Thank God for cameras and live reporting. If it weren't, the racists might have been able to spin this latest incident of hate into more victim-blaming. Of course they will try, but there is nothing better to put the haters and deniers on the spot than facts. Cold, hard, indisputable facts.
Below the fold, we are going to analyze two of the videos of the actions of the driver, Jeffrey Patrick Rice, who chooses to drive through the crowd instead of peacefully taking an escape route that was easily available to him.
Before we take a look at the videos, it is important to set the stage here. The car in question will be near the top of the screen of the aerial video. Based on the description from the local paper and Google street view, Rice was driving eastbound on Lake Street, attempting to cross the blocked intersection at Minnehaha Street. (Pause for the obligatory giggle, those of you not familiar with the local culture.) There are two important things to note here before we roll the tape.
(1) There is a white car stopped in the left eastbound lane on Lake. Its significance will become clear when we roll the tape.
(2) There is a small gap that some cars are using to turn northbound onto Minnehaha. Normally cutting across lanes like this is not allowed, but when there is an obstruction in the roadway, such as was definitely the case here, said cutting can be legally justifiable if it does endanger anyone else.
Roll the first tape, but don't focus on Rice's car on the first go-around; focus on the car mentioned in (1).
Notice, as Rice begins to plow into the crowd, at no point does the crowd ever attempt to surround the stopped white car. From the start of the video to about the 0:14 mark, when the camera zooms in to show Rice's plowing through the crowd, and the white car disappears from view, at no point does the car or the crowd pose an imminent hazard to the other.
Now back it up and follow Rice's black car. Notice that instead of choosing to turn left onto Minnehaha as described above, as the cars (2) did, he chose to pass the white car to the right, where there was clearly no exit. At no point before plowing into the crowd does anyone swarm Rice's car.
One of the racist reactions to this video has been the allegation that Rice did not see the escape route, and panicked. The above video should be more than enough to dispel that myth. But just in case, let us consider the following video of the exact same incident:
It is physically impossible for Rice to not have been able to notice the escape route to the left. Further, this up-close video shows that there was no sensible reason to expect that by passing the silver car (previously referred to as the white car) on the right, Rice could have expected to quickly drive away.
The retaliatory actions of the protesters on Rice's car are a separate issue and will not be addressed here.
Please, Minneapolis police. Do the right thing and lock this man away until he rots.