Protesting
We were returning our rental car to Hertz at LA Airport earlier today after spending Christmas with my son, daughter, and their families. Since I’m a Platinum member, my wife and I are driven in a car to our airline. After a mile or so we ran into a huge police presence, as if we had driven into a riot: hundreds of police in riot gear with helmets and visors; scores of police vehicles; lights and sirens everywhere; three dozen police hanging to the outside of vehicles racing through traffic; police on foot running down the sidewalks.
We reached a point that was blocked completely near the airport and left the car. We found three people with two babies striding purposely and we asked if they were headed for a terminal. “Yes,” they said, but only Jet Blue is near here.” That’s where we were going! We traveled together for about a half-mile and inside the terminal all was normal.
What had transpired a bit earlier was a Palestinian protest with sandbags thrown down at airport entrances and the protestors shifting from one place to another, hence, the police racing around after them. Their intent was to disrupt the travel plans of people returning home after Christmas.
I want to compliment the LA police who seemed to be well organized and highly professional. And I was absolutely impressed by passengers toting their bags along sidewalks and roadways determinedly trying to get to their destinations, as well as drivers of all kinds of vehicles allowing merging and basic movement on crowded roads.
I didn’t find anyone positively affected by the “protest.” I found a lot of people genuinely pissed off at the thought of missing a payday, soothing children, exhausted by the exertion, missing obligations, and having to make new arrangements. And please stop the nonsensical political position of “defunding the police.” Notice how you don’t hear anyone boosting that anymore?
You know why? It’s another stupid, empty phrase, virtue-signaling instead of real improvement.
