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Persistent demonstrations across the US calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality, on the heels of the heartless killing of George Floyd when a chokehold went wrong, are being met with a rising trend for apparent counter-protesters using vehicles to threaten or slam into marchers.
Tension is high between protesters and police in some areas where there have been reports of law enforcement officers confronting crowds with flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.
Several US cities have reported incidences of people driving into protesters, with reports of multiple injuries and at least one death.
A truck was witnessed charging towards a small crowd demonstrating in Newton, Massachusetts, near Boston, on Tuesday.
“It was horrifying,” Rachel Alpert-Wisnia, a 16-year-old high school student, told the local outlet WCVB, after a man in a truck reportedly revved his engine and beeped before speeding toward the crowd.
In two videos shared online, a truck can be seen rushing toward the students as they fled to a driveway nearby.
New York police officials confirmed they had detained a man who drove through a Black Lives Matter protest near Times Square in Manhattan on Tuesday night. The driver pulled on to the street after demonstrators first attempted to stop his car as they marched or cycled along.
No one was injured or arrested in the incident. The driver was later released by NYPD officers. According to authorities, protesters pushed their bikes under the SUV, and the vehicle rolled over them.
These are the latest of several incidents involving drivers endangering protesters in recent days. Elsewhere in New York state, Suffolk county officials confirmed they arrested a driver who ran into two demonstrators taking part in a Black Lives Matter protest on Monday. The man initially sped away but was soon detained and charged with third-degree assault.
