GOP senator again calls for violence against protesters
WASHINGTON — A U.S. senator made calls for everyday citizens to respond to protests like the ones that blocked Bay Area bridge traffic on Monday with physical violence.
Demonstrators blocked both the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge in the Bay Area on Monday, as well as major roads and bridges in Chicago, Seattle and New York. Some used a human-chain tactic called the sleeping dragon, in which people lock their arms to carriage bolts inside PVC pipe, making it difficult for police to extricate them.
Sen. Tom Cotton, RArk., called for people to “take matters into your own hands” to remove “mobs blocking traffic” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. Cotton previously called for violence against protesters in 2020, writing in a New York Times op-ed that the federal government should “send in the troops” against those protesting after the killing of George Floyd. Turmoil over Cotton’s argument eventually led the Times opinion editor to resign.
Cotton’s latest comments take his argument even further by encouraging civilians to commit violence.
“You have to get to these criminals early,” Cotton told Fox News. “If something like this happened in Arkansas on a bridge there, let’s just say I think there would be a lot of very wet criminals that had been tossed overboard — not by law enforcement, but by the people whose road they’re blocking.”
“I would encourage most people anywhere that get stuck behind criminals like this — who are trying to block traffic — to take matters into their own hands,” he said.
Some protesters stopped southbound traffic for hours on the Golden Gate Bridge by locking themselves to parked cars, and others used the sleeping dragon on the northbound Interstate 880 near the Embarcadero exit in Oakland. A total of 38 protesters were arrested Monday in the Bay Area actions, according to the California Highway Patrol.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, whose office will share responsibility for prosecuting the cases of people arrested during the protests with the Alameda County district attorney, denounced Cotton’s remarks at a press conference Tuesday.
“We do not want to have a system of vigilante justice. We don’t want to have anyone get hurt, not a demonstrator, nor someone who has been trapped,” Jenkins said. “And we don’t want to put people in a position where they feel that is their only recourse. As law enforcement, we don’t want to be derelict in our duties in a way that puts people in that position.”
One Republican state lawmaker introduced a bill in February to double the fines facing protesters who block highway traffic, but it hasn’t seen much action since.
Assembly Member Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita (Orange County), introduced the legislation after protesters briefly stopped traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in January.
In response to Monday’s protests, Sanchez wrote on X, “These ‘protestors’ aren’t just blocking traffic, they’re endangering the public and should be charged as such.”
Demonstrators also blocked traffic on the Bay Bridge for hours during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November and shut down the Port of Oakland in January.