WATCH: Truck Drives Into ICE Protestors Assembled Outside Private Prison

Colby HallAug 15th, 2019, 6:53 am
 

Lest anyone believes that tensions were abating over the Trump administration’s aggressive policies in dealing with illegal immigration…

Peaceful protestors outside a private prison in Rhode Island were nearly run over by an individual who is alleged by the very same protestors to be a guard at that prison on Wednesday night. The protestors were assembled to bring attention to what they see as the inhumane actions of ICE under the Trump administration.

Reporting for the Washington Post, Tim Elfrink writes:

In a viral video captured by bystanders, the protesters screamed and jumped out of the way. Several were struck, according to organizers of the Wednesday night demonstration at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I. Some were treated at a hospital, though none were severely injured.

“It was terrifying because we didn’t know what exactly his intention was,” Amy Anthony, a spokesperson for Never Again Action, a Jewish activist group that planned the protest, told The Washington Post. “It certainly appeared he was trying to hit us.”

The driver, protesters say, was a correctional officer employed by the privately-run facility who was wearing a badge and a uniform — an assertion backed up by video of the incident. Local police officers working at the protest did not intervene, Anthony said, and the driver eventually walked into the prison after other guards pepper-sprayed the protesters.

While the purposeful running over of innocent pedestrians became a tactic used by extremist members who pledge devotion to ISIS and al Qaeda over the past few years, this incident does not appear to be a similar, pre-planned attack, though dangerous to the protestors nonetheless\

The protests were led by the Jewish anti-hate organization Never Again Action who tweeted the following accounts:

While this incident highlights an attack on those protesting ICE, there has also been attacks on ICE facilities as well. Shots were reportedly fired at a recent ICE facility in Texas as well as an apparent arson and attack at an ICE facility in Washington state.

Watch the video above via  The Washington Post.

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Colby Hall - Founding Editor

Colby Hall is the Founding Editor of Mediaite.com. He is also a Peabody Award-winning television producer of non-fiction narrative programming as well as a terrific dancer and preparer of grilled meats.