S4 E20 - Rioters Blocking Traffic Are Going to Get Hurt

This episode discusses the severe risks and legal ramifications for protestors who block traffic, as articulated by Florida Sheriff Wayne Ivey and Governor DeSantis. They emphasize that motorists have a legal right to drive through if they feel threatened, and protestors endangering themselves by blocking roads can expect serious consequences. The episode highlights the misconception around the rights of protestors versus motorists, legal precedents, and various cases illustrating the dangers, such as the Reginald Denny incident from the Los Angeles riots and the shooting of Ta'Kia Young in Ohio. It concludes by stressing that while free speech is protected, it does not include the right to imperil others or obstruct roadways.

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Transcript

The Tenth Man (2): 0:11

Ramming Protesters II The Tenth Man: [00:00:00] Try to stop a car or a truck with your body and you might get killed if you expect busy commuters to join you in your protest slash riot. You could get hurt today on the 10th Man today. On the 10th man. A basic lesson in cause and effect. If you sit or stand in the street, you might get run over, especially if you're doing it to antagonize others. Bad behavior gets people killed. And recent examples are going to require the law to side with the driver, not the disruptor. Now, I'm not a [00:01:00] lawyer, just a content creator, but it's just my opinion. Someone's gonna get run over and the driver won't be charged. Florida. Sheriff Wayne Ivy recently made headlines with some plain talk he said. If you block an intersection or roadway in Brevard County that's in Florida, of course you're going to jail. And if you mob a car, surround it and prevent the driver from leaving, you're most likely going to get run over and dragged across the street. And that's not an idle threat. It's a warning of your legal risks, risks that result from bad behavior, and it reflects Florida law. Florida Governor Rod DeSantis has said the same thing. Motorists have rights. Protestors and rioters don't get to suspend the rights of others just because they're holding a sign. [00:02:00] The public has been operating under a false assumption that drivers must yield to these mobs, that because pedestrian right of way laws exist, motorists have to sit there and take it. But those laws are for people crossing a street. They're not for political stunts. The writer's right to free speech doesn't include the right to force others to listen or worse to obey them. The First Amendment protects their right to speak, not to detain others. Real protest allows you to express your views, but it doesn't allow you to hijack someone else's morning commute when drivers are surrounded. And feel threatened. The law has to recognize that they may act out. Act out of self-preservation, and we'll show you later cases of drivers who acted out without any excuse [00:03:00] and the person doing the ramming. Hmm. Take two and we'll show you cases of drivers who acted out, who had no excuse. And it ended up that the person rammed was the one being charged. Now let's walk through this. By date, 1992, the LA riots? No, the other LA riots, the Rodney King riots. And the lesson here is not about drivers getting away with anything. It's about what happens when they do not keep moving. These riots show exactly why stopping is dangerous time. And again, the victims were those motorists who stopped for rioters. They were obeying the law, showing restraint, and they paid the price. Take Reginald Denny. In 1992 during the LA [00:04:00] riots, he slowed down for a mob at Florence and Normandy streets, and he was pulled from his truck. He had his head bashed in with a brick and an oxygen tank while a news helicopter recorded it live. His attackers, they danced over his bleeding body, mocking him, and humiliating him. It was attempted murder televised. Yeah. One guy stepped over him using his head as a stepping stone, then turned around and soccer kicked it. Or you might ask Choi, s Choi, a Hong Kong immigrant, the legal kind. Same riots, same intersection. Dragged out of his car and beaten again. He stopped and he paid for it. Tam Tran. A 34-year-old Vietnamese woman motorist, was robbed and struck in the head with a brick. [00:05:00] Larry Tarn was stopped and beaten while trying to deliver medical supplies. The medical supplies later used to beat Reginald Denny in the head. Sylvia Castillo, on the other hand, was attacked but managed to speed away Fidel Lopez, a construction worker stopped and he was dragged out of his truck, robbed, stripped naked, and had his face and genitals spray painted with black paint. And there's no ambiguity here. These attacks were brutal and racially charged. But to the credit of the same community because we're not racist. Some brave locals intervened. They pulled victims to safety and got them to hospitals. The police, however, they were nowhere to be found when riots happened. You may be on your own in LA in [00:06:00] 1992, the police chief was at a fundraiser. Yeah, most of the precinct captains were attending a seminar and mob rule filled in the void left by the police. Then there's 2014 in Detroit, a a driver named Steve Utash. He stopped when a boy ran into the road and struck his truck. He got out to help and was mobbed by dozens of young men and beaten into a coma. Six of them were identified and went to trial. One went to prison, the rest got probation. Now 2025 , the present day riots again in la. Now I wanna be clear, we don't have a perfect modern example of a motorist driving