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A car just drove thru a crowd of protesters, dragging one on his hood, during a peaceful demonstration in SE #Portland. The group of approx. 25 temporarily occupied an intersection in an act of civil disobedience in a demand for the abolition of police. #pdx #portlandprotests

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Maranie R. Staab

@MaranieRae

Apr 30, 2021

There seems to be some confusion re: the circumstances here. No one attacked this car. The majority of vehicles (several hundred over the course of approx. 30 minutes) chose to drive around the block rather than confront protesters.

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Maranie R. Staab

@MaranieRae

Apr 30, 2021

Only this vehicle and several others instead turned and drove into the group. The man who ended up on the hood of the car was standing there when the car drove into him. To anyone hung up on the term “peaceful”, I maintain that this was a nonviolent demonstration.

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Maranie R. Staab

@MaranieRae

For those who know their history, this type of civil disobedience is not uncommon. By definition, ths type of protest is the nonviolent refusal to obey a law; in this case the group temporarily blckd traffic. Unlawful or not, nothing justifies driving into a group of humans

6:44 PM · Apr 30, 2021Twitter for iPhone

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The amount of vitriol and hate expressed in these comments is distressing and speaks to so much more than this relatively small incident. Ask yourself: why are you so enraged by this?

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Maranie R. Staab

@MaranieRae

Apr 30, 2021

I didn’t expect this 10 second clip to garner so much attention. I turned off my notifications last night and woke up to over 30 private messages and several death threats. Do better, folks.

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Tracking the 2020-2024 Crisis Since 2005

@PathfinderAstro

May 1, 2021

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@MaranieRae

Correct. Crime is not uncommon.

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You don't know. For all you know he could have a kid at home that's having a medical emergency and your illegal protesting in the road is stopping him from getting to his home. Or a parent with a medical emergency. If I had that going on I'd run you over too.

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The driver just refused to obey the law to not hit people with his car. If you insist to keep protesting where cars drive this is the consequence. There's more than enough suitable places to protest that doesn't' involve blocking traffic. You're simply begging for it to happen.

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Its obvious this car was not going so fast that the person on the hood couldn't get out of the way. I mean, again, look at the semi directly in front of the car. How did that guy avoid that semi? Hmm...