Protesters in Provo, Utah blocked traffic last night. When a white SUV tried to get through the traffic, the protesters fired at the car. You can see the videos below.
This video clearly shows at least one protesters firing into the SUV, and at least one more shot is heard.
The Deseret News has more on the protests here.
UPDATE: the man in the vehicle was shot in the altercation and drove himself to the hospital. His wounds do not appear life-threatening. More here.
Again, it troubles me and makes me wonder why any Latter-day Saint supports the Black Lives Matter movement and group? They are violent people….nothing good comes from what they preach.
A few questions that were not apparent from the article:
Did the protesters have a permit? Independent of political viewpoint, I can imagine locals becoming irate if a major intersection were to be blocked, even if for a legitimate event. I was driving with a resident of Provo a few years while a marathon was taking place, and the driver rolled down their window and yelled at the runners using rather abusive language.
If they had a permit, the police would have put up signage directing traffic to detours to avoid conflict.
I’m guessing the protesters, given their stance, didn’t bother getting a permit. But before I go farther on my views regarding such behavior, I would want to hear/read confirmation regarding whether or not the protesters obtained proper permits.
My own brother was triple tazed and nearly killed by Provo PD. I learned this past month that the police had removed him from his home after the tazing, but did not deliver him to the hospital for over two hours. My brother remembers being unable to breath given the way he was carried to the police vehicle. But my brother resumed breathing and so he was delivered to the hospital For detainment in the mental ward. Note some aspects of this are hearsay, as GRAMA requests are not being honored because the police never formally dropped charges that my brother resisted arrest. The incident occurred in spring of 2010.
When I called for friends to support my brother by showing up at court, none obliged. Luckily we have many family members who showed up, so my brother was not entirely bull-dozed by the system. And blessings too complicated to explain have arisen from the tragedy.
I wonder how many of the protesters in Provo have actually experienced police brutality, and how many are just following the current zeitgeist like lemmings. Certain none of them bothered standing up against police brutality ten years ago.
I’m not sure why some people think:
It’s their right to prevent free movement of people in public spaces.
And
Making others late for work, doctors appointments, surgery, etc. will help solve their complex legal social issues.
Shouldn’t these protests, if they want to be obstructing something be around city hall, local police department, courthouse or jail?
In any case, cities should not forfeit their duty to provide order. The police should not allow people to shut down main areas of travel. This clearly isn’t a case of traffic cordoned off for a race, rally etc. There’s no police and signage there informing the public.
If you don’t have signage and police escort demonstrating a legal closure of a public traffic way, the assumption is you intend violence. Drive on MacDuff.
They could make a movie about all this, “Rebels Without a Clue”.
They aren’t helping race relations by doing this, if anything they are making things worse.
People who may have been sympathetic to their cause (which I’m still not clear as to what it is) are going to be less sympathetic to it now.
It is dismaying that someone chose to use a gun within city limits and that the driver of the white SUV was wounded by the shots from the gun.
See https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/6/30/21308526/gunman-shot-driver-then-hid-weapon-continued-protest-provo-police-say-blm for a description of the apparently two shots fired by the protester and the report that the driver of the white SUV is in stable condition at the hospital as of 1:00 PM June 30, 2020.
Provo disallows all discharge of firearms in city limits per city code https://provo.municipal.codes/Code/9.03.010 . The Provo police department welcomes additional evidence (cell phone video, etc.) to assist with their investigation.
Some legal issues to consider:
According to Utah code 76-9-102, the protesters were breaking the law by obstructing traffic and guilty of disorderly conduct, a class A misdemeanor.
https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title76/Chapter9/76-9-S102.html
And according to Utah code 76-2-402, if the driver was being threatened with physical violence, he is justified in using deadly force (whether that be with a firearm, or running someone over) in order to defend himself or the occupants of his car.
https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title76/Chapter2/76-2-S402.html.
Geoff,
Your title to this should be “Mob attempts to Murder Driver.”.
These thugs were throwing stones at passing vehicles, jumping on cars and trying to provoke a fight before the shooting. Police need to arrest and the DA needs to charge them with assault.
https://ksltv.com/440537/two-arrested-in-connection-with-provo-protest-shooting/
The Provo police caught the guy accused of shooting the man in the white SUV at the protest. They are identifying him as Jesse Taggart. His Facebook feed indicates he is a pro-BLM activist and anti-LDS activist. You can read his Facebook feed here:
https://www.facebook.com/jessetag