Vehicular Hate Crime in Brea, California:
Driver Plows Through Immigrants’ Rights Protest

October 27, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Brea, a city southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County, was the scene of what appears to be the latest hate crime against people protesting the Trump/Pence regime’s assaults on the people, in this case immigrants.

On Thursday, October 26, several hundred were taking part in a permitted, nonviolent protest outside the office of Congressman Ed Royce. Their demand: that Temporary Protective Status (TPS) be extended for the 300,000 immigrants now in the U.S. who are unable to safely return to their homelands due to war, environmental devastation or other factors. Protest organizers said the TPS is now under threat by the Trump/Pence regime and will expire if it’s not renewed by Congress. These immigrants and refugees “tirelessly care for our children, clean our homes and offices, and work in our fields. There is no doubt they would suffer unspeakable hardship if they are forced to return to their countries of origin,” the protest organizers declared.

When the Congressman’s office refused to meet with protesters, many formed a picket line in a nearby intersection, blocking it. At that point one driver, a 56-year old white man, began slowly plowing through the people! When some protesters jumped on his car or got in front to try and stop him, he sped up.

One who courageously did so told the LA Times, “My only thought is that I just want him to stop...I’m like, if I just jump on the car, he’s going to stop. He did stop, thank God, because if he didn’t stop, he would [have] run over a lot of people that [were] crossing the street. It was so quick.”

The driver stopped a short distance later, and outrageously the pigs on the scene were threatening protesters to get away from the car, showing more concern for the driver than the victims of this attack! The driver was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon but then quickly let go. Police were already whitewashing his actions, saying he was just trying to get through the intersection.

The SEIU United Service Workers West union who organized the action, issued a statement calling the driver’s action of plowing into “a crowd of families, seniors, and children,” an apparent “deliberate and hateful crime.” The union said six people were taken to the hospital.

“We are shocked and saddened that families seeking refuge from violence in their home countries were victimized here in this country. Unfortunately, such hateful crimes have been fostered by the climate of fear and division established by the Trump Administration, and vehicular attacks have actually been actively promoted by the forces right-wing extremism.” The Union vowed to continue to struggle for immigrant rights: “we refuse to be silenced in the face of oppression and violence.”

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