Outta my way, slaves!

[reggie the dog]

117. they test for cannabis, not cocaine, so he would be fine

[bahrbearian]

12. Looks like class warfare

[ejpoeta]

17. it's only class warfare when we fight back

[khak4]

29. Original Message

Why was there no violence when the tea party had their rallies?

[golddigger]

30. Beause it was a 9 to 5 job paid by the Koch brothers.

When 5pm rolled around they were ushered to thier busses and went home and spent their goverment handout SSDI checks.

[piratefish08]

34. delete

[trotsky]

35. Because liberals don't try to run tea party morons over?

:shrug:

[cui bono]

36. I believe there was. I remember someone getting their head stomped on

by a Republican staffer. Was that at a TP rally? Not sure. I heard there were scuffles though.

[lunatica]

50. Are you referring to the woman at the Rand Paul rally?

Where a man from his staff threw her down on the sidewalk and stomped on her head and back?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/25/rand-paul-supporter-stomps-head_n_773857.html

[cui bono]

55. Yeah, that's the one. I guess that's not specifically a Tea Party rally...

close though.

[Courtesy Flush]

83. Because they were on the side of the government, regardless of what they say.

We have a little thing here called a tombstone. You'll see it soon.

[NOLALady]

86. Maybe

because the thugs in blue did not attack the tea baggers.:shrug:

[kestrel91316]

94. Because quislings have orders not to shoot other quislings. Or drive over them.

[markpkessinger]

100. You should ask the police that question n/t

[sabrina 1]

111. Because the cops are on the side of the 1% and the Tea party

was a creation of the Koch Brothers.

Why do you ask? Surely you knew the history of the fake 'Tea-Party' The cops were given no orders to attack them. The cops only attack the American People, the Real American People on behalf of the Wall Street criminals who are scared to death of real Americans but had no reason to be scared of their very own fake 'movement' considering they financed it.

[Huey P. Long]

37. Kicking, like a teabagger does to a defensless woman's head. -eom

[alp227]

80. that's a reference to an incident at a Rand Paul event

i blogged about it here http://onemansrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/10/huffington-post-reports-tim-profitt.html

[bullwinkle428]

39. I'll bet this American Psycho/trust fund prick's only concern this morning

is how to clean the spilled coffee stains off of his Mercedes. :mad:

"DADDY... I NEED A NEW CAR! THIS ONE IS DIRTY!"

[Blue Owl]

40. What a FUCKIN' COWARD

Tried to switch places with the lady passenger after the incident? OMG what a total piece-of-shit coward.

[frylock]

41. do your duty, Anonymous. time to dox this prick

[Cali_Democrat]

44. Did the cops even perform a sobriety test on him?

[glinda]

46. Kick to identify. The cop should be fired.

[trumad]

48. Swtiched seat with the woman passenger?

What the hell.

[Exultant Democracy]

51. You only do that when you have been drinking as far as I know.

[Poll_Blind]

57. Yes- but there is also the much slimmer possibility that he was someone...

...so "important" that the passenger was potentially willing to trade spots with him and take the heat for a sober, but criminal action. I dunno. The story is very interesting. I'm really interested in seeing who the hell this guy is!

PB

[minavasht]

53. Why were they blocking the traffic?

Why did they antagonize the driver? Every time a 180 lbs person gets into a pissing match with a 4000 lbs vehicle the smaller one gets hurt. Its simple physics.

I am not making excuses for the driver, just pointing out he was not alone on that street.

[Cali_Democrat]

59. It's attempted murder

Was the protester trying to kill the driver?

No.

[minavasht]

138. My point is that

when one gets into a pissing match with somebody else, he must be prepared to be hurt.

You don't know who is against you, what they have been trough today, if they are pissed at the world already, if they are drunk or high on something, if they had just killed a family of 4 and are trying to get away as fast as they can - you just don't know them.

As this story confirms, you may get one who doesn't care who you are and what you are fighting for.

Blocking traffic is NOT a good way to get support for your cause from the commuters.

[Zoeisright]

71. Really? REALLY?

God, I've seen "blame the victim" shit before, but your ignorant rant takes the cake.

[minavasht]

140. feel free

to feel however you want.
It's still a free country.

[lunatica]

75. You definitely are defending the driver

Saying you aren't while doing exactly that may confuse idiots, but there aren't any on this forum. The Occupy Oakland have been talking about his for days. So much so that people came in from all the Bay Area. If that driver didn't want to get stuck in pedestrian traffic he should have taken another route. There are at least 15 different ways of getting places from that spot.

