Mosaic republished City Journal’s article about our lawsuits against the organizations and individuals who engaged in anti-Israel traffic blockades.
Less effective at dealing with self-described pro-Palestinian protesters, if also less willing to accept their demands, were the governments of American cities when these demonstrations were at their height. Anita Kinney writes:
After Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks, anti-Israel protesters repeatedly shut down freeways and other key infrastructure across the United States. A month later, demonstrators snarled traffic on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, causing, among other problems, delayed organ-transplant surgeries. In January 2024, protesters shut down I-5 in Seattle for about five hours. . . . Swift prosecution could have deterred these freeway vigilantes, but local prosecutors initially took a light touch.
To rectify the failure to crack down on this sort of lawlessness, the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute (HLLI) has filed two civil suits, the first of their kind:
Christopher Manhart missed a flight and subsequent business engagements after at least 40 activists swarmed an I-190 off-ramp into Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Daniel Faoro was trapped in his car for over an hour in Arlington, Virginia, while protesters blocked bridges into Washington, D.C. during rush hour. . . . HLLI has identified scores of alleged demonstrators and articulated the case against them, helping Faoro and Manhart seek compensation for false imprisonment and other wrongful behavior.
Read more at Mosaic.