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Youngkin calls traffic-blocking protest for Palestine ‘unacceptable’ • Virginia Mercury [1]

['Graham Moomaw', 'More From Author', '- March']

Date: 2024-03 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took to social media Monday morning to denounce a pro-Palestine protest that blocked highway traffic in the Richmond region.

“It is unacceptable to block interstates, endanger the lives of Virginians and cause mayhem on our roads,” Youngkin said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, while reposting a photo of a heavy Virginia State Police response to the protest that took place on Interstate 95 near the exit for Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

Nine people were arrested in the incident, according to the Virginia State Police, which clogged southbound traffic for several hours and led to traffic backups extending more than 3 miles. No protesters or law enforcement personnel were hurt, according to officials.

Mostly young people from the Richmond area, those arrested were charged with stopping another person’s vehicle, obstructing the free passage of others, unlawful assembly and being a pedestrian on the interstate. The first three charges are misdemeanors, and the latter is considered a traffic offense.

An anonymous news release sent to the media shortly after the protest began said the demonstration was carried out “in solidarity with the Palestinian Liberation Movement” and meant to cause “major gridlock.”

“Demonstrators say that they are putting their bodies on the line to disrupt the flow of ‘business as usual’ in the heart of the Commonwealth, demanding that the U.S. empire cease all funding for the genocidal, Israeli occupation of Palestine at once,” the release said.

State Police said they first started receiving calls from blocked drivers around 6:54 a.m.

After arriving at the scene, State Police said they found “nine individuals lying in the southbound lanes” who had “linked themselves together using two ladders, a large metal chain and ‘sleeping dragon’ devices.” After police declared an unlawful assembly, three protesters “voluntarily gave up almost immediately,” according to police.

“Specially-trained troopers arrived on scene to safely extricate the remaining six protesters from the sleeping dragon devices, which turned out to be large PVC piping wrapped in chicken wire and connected via a large metal chain,” said State Police Sgt. Jessica Shehan. “The six were then taken into custody without further incident and transported off the interstate.”

The scene wasn’t fully cleared until 10:30 a.m.

Republican lawmakers in Virginia have occasionally introduced legislation to create tougher criminal penalties for disruptive protests, but those efforts have largely failed in the General Assembly.

Some proposals have been aimed squarely at creating steep consequences for blocking roads and highways. In debate over one such bill in 2022, Democratic lawmakers stressed that it’s already a class 1 misdemeanor, an offense punishable by up to a year in jail and up to $2,500 in fines.

If convicted on a charge of stopping the vehicle of another, violators can also have their driver’s license suspended for up to one year.

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