Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, on Monday urged people whose roads were blocked by Palestinian protesters to “take matters into your own hands” and face the criminals, justifying the use of physical force to against peace activists.
In a series of social media advertising after protesters shut down traffic in cities across the country including freeways in Oakland, Calif., the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport , said Mr. Cotton those responsible are “pro-Hamas” and “criminals. .”
He also shared a photo of himself during a recent interview in which he said that if protesters had blocked public roads in his home state of Arkansas, they would have been met with force from citizens.
“Let’s say I think there are a lot of criminals who might be thrown overboard – not the law, but the people who are blocking their way,” he told Fox News in an interview. “If they put their hands on their car or the sidewalk, it can really hurt their skin.”
On Tuesday morning, Mr. Cotton posted a video showing a group of men forcibly removing orange-clad protesters from a street that appears to be outside the United States. In the clip, one person is shown dragging a protester off the street by his feet.
“How to do it,” Written by Mr. Cotton.
Several protesters who caused traffic chaos on the Golden Gate Bridge were finally arrested on Monday. Law enforcement officials said that’s how it should work, and people shouldn’t take matters into their own hands.
“We don’t encourage any kind of violence,” said Officer Darrel Horner, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, in an interview Tuesday. He said that drivers who experience any accident should report the situation to the authorities, and he said that even choosing to get out of a vehicle to respond can lead to the driver in legal problems.
“You shouldn’t be a pedestrian on the highway, which means you shouldn’t get out of your car in the first place,” said Mr. Horner.
The comments of Mr. Cotton comes as protesters angry that US support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza have increased their civil disobedience in recent days.
Mr. Cotton sparked outrage in 2020 with an opinion piece in the New York Times in which he called for the use of the military to quell unrest in the country amid the civil unrest that followed. the death of George Floyd, a black man. who was killed by police in Minneapolis.
“One thing above all else will restore order to our streets,” he wrote at the time: “an overwhelming demonstration of the power to disperse, arrest and finally arrest people.” crime.”
Other elected officials have also been highly critical of the anti-Palestinian movement. Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, who has been one of the most vocal supporters of Israel during the conflict, on Tuesday posted photos of protesters showing up inside a Starbucks and said that such behavior is very bad.
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but blocking a bridge or criticizing people at Starbucks is not fair,” he wrote on social media, a derogatory term is used to refer to a despicable person to describe those who are doing such actions.
But he didn’t call out the opponents about it.
“A request to Hamas to send all those arrested home and return them,” wrote Mr. Fetterman.