Two seperate vehicle ramming incidents disrupted peaceful protests this weekend as cars drove into crowds in San Francisco, California and in Culpeper, Virginia. They were just the latest in an escalating trend of such incidents in the United States — all of which have occurred and liberal-left protests.
At least four people were injured in San Francisco when a driver struck them in a “possible intentional act” and then fled the scene, according to NBC News. Meanwhile in Culpeper, police say that a man named Joseph Checklick “intentionally” struck at least one person after accelerating into a crowd of protesters.
Car ramming incidents have become more frequent and more lethal over the last three decades. A plurality of them have come from the “continuing Palestinian resistance, constrained by its participants inability to obtain firearms and explosives” according to Brian Jenkins and Bruce Butterworth at the Mineta Transportation Institute. Jihadi terrorists have also used cars as weapons around the world — including in the United States, as in the deadly Bourbon Street truck attack earlier this year.
But the tactic has also been increasingly adopted by the American right in response to liberal-left protest. In 2020, for example, the New York Times reported that there had been over a hundred such incidents during that summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. And this has come amid a series of statements from right-wing media figures and public officials ranging from irresponsible to outright incitement.
Different motives, same outcome
Car ramming incidents at protests generally fall into two categories, according to Dr. Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Royal Military College of Canada. Veilleux-Lepage studies terrorism and right-wing extremism, among other focuses, and is presently working on a dataset of vehicle ramming attacks since the eighties.
“Some of them are not politically motivated, but they can look similar because they’re frustrated,” he said. Drivers who find themselves blocked by protesters may simply try to slow-roll through the crowd — or they may try to barge through. Either situation can end in casualties if the vehicle strikes a protester.
But others “use their vehicle to try to disrupt the protest,” and in “the extreme version they’ll use their vehicle to injure people.” Veilleux-Lepage cited the murder of protester Heather Heyer at the 2017 Unite the Right rally as an example of this kind of incident.
These distinct motives can spell the difference between terrorism and hate crime charges on one hand and a lesser vehicular manslaughter charge on the other. But either way, both incidents normalize violence against peaceful protesters. And local officials, Veilleux-Lepage said, have a responsibility to stop them.
“There should be a preemptive effort to ensure the protesters are safe,” he said. “And there also needs to be mitigation against vehicle ramming attacks.”
Prevention efforts
Car ramming attacks are extremely difficult to stop while in progress given how quickly they occur and the challenge of safely stopping a moving vehicle in close proximity to a crowd. This problem is only complicated at protests which often take place in contexts like pedestrian avenues that have not been designed to maximize public safety — on the contrary, many protests take places at intersections or on bridges to maximize the disruption to vehicular traffic.
One of the most effective tactics is for police to place themselves between the protesters and road traffic, either on foot or in cars and on motorcycles. This can be done for both stationary protests and marches. Police, however, may be reluctant to provide this kind of protection. If their presence is too extreme or if they appear to be “kettling” protesters, this may just increase tensions. And this approach can also undermine a protest if the police presence keeps the protesters out of view.
Another tactic comes from London, where police have been preemptively laying out spike strips and “Talon” nets that will puncture the tires of any vehicle that drives over them. These are one of the few technologies that can stop an attack in progress, and they can also provide a powerful deterrent effect. They’re also useful for protests because they don’t obstruct visibility and require less of a police presence to deploy. However, they are less useful for mobile protests like marches that cover long distances.
Activists, meanwhile, may be able to take their own defensive measures. One simple approach that open-air markets use all the time to create temporary pedestrian spaces: get some big trucks, fill them with dirt, and park them in the way. Parades also make use of “escort” trucks for the same reason. Both of these tactics may require prior authorization by local officials, however; activists should consult applicable local laws.
Other more innovative approaches may be possible. At a demonstration in Ukraine I once saw an activist conspicuously spread caltrops on the ground1 and then stand in front of them with a sign that translated as “WARNING: TIRE DAMAGE.” I’ve also seen activists station themselves at the preceding block holding homemade “DETOUR” signs in order to prevent a situation where a motorist finds himself trapped between protesters in front of him and traffic to his rear. Again, I cannot stress this enough, please consult your local laws.
Preventative measures aside, one practical point of advice: never let protesters completely surround a car, and if they roll into a crowd make it clear to them where they need to drive to leave. This doesn’t just create a way for a dangerous situation to end safely — it also takes away any “I had nowhere to go” excuse they might try to make for hitting someone.
The day before the latest attacks, Governor Ron DeSantis said on a podcast that if “a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety, and so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you.”
Dubious legal advice aside, Veilleux-Lepage said to just “try to keep your cool.”
“Put your vehicle in neutral and wait for law enforcement to disperse the crowd,” he said.
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I have no idea where he got caltrops (he might have made them) or if they are even legal, particularly in this context; this is one of those “consult your local laws” situations as well.