Protesters rioting in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd are not the only ones up in arms. Indeed, unrest and violence has been spreading to other American cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
Even in Denver several shots were fired near the Colorado Capitol building Thursday evening amid protest marches.
In addition, KUSA-TV reported that demonstrators blocked an interstate as well as major thoroughfares through downtown Denver.
And at one intersection, protesters had surrounded a vehicle — and things got ugly fast.
Video shows the driver moving through the crowd around the vehicle, but one protester is seen kneeling on the hood. It isn’t clear from the video when he mounted the hood.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
But as the driver accelerated, the protester was forced to hop off.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
But the driver made an immediate U-turn and hit the protester, knocking him to the street.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Naturally that got his comrades even more fired up, and they ran after the vehicle.
The protester hit by the vehicle didn’t seem hurt, KUSA said.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Check it out:
WATCH: Driver apparently intentional hits protester in Denver
youtu.be
What else?
According to the Twitter user who posted the now-viral clip, the hit protester “was not on the hood of her car before she started moving. He jumped up because she wouldn’t stop accelerating towards the people surrounding her car. ‘It’s illegal to jaywalk and block traffic.’ It’s illegal to murder an innocent human being.”
The Twitter user — who goes by Anabel — also said “we wanted a peaceful protest. Everyone had walked away from the car, and she purposely turned around and ran him over” and that video and images of the vehicle’s license plate have been sent to Denver police.
A different Twitter user commented that “I was there at this moment and was nearly run over myself, he was on the hood because she attempted to ram her car thru a crowd of us a first time. That’s how he ended up there to begin with. It was a [Black Lives Matter] protest. She attempted to ram her car through an entire crowd of people.”
Dissenting opinions
But not every commenter was sympathetic to the protester who got hit:
- “I’m going to assume you were all just crossing the street legally in the crosswalk and she blew through a light. That is how he ended up on the hood of her car. Now, if that isn’t the case, and you all had surrounded the car like a mob, what do you expect her to do?”
- “If she wanted to hit him, she wouldn’t have stopped.”
- “Some guy deliberately jumped on the hood of some girl’s car & refused to dismount as some girl repeatedly sounded the horn to express disapproval of some guy damaging her car & blocking some girl’s travel on a public street. She didn’t have a knee in the game. Gimme a damn break.”
- “Well…as far as I’m concerned…she passed the driving test.”
- “Let’s be real here. He deserved it.”