Climate change may cause trouble down the road, but the tactics climate activists are using to deliver their message are causing trouble for people in the here and now.
Video has surfaced of a man pleading with the climate activists who blocked the Inner Loop of the Capital Beltway earlier this week that he would violate his parole and return to jail if he didn’t make it to work.
“Ya’ll are so inconsiderate,” the man can be heard saying on the video recorded by independent journalist TJ Jones. “One lane — I’m asking — one lane. One lane before I go to prison.”
The man can be seen ripping away the activists’ signs, who continued to sit on the road, unfazed.
The man, who was not identified, removed his shirt as he became more agitated.
He confronts Guido Reichstadter, the activist who climbed the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Southeast D.C. two weeks ago in response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The man was trying to get Reichstadter to stop recording him.
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Reichstadter attempted to move away from the man, and eventually fell to the ground.
The man was later arrested by Maryland State Police and charged with second degree assault, according to WTOP.
Reichstadter set up a GoFundMe campaign for the man, saying that the man was a “friend” who he believed was “abused by police who wrongfully arrested him for assault due to him bumping into me a few times during the blockade.”
He also said that he felt the man behaved nonviolently toward him, and that he would testify under oath at a trial if needed.
“This man needs help. He smelled of alcohol and seemed inebriated and in distress when he approached me,” Reichstadter wrote. “From what I understand, he faces trouble with the law and has a child who depends on him. I do not know his name or any details of his history or family but my heart was moved by his pleas. I could not comply with his request to open the blockade but I want to do what I can to help him get his life on track and support his child.”
So far, the campaign has raised $245 out of a goal of $100,000.
The protest, which took place midday on the Fourth of July, lasted from around 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Authorities arrested 13 activists.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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