[minavasht]

139. I don't know, I wasn't there

Was the blocking of the street approved? Were there detour signs?

[sabrina 1]

112. Why did he run over two innocent people who are now in the

hospital? Why did no other drivers have this problem of ramming their automobile into a crowd of people, critically injuring two of them? He wasn't the only driver on that street that day, but he WAS the only driver to ram his vehicle into two people and send them to the hospital.

And why are you not asking the question 'why did this guy run over two innocent people, and nearly run down more of them had the people not stopped him?'

There is simply no excuse for what he did. It is a crime.

I have driven on streets crowded with people like that many times. Funny, I never had to run anyone down to get through them.

[minavasht]

141. Exactly my point!

People are different.
They react differently. They see the world differently. They are unpredictable.
At least to me it seemed that in the clip one of the protesters stood in front of the vehicle, said something to the driver and hit the front hood, after that he got run over. It could have gone without reaction 10000000 times. This time the driver for whatever reason made the choice to run the pedestrian over.
My point is that everybody walking in the street in front of vehicles should consider the possibility of being run over.
Then it is the court's job to figure who was right and who was wrong.

[sabrina 1]

143. The problem for him is that many other cars managed to

drive through that intersection without incident, without anyone trying to stop them, because apparently they were abiding by the law. This car appeared to be moving through the intersection even though the law in CA gives the right of way to pedestrians.

From all the video of the incident I've seen, it appears this guy was in the wrong, was being being deterred by the guy in front of the car, from rolling into the intersection and then chose to ram his car into even more people putting two of them in the hospital.

He was not detained. Why? The question now is 'who is he'! I hope we will be able to find that out.

[reggie the dog]

119. because blocking traffic is part of protests

the goal is to block people, block commerce, i am sure that the protesters would let an ambulence pass, hell in france we were blocking the street once and a woman opened her window and said "i need to go get my kid from school, can i get past?" people told her she should not have taken her kid to school on a strike day but they also stopped the people from walking for 5 seconds so she could get through, by the time the cops got there she was on her way and the cops thanked us for being polite to the lady.

[ellisonz]

54. Attempted murder.

[Uncle Joe]

58. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Huey P. Long.

[ellisonz]

61. I would add that it is a testament to the great people of Oakland...

...that he was not pulled from the car and beaten after what he did. That law enforcement did not arrest him will only engender further mistrust of the police.

Fuck the Police!

[reggie the dog]

120. in chicago people beat a driver to death

when he went off the road and killed several people on their porch, they nearly killed the passenger too but decided just to beat the drunk coked out driver.

[ellisonz]

62. MORE VIDEO - Captures the situation and the attempt to murder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdFcjMpLLYQ&feature=player_embedded

[Fumesucker]

74. Good grief, you can hear the car tires squeal as he accelerates..

The driver was trying to run someone over there...

[ellisonz]

76. Makes you really wonder about who the police are serving and protecting...

:mad:

[RoccoR5955]

87. Some real losers are commenting there on the UTube.

Saying that he "attacked" the car. How the hell do you attack a car with your fists? Is it a paper car?

[Heywood J]

66. Fox is already on the case:

http://nation.foxnews.com/occupy-wall-street/2011/11/03/occupy-oakland-radical-hit-car-after-refusing-let-driver-leave

'Occupy Oakland' Radical Hit By Car After Refusing to Let Driver Leave
‎
Protesters banged on the hood of a silver Mercedes while the car was attempting to exit the premises. After the protesters refused to move, the driver hit the gas. Reports have stated that there were no critical injuries.

[999998th word]

105. .

:puke:

[DFW]

107. In Foxworld

The violent death of a progressive, especially if not white, is not considered a critical injury.

[Capt. America]

122. I'm surprised Fox didn't report that the OWS supporter intentionally threw himself on the car

in order to start a race/class/religious war against mainstream Amerikuh.

[Glimmer of Hope]

68. That is a serious crime! Did the police take a report at all?

[ellisonz]

69. Yes.

Officers gathered information from the driver and witnesses, and now the Oakland Police Department will handle the investigation, Hartwig said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/02/BA5G1LQ06S.DTL#ixzz1cgos0lZb

[Glimmer of Hope]

72. Oh good. I hope the guy that was run down lawyers up.

[fascisthunter]

70. another rich privileged sociopath....

