On Monday, protesters in cities across the United States took to the streets to voice their opposition to Israel’s ongoing conflict in Gaza. Their actions led to significant disruptions in traffic as hundreds of demonstrators gathered to express their concerns.
Demonstrators with signs that read “Stop the world for Gaza” brought San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to a standstill for five hours during the morning commute. In another show of protest, demonstrators blocked traffic leading to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in the afternoon.
New York City police officers took action by arresting protesters who had brought traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge to a halt. Similarly, in Chicago, 40 individuals were apprehended at O’Hare International Airport after they blocked traffic to the airport while holding signs that read “Stop sending bombs.”
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco experienced a closure during the morning commute, from approximately 7:30 a.m. local time until about 12:15 p.m. The California Highway Patrol reported that protests in Oakland also led to the shutdown of another major freeway.
In a recent Facebook post, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) expressed its active involvement in de-escalating various ongoing protests in the Bay Area, including one on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge.
According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), law enforcement officers responded to multiple locations where protesters had used different tools to hinder their efforts to remove the protesters. This included the use of 55-gallon drums filled with concrete. The officers successfully removed these devices from the Golden Gate Bridge and Interstate 880 in Oakland, and apprehended those involved.
In Seattle, Washington, as commuters were making their way home in the afternoon, cameras from the Washington State Department of Transportation captured numerous vehicles obstructing the expressway leading to the airport. This caused a significant traffic backup, leaving frantic travelers with no choice but to abandon their cars in order to catch their flights.
Port of Seattle police swiftly took action and began towing the vehicles of protesters. During the operation, officers apprehended a total of 46 individuals who had linked their arms together in a tactic known as the “sleeping dragon.”
Demonstrators chose to target Monday, which coincides with Tax Day, as they joined a “global call for an economic blockade” against Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
In a post, they expressed their concern about how our government is utilizing our tax money to finance the ongoing genocide that we are witnessing on our screens.
