These people are idiots of the highest order – who clearly only think of themselves. I have no sympathy whatsoever.

If I were a commercial carrier, I would do everything possible to identify them, and then sue for lost revenue. Your freedom of speech does not include a right to cost me money and time.

I just see a line of potential victims of road rage. This would just piss me off and make me say,"Fuck you and your cause, assholes!"

Pissing off a bunch of people in California does exactly what for Michael Brown's memory or family?

You want to do "something" go volunteer. That at least is helpful.

It's attention-whoring and it distracts from the cause that they supposedly care so much about. If they do it once, okay, I'll find another route. But when it becomes a daily occurence, it's time for arrests.

Evangelizing one's cause by agitating, inconveniencing, and harassing others is, broadly speaking, a good way to create antipathy rather than sympathy. American's are, by and large, burning the candles at both ends and looking to get through their day with a minimum of hassle. Hassling them ensures expletives rather than accolades.

Here in Houston we had protesters from the Zimmerman case blocking the road. A lady was trying to get her daughter to the hospital and ended up stuck in the snarl. She drove into the median to get around them. At that point they attacked her car yelling and screaming at her. Thankfully she didn't have to run any of them over. But if she hadn't gotten her daughter to the hospital the girl would have died.

Someone in Minneapolis drove right through a crowd last night.

Which I think is better than getting Reginald Denny'd.

I agree with these comments and then some. If I were stopped at that roadblock, I'd get out of my car with a blunt instrument and start using it.

In downtown Seattle, sundry activists frequently step into your path and try to grab your hand -- presumably to shake it -- and then act offended if you refuse to stop or engage with them. Personally, "get the [expletive deleted] out of my way" and "don't [expletive deleted] touch me" aren't entirely unreasonable responses. I find these people arrogant in the extreme. They seem to believe they, and their views, are automatically deserving of other people's time and respect. Its narcissism and entitlement. I don't know them from Adam, and while its social heresy and somewhat "dangerous" to admit it in our milquetoast, emasculated, social-justice-warrior-cowed society -- I am indifferent to 99% of the issues activists and media-wonks want me to care about. That's right. I don't care. And, straight-up question: who says we all value or want the same kind of society? We don't. The problem is, no one wants to just lay it out there and tell people they don't share their values or goals or pet causes -- or to admit, "I do not respect you or your point of view." While civility is a given, respect is not! If we were honest there would be less of this chutzpah.

@ David

+1000

They seem to believe they, and their views, are automatically deserving of other people's time and respect.

Of course. They have the right views, the right causes, and the right perspective. Anyone opposed to them must be...evil.

Which means that they can go with by whatever means necessary.

My thoughts also went to the ambulance question.

But as anyone who has had to wait... forever... wile a bus load of kids gets on/off the bus knows, these delays are frustration.

This sort of activity costs innocent, uninvolved people time and money. Oh, you missed your doctor's appointment that took six months to get because of a protest? Too bad! Oh, you were late for your job interview? Tough!

Reynolds offers thoughts about these traffic protests. They're a good first attempt at explication.

Listen, I think almost every dominant political vibe after 9/11 was from whining children... That is, from voters who'd grown sluggish and dull in the fatness of the post-cold war decade of Clintonian blowjobs and internet bubbles. It's at least possible that America is growing up again. (I've been wrong about that before: Fingers crossed.)

But the Democratic party is going to be stuck with these children in their base... Children who'll never outgrow their presumption that politics means having the 'right' to literally play in traffic.

When I see this, my first thought is "f&*^-ing hippies."

Then I scope the cause and think, "if these f&*^-ing hippies are for it, it MUST be a bad idea."

Inconveniencing me is a sure way to convince me that your cause sucks.

As someone else said; if I were faced with such a situation and it looked like to might go violent then it would be better to face a jury for running over one of the "protesters" than to be another Reginald Denny.

Yea, you block others to "protest" you do so at your own peril.

It answer your question, Amy, such actions make me think that their viewpoint is, in the very least, misguided. Because if they had valid points they could make them without harassing others. If they only way they can make their viewpoint heard is by doing something stupid; then maybe they really don't have a strong point to make.

Reynolds offers thoughts about these traffic protests. They're a good first attempt at explication.

Reynolds has overthought this thing.

Just as with the Treyvon Martin fiasco, some people are shackled to a narrative. If the facts don't fit the narrative, then so much the worse for the facts.

I'd like to think that if I was stuck waiting for those fundamentalist progressives to get the heck off the road, I would start knocking on car windows until there were enough people to form a posse.

Then put those self-fluffing twits in the ditch.

This really hits home, because I live in the St Louis area, about 15 minutes from Ferguson.

The night the grand jury's decision was announced, we had one large group blocking an interstate. At the same time, another group burnt down and looted about a dozen businesses - which, of course, made the interstate-blockers seem like the good guys.

I certainly think there are problems in the system with racial profiling and other issues, but goddamn, acting like a violent asswipe does NOT help your cause. It's angered a lot of people who might otherwise have been sympathetic, and it's playing right into the hands of the racists.

Fatwa: Note that the driver has been identified, and NOT arrested. I'm just surprised that it took this long for someone to run over protesters. The Reginald Denny case changed the rules.