St. Louis Asshole Actually Catches Charges For Running Protesters Over With His Car

Not actual life.

This is a post that should not exist, because we should not need to tell licensed motor vehicle operators not to use said motor vehicles to run people over. That's basically the first thing you should know about driving: The goal is to NOT hit things with your car, most especially humans. The world is not Grand Theft Auto.

Still, we are having this discussion because this is America, so of course there's multiple states considering legislation that would shield drivers who run over protesters from liability in certain cases. Because really, we can surely expect angry drivers who're incapable of finding an alternate route if a street's blocked by a protest to stop and ask whether said protest is properly permitted! (Oddly, there's no proposed laws to protect drivers who accidentally run over lampposts or construction workers; in fact, most states have huge penalties for hitting a road worker, because it is assumed that if you see an obstruction on the road you should slow down and be more careful!)

So here's the mayor of St. Louis tweeting at her constituents, and note the date because this was AFTER Charlottesville:

Now. Why, you ask, would a mayor have to say this? Well, it's because a guy drove into the march following a candlelight vigil for Kiwi Herring, a black trans lady killed by police.

And that would be bad enough, if some asshole were copycatting the Nazis! But this is, at least for St. Louis protesters, something people are getting used to. Here's a story from 2015 . And one from 2016 . And one from earlier this year . And that's just the ones that hit the news! In my months reporting from St. Louis, I personally watched at least four cars run into protesters. Nobody was hurt, so they just drove off.

At least in this most recent case, the man's been charged with felony fleeing.

STOP RUNNING OVER PEOPLE WITH YOUR CARS YOU FUCKING PRICKS.

[ NYT / STLMag / ABC / Rare ]