Getting around Los Angeles, CA on the 110 is always a pain. Nearly 24 hours a day the traffic is built up there, with certain times of the day turning into near gridlock. People who live there or travel there frequently plan for it. Yet the pro-Palestine protest on December 13th that shut down the 110 for nearly two hours wasn’t on anyone’s radar.
Starting around 9 am, the protesters shut down the southbound lanes of traffic. With people blowing their horns and calling bosses to let them know that they were stuck, it took until 10 am for the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to issue an unlawful assembly order, and respond to the scene. Once they began detaining people, the protesters started linking arms and ultimately forced the closure of neighboring roads as traffic backed up onto the surface streets.
Then, a little after 10:30 am officers got most of the protesters removed and traffic going again. With multiple stalled vehicles due to the heat and time idle, tow trucks were called in to clear the freeway and ensure the highway was fully reopened. With the protesters originating from the “IfNotNow Los Angeles” chapter, according to FOX11, they also had a seven-foot menorah with them.
A report from FOX11 says protesters claimed they were there “to demand that all of our elected officials call for a lasting ceasefire and an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza.” With no publicized plans for the protest, residents had no time to prepare. In response, the group told the outlet “We will continue to protest until the killing and mass displacement stop, all the hostages are home, and safety is guaranteed for civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law.” Per NBC4, at least 75 people were detained as a result.
Protests like these have been on the rise globally in recent years. Shutting down entire freeways with the hope of getting their way, people have been willing to risk getting smashed by a speeding semi to drive home their misguided point. As a nation, we do not need to deal with aggression or protests like this. While we as a nation are powerful and able to inflict change, there is little direct action we can take.
Begging President Biden to stay out is an incredibly dense idea. As a nation, we have a great responsibility to help in keeping the peace in that region of the globe as they cannot do it themselves. A centuries-long conflict deeply rooted in religion, there is little for the American government to do without becoming directly involved.
Biden, thus far, has been providing funding and support to both Palestine and Israel. With Hamas stealing the aid sent over that comes through Egypt or even through Israel itself, little is reaching the “suffering” Palestinians who chose not to leave. Ultimately, this divided support and mixed message has left many Americans fighting with one another.
The liberal left blindly accepts the fabricated stories of Palestinians who claim that Israel and Biden are at fault for everything going wrong. The very ones who use children and women as human shields and commit war crimes by using hospitals as places to stage attacks from and to hide weapons. Taking their faked videos as gospel by just glancing at them, they ensure they don’t do much research into the subject, and instead condemn anyone not as woke as them.
A backup of a freeway like the 110 is a massive problem. It costs businesses money. Should an emergency vehicle have gotten stuck, it could have cost someone their life. It’s high time we as a country tell these protesters that this is no longer civil disobedience but now outright theft and mayhem. It’s time to punish these protesters with the full flex of the American justice system.
Too bad California lacks the spine to do such a thing.