through protestors and getting away with it scot-free. But here's the twist. We don't need an example like that because the examples we do have are even more extreme, and they tell [00:07:00] us of motorists who rammed people with very little cause on their side, and the people who got rammed were held accountable. These are people who are aggressively rammed police officers, and even then the law bent over backwards to excuse it. Take Takia Young 2023 Blending Township, Ohio. She stole liquor from a Kroger store, a tote bag full while pregnant. Get that then was sitting in her car with no license plates. In a handicap spot. Sounds like a real nice lady. When she was confronted by the police, she refused to answer questions. She refused to comply, and instead she rammed them. One of the officers ended up on the hood. He fired his gun and killed her. He's now charged with murder and [00:08:00] manslaughter. Two counts because she was pregnant. Take Dennis Geer 2021 Chicago Heights. He had a warrant for forgery, so when the car he was riding in was stopped by police, he forced the woman out of the driver's seat took over and rammed police officer Patrick McCarty, who was standing in front of him, McCarty, was thrown onto the hood. Geer took off driving 50 miles an hour, swerving, trying to throw him off, and he did. McCarty was thrown off the car when it hit a ditch and broke his back. So what happened? The judge blamed the cop saying it wouldn't have happened if he had just stepped aside. Guider wasn't a murderer, so McCarty should have just let him go. Now think that over both of these examples, if that's what happens [00:09:00] to a cop standing in front of a car with a criminal in it, then why should law abiding drivers be expected to sit still say a prayer and just hope they survive? If criminals who violently Ram police officers are met with excuses and sympathy, then surely. A motorist trying to escape a threatening mob deserves at least as much consideration. If the law protects those who do worse criminals, how can it condemn someone simply trying to survive? And that brings us to two recent cases in, you guessed it, Los Angeles. Same location. Three decades later in the summer of 2025. During yet another wave of street protests, two different motorists, found themselves trapped, both tried to flee and unfortunately [00:10:00] struck and injured one of the mob blocking each of them. One of these was later identified and charged with assault The other fled the scene and is being hunted down for felony hit and run. Now, let that sink in. Neither was provoking anything. Neither used a car to intimidate. They were just trying to escape. But Los Angeles never learns. It protects the criminals and punishes the people just trying to get home. Compared to our earlier examples, criminals, actual criminals, ramming, cops. This is all backwards, but that's la. And even there, as they say, it's still better to be judged by 12 than carried by six. It's still better to escape and then turn yourself into law enforcement. Than it is to wait and be [00:11:00] possibly murdered because these motorists may be charged, but at least no one beat their skull with a brick and oxygen tank and a hammer, and then kicked it like a football like in 1992. Outside of la. However, attitudes are changing. Those two motorists in LA are being prosecuted, but this time they dared to test the system. If you doubt this, notice that even protest groups are catching on the group. Just stop. Oil is backing away from its road blocking tactics. Why? Because people are losing patience, but there's more to it than public backlash. These stunts aren't just a nuisance, they're a security risk. When a crowd in orange vests jumps out into traffic, there's no way for you to tell whether it's an activist group or an [00:12:00] ambush. Looters and rioters are already using protests as a cover, so why not terrorists? A pop-up roadblock is a perfect setup to trap a motorcade or ambush an unsuspecting driver, perhaps a politician. But momentum is safety. Movement is life. When you're forced to stop, you're giving up the one thing that might save you. And if you think that couldn't happen, think again. Terror groups are watching disguises, like orange vests have already been used as a cover for violence and deception. This masquerade isn't hypothetical, it's historical. Imagine a van of orange vested protestors jumping out to block a US government convoy. Uh, they may not walk away, nor should they. And if a government convoy doesn't stop, why should we? Blocking traffic isn't just [00:13:00] protest. It's unlawful detention, it's intimidation, and it's dangerous for everyone. The politicians underscore this with irony representatives. Maxine Waters and Rashida Taleb cheer these tactics, but they don't use them even though Taleb twice got arrested for sitting in the street and blocking traffic, and she boasts about it, but you don't see her doing that now. Representative Maxine Waters talks a big game, but never risks herself. Even they know the public is fed up. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but if the legal system finds ways to excuse violent criminals who attack police officers with vehicles, then why shouldn't we expect justice for the ordinary citizen caught in a mob and trying to flee? Protestors have the right to speak, but rioters don't have the right to entrap. And if people like Rashida tli [00:14:00] and just stop oil, who once proudly blocked streets won't do it anymore. Maybe that tells you something. Tell a friend about the 10th Man podcast. That's how we grow. And thanks for listening.