https://youtu.be/x0D-BgU82jI
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Detectives are preparing legal documents for possible criminal charges after an 18-year-old man drove a pickup truck through a crowd of protesters rallying in support of Native American rights in downtown Reno, Police Chief Jason Soto said Wednesday.
Soto made his remarks to the Reno City Council as a parade of American Indians, local clergy and others expressed their outrage over the fact no one’s been arrested after five protesters were struck Monday night by the truck on the street beneath the city’s famous arch with the slogan, “Biggest Little City in the World.”
Soto said an affidavit is in the works that could lead to prosecution. But he said he won’t discuss the possible charges or any other details because the investigation is ongoing.
In a different article, Soto was making noises about the protesters being in the street, rather than on the sidewalk, heavily implying they deserved to be run over, because street. It has been stated that people gathered in this spot to take photographs. It’s more than obvious that the police chief does not want to press charges in this case, and it’s also obvious he doesn’t think much of anything done was wrong. I’d like to see the Mayor address that little problem.
The Rev. Luther DuPree, an African-American bishop who oversees the Northern Nevada Churches of God in Christ, questioned whether the driver remains free because he is white.
“If it was any other culture, I believe an immediate arrest would have been made,” he said.
Kitty Colbert, 59, the most seriously injured woman who remained hospitalized Wednesday, was accompanied at the rally by her grandchildren who “saw her run over like a bag of beans,” said Ray Valdez, who was drumming and leading the group in prayer just before the incident.
Soto said the activists did not have a permit to protest in the street, but some had gathered in the travel lanes of Virginia Street on the main casino drag.
Jessica White, a local artist, said the activists were gathering in the crosswalk for a group photograph when “the driver began honking and revving his truck’s engine in an obvious attempt to frighten us.”
“I saw a driver purposely drive into a group of people and continue until there were injuries and terror,” she said Wednesday.
Tara Tran said the driver and passenger were yelling “racist” remarks before she was struck by the truck.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say the protesters deserved it… they were blocking traffic,” Tran told the council. “We were not blocking their direction. They were following us. They were not scared. I looked into their eyes. It was not a look of fear. It was a look that they were having fun.”
Grace Potorti, ex-leader of the Nevada Conservation League, said she was driving the opposite direction on Virginia Street when she saw the truck “plow into people, stop and — while people were lying on the road — continue to run over them.”
“This happened under the very symbol of Reno,” she said. “It happened under the arch!”
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve said in a statement Tuesday Reno police “will hold anyone responsible accountable for their actions once the investigation has concluded.”
“The city does not condone hate,” she said Wednesday.
Full story at The Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Police chief Jason Soto and many others should probably learn one or two important things about law and how it relates to drivers versus pedestrians.
Even if the protestors were blocking traffic on purpose, and even if it was unlawful activity, driving into them on purpose would be still illegal (even in US) , still morally wrong and a de-facto attempted murder (everywhere).
In fact, cars have been used this way for mass killings, one case only recently in France. And the difference between this attack and a similar one that happened in Nice a few months back is that the shade of skin between attacker/victims is reversed and this time around luckily nobody was killed. But the motive for the attack is the same -- hate.
Charly:
Yeah. This just highlights that terrorism committed by white people is just fine, as long as the victims are not white.
Driving a car is operating a dangerous machine. Therefore you have to take extra super duper care because even with your best intentions things can go deadly quickly. In Germany you have a “danger liability”: Your car makes the world more dangerous therefore you’Re liable for the damage it does. This includes accidentally running over pedestrians who looked neither left nor right before jumping into the street from behind of a truck while drunk.
Now, driving into a crowd on purpose is of course grave intentional assault and a matter of not just civil liability but criminal charges.
Fuck the sheriff.
I live in Manitoba. Here, people have the right of way, even if we are standing stock still in the middle of the road. This is because we are squishable. Automotive vehicles can squish us while we cannot squish them. Drivers have a clear duty to do their utmost to avoid squishing us. It seems that there is video evidence from which one can infer the driver intended to squish people. In Manitoba, that would be a crime. Is Nevada a soft on crime state? (Mercy no! That can’t be so!)