On Saturday, June 6, Jason Uphaus, who was attending a Black Lives Matter protest at Graffiti Bridge, made news when he was carried on the hood of an SUV across the Pensacola Bay Bridge.
Ten days ago, the daily newspaper reported Uphaus might face one misdemeanor count of criminal mischief for property damage worth $200 or less, as well as a health and safety misdemeanor count for obstructing the highway.
Pensacola Police Department spokesman Officer Mike Wood informed Inweekly this morning that the case is still under investigation.
NPR reports Right-wing extremists are increasingly using cars as weapons, as 50 vehicle-ramming incidents have been reported since protests against police brutality began at the end of May following the death of George Floyd.
Ari Weil, a terrorism researcher at the University of Chicago’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats, has tracked vehicle-ramming attacks.
“The message they’re trying to send is, ‘You need to get out of the street and stop these protests,’ ” Weil told NPR. “They’re trying to intimidate the most recent wave of BLM protesters, to stop their movement.”
PPD investigators might want to check the driver’s social media history.
Joan, was it reported to the sheriff’s office? Please send me the video of the people threatening children or the link. We will follow up with law enforcement.
Someone put up the confederate flag on private property in D2 and people vandalized it and threatened their children and posted the video of their crime on Facebook Escambia Citizen Watch Facebook. Ignorance and anger is a dangerous combination. Is the sheriff allowing this in the county.
Send me the video that shows what you assert. Rick@inweekly.net
No violence? You don’t call jumping on someone’s car, ripping the mirrors off and kicking the hood to be violent? But regardless of that, how in the world is an innocent person supposed to know that at THIS demonstration, you won’t see the same violence that has accompanied all the OTHER riots? How exactly would I know that I’ll be safe in THIS riot (whose participants were banging on the windows of the Ford Flex)? Yes, the others were violent and we beat hell out of innocent people, burned and looted stores, threw molotov cocktails in police cars but THIS one is safe. How exactly would one know that?
Morris,
No looting, beating or burning in Pensacola. No insanity demonstrated in Pensacola protests. No violence.
Ashley Brown is absolutely correct. It matters little whether, as Rick Outzen says, “Nobody was throwing rocks or pulling anyone from a vehicle at Pensacola Bay Bridge”. We’ve all seen these so-called demonstrators all over the country attacking people, looting stores, burning buildings and beating people. Any reasonable person would be terrified of what they might do if that person were cornered and helpless. Even here we saw that rather than simply get off the slow moving car, Jason Uphaus ripped the mirror, bent the windshield wipers and kicked the hood of the car. He was so “terrified” that he had one hand free to use his cell phone to video the driver. These people are insane. Any justification for this terrorism has long since been eliminated. George Floyd’s death does not justify attacks on innocent citizens.
Ashley,
No one was throwing rocks or pulling anyone from a vehicle at Pensacola Bay Bridge.
This in response to Ari Weil’s statement. -I am not a right winged extremist. I am a Democrat and your statement is outrageous, biased & so incredibly wrong. You are the reason this craziness gets sensationalized entirley wrong. People around the country are using their vehciles because they are SCARED for their own lives-not to stop BLM protesters from protesting!!! Get out of damn highway/interstate and streets. The last thing people want to do after the COVID shutdown, is Having to fight to get into work-people need money and to get back to some type of norm. People should be outraged about George Floyd – all races. But those protestors are not in any capacity justified in throwing rocks, kicking cars, busting out windows, pulling people out of cars….beating people etc. Self preservation is #1 in a situation like that. Fuerthermore Blocking a highway or interstate is also illegal. I would like to know how you feel after being charged by a handful of protestors kicking your car, throwing rocks, pulling you from your own vehicle just to INJURE YOU. People are scared and annoyed becuase this is causing delays to their norm. Protestors want change…how is this working out for protestors that are blocking traffic? What message are they trying to send? What type of change needs to be made in order for your stay out of the road? How does one measure the type of change they are wanting?