They were peaceful up to that point.
More importantly, in your zeal to place the entire blame on the protesters you continue to ignore the facts that
1) there are no reports of any other vehicle being vandalized, and
2) there are no reports that any of the injured people were engaged in vandalizing the car
In fact, you have ignored responding to those facts while you trolley track on your defense of your inaccurate characterizations.
And he should have stopped immediately for the police as the angry mob was chasing his car, instead of going another block or so where it was safe. Yeah, that makes sense....
From the OP article
“Police attempted to stop driver of vehicle who initially refused to stop. He stopped about a block away from the incident and was taken into custody.”
So, the police were there, and this person refused to obey them initially.
Looking at this raises questions?
The Yahoo article states:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trans-lives-matters-car-drives-131300425.html
Police said that on Wednesday evening, protesters had walked from a Transgender Memorial to an intersection and blocked traffic in all directions.
“A vehicle approached, stopped, honked its horn and attempted to drive around the protesters,” police said in a statement.
“The protesters surrounded the vehicle and began striking it with their hands and a flag pole. Several protesters also kicked and jumped on top of the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle...proceeded to drive away when three protesters...fell from the vehicle.”
The statement added: “Police attempted to stop driver of vehicle who initially refused to stop. He stopped about a block away from the incident and was taken into custody.”
But the St Louis Post-Dispatch quoted a witness identified as Keith Rose, who said the driver had his middle finger raised before accelerating through the group.
The report said the witness, who was in the group of protesters, said the driver stopped for a few seconds
“before accelerating gradually and driving into the group”.
As I understand Mark Colao is charged as follows:
Resisting arrest by fleeing, a felony;
leaving the scene of an accident while driving in a careless and reckless (imprudent) manner; Misdemeanor
Taking into account a likely defence the court would need to determine:
1 Did he reasonably perceive that there was an immediate danger of harm to him? He could also argue that he had real fear of imminent harm though it was objectively not founded on reason.
The crowd surrounding the car and what appears to be someone striking the car could be added to defence brief. Others were jumping on the car, but will are these circumstances sufficient to convince the court that he perceived an actual and imminent danger.
2 Waiting for help: Could he have waited for the police? A defence that he could not could be based on point 1
3 Level of force: Did he use an imperfect self-defence that was disproportionate to the perceived level of threat? The courts would no doubt try to determine this from the video, the police reports and witness accounts.
4 If the crowd was illegally on the road, he does not have a right to push through them using a vehicle as a weapon. For a perceived threat and not using disproportionate force he may well have that right.
Initially he failed to stop for police (for his defence would not use refused to) but did subsequently do so just around the block.
Could he counter sue for obstruction and imprisonment in his car but that would be hard to prove.
In addition it’s not clear at this point how the laws on obstruction stand in St Louis but it seems there were some proposals for legislation being proposed in this article some years ago.
I’m not sure if any of this was ever passed into law.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article137031768.html
Missouri protesters who block roadways would face tougher penalties under bill
I'm sure any experts in US law can add and or correct the above.