[louslobbs]

73. Kicked and Rec'd. No arrest in this assault with a deadly weapon? Wow, what's going on?

Lou

[sakabatou]

88. No idea...

[Graveyard]

90. Damn Undercover Cops

They need to be stopped

[kestrel91316]

91. ADW, attempted murder, whatever. He'll lose the lawsuit, too.

Kid's GOIN'DOWN.

[burrowowl]

96. Awful!

How are the victims doing?

[Che Billy]

97. I understand this guy's frustration

Weirdly, I can kind of understand where this guy's coming from. If I was stuck at an intersection because of a tea party rally, I would have a very hard time not mowing them down myself. I hate that about me.

I wouldn't however, try to switch places with my passenger so she would be blamed instead of me. That's a AAA grade dick move that can only come from a fuckhead who would also believe that the 1% that's hoarding a huge portion of our nation's wealth and has corrupted our political system to their advantage are all hunky-dory by him.

[ohheckyeah]

101. You might want to get some

help for anger management.

[Cali_Democrat]

108. This guy brutally ran over a protester,nearly killing him with his car

and you can understand? :wtf:

[sabrina 1]

115. He was not struck at an intersection.

Lots of other cars drove through that intersection, slowly because there were lots of people on the road, an event that was well broadcast so anyone who did not want to deal with the crowds, didn't have to.

No other car had the problem he had. We do not know why the person who is seen standing in front of the car did so. Some people are saying he was trying to slow him down as he kept moving into the intersection despite the fact that there were people there.

Ca law gives the right of way to pedestrians. So from what you can see in some of the video, he was not doing that, he was moving instead of stopping, so the person who was in front of the car was obviously worried about someone being hurt and the fact that he was not observing the law.

His response was to step on the gas and ram his car into two people.

There is simply NO excuse for this. Nor is there any excuse for why the cops let him go especially since he had demonstrated he is a dangerous driver.

I would not be surprised if he was a cop.

[McCamy Taylor]

98. Driver was almost certainly drunk---and the police suppressed the evidence.

[OnyxCollie]

99. K&R. nt

[AsahinaKimi]

102. This is the most digusting tale of injustice I have ever heard/seen..

At least his photo is public. Someone needs to find out who he is, and present a case.. this guy attempted to run down people, and the cops let him go.. (Was he an undercover cop?)There is a huge gaping hole here, that points to someone publically getting away with attempted murder.

[markpkessinger]

106. Has there been any organized effort to press the police/Marin Co.DA to arrest/prosecute? n/t

[reggie the dog]

113. did he yell "nigger go home" before he ran down the 2 black people

or just think it?

[reggie the dog]

121. look at the comments on youtube

people think that it is good to run over communists and socialists, i hope they never come to france on vacation because if you run over the people who are solid communists you have a good 15% of the population and solid socialists make up another 30%, based on polls for next years presedential election the socialist will get 60% so if they come to france on vacation they will think it is normal to run over 60% of the population and, as we strike often, will likely try to run over people protesting. i really hope that those people dont have passports but as right wingers usually are rich i bet they do have passports and some have villas here on the french riviera.

people on youtube also think it is right to run someone over for damaging a car, the usa is a shithole, that people think it is normal to harm or kill someone over minor damage to a car is crazy, an average french person would not want to kill somone for a slight dent in their car (hell we hit the cars around us when we parallel park over here), an average american says he got what he deserved for vandalizing the car. i am so glad that i dont live in the usa anymore

[Ilsa]

127. OMG! This is just like the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities. Only a child was run over

by an aristocrat and the man tossed a few coins out of his carriage. The disregard for their lives was the last straw, and the peasants began the French Revolution.

This was Charles Dickens' fiction, but it is eerily similar.

[crikkett]

128. 5LBS623 was the license plate

the license place of the silver mercedes that ran over two protesters in oakland yesterday is: 5LBS623

http://twitter.com/#!/jennessis8/status/132288527361773568

[Vinca]

129. They need to find the guy - protesters should go to the Attorney General.

Even if his way was being blocked illegally, pedestrians always, ALWAYS have the right-of-way. You can't mow people down because you're inconvenienced.

[garybeck]

132. Is it just me or does he look like some actor or singer I've seen before?

And WHY THE HELL WASN'T HE GIVEN A SOBRIETY TEST?

[nc4bo]

133. I know what you mean

but I'm not sure it's because that smug look is familiar or it's actual facial recognition.

Hateful, hateful man.

[AzDar]

134. K & R &

:grr: