The Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia is under fire on social media for posting a really dumb and incorrect tweet.
The trouble for the airport started when a report emerged that a caravan of at least six vehicles packed with pro-Palestinian zealots was slowing/blocking traffic headed toward the airport.
View the report below:
Happening now: A caravan of at least 6 vehicles are purposefully slowing both lanes of traffic headed north on the GW Parkway toward @Reagan_Airport. Palestinian flags are being flown from several vehicles. This has caused a significant traffic jam. pic.twitter.com/eMGe7xafrU
— Ben Dennis DC News Now (@broadcastben_) January 20, 2024
The fact that the zealots were acting like jerks and disrupting people’s travel plans was no surprise. This is what they always do.
What did come as a surprise was how the airport chose to handle the disturbance. At 2:53 pm Saturday afternoon, the airport used its official X account to warn travelers to “expect delays around the airport due to a group in vehicles exercising first amendment rights in roadway.”
Look:
TRAFFIC ALERT: Expect delays around the airport due to a group in vehicles exercising first amendment rights in roadway. Use caution and expect slow moving vehicles. Recommend @Wmata to access airport.
— Reagan Airport (@Reagan_Airport) January 20, 2024
There was just one problem: There is no First Amendment right to block traffic, especially in Virginia.
The Code of Virginia § 46.2-818 clearly states that it’s illegal for someone to “[s]top the vehicle of another for the sole purpose of impeding its progress on the highway, except in the case of an emergency or mechanical breakdown.”
“Any person violating any provision of this section is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, and in addition, his driver’s license may be suspended by the court for a period of not more than one year,” the code reads.
Look:
While protestors are exercising their first amendment rights, Virginia law says someone cannot “intentionally and willfully” “stop” traffic.
Are there any legal loopholes around this? Could a defense argue drivers ‘slowed,’ and did not ‘stop’ others? Is there legal precedence? pic.twitter.com/uxX15ylyMC— Ben Dennis DC News Now (@broadcastben_) January 20, 2024
So what the heck was Reagan Airport talking about? That’s what its many critics would like to know.
“Excuse me, kids, but there is no exercising First Amendment rights in an airport roadway,” one critic bluntly tweeted.
“1sr amendment protects peaceable assembly. Blocking a public roadway is anything but. Get a clue,” another added.
See more responses below:
Is this a joke? Left-winged libs don’t have a 1st Amendment right to block traffic. Reagan would fire every one of you for approving this
— SeldenGADawgs (@SeldenGADawgs) January 21, 2024
So if I kidnap you so I can force-feed my opinions on the Middle East on you, I’m just exercising my first amendment rights?
“Exercising first amendment rights in roadway” doesn’t grant the right to go slower than the minimum posted speed, nor to break any other law. Arrest them.— Steven Hammer (@StevennHammer) January 21, 2024
This is a clown statement. No one has a right to block roadways and illegally detain people.
Our 1st amendment right is to peaceful protest. That doesn’t include unlawful detention – which is technically kidnapping.
You should apologize for this asinine statement.
— Morgana Le Faye *Patriot *America 1st* (@Keltic_Witch) January 21, 2024
I’ve read the First Amendment.
That’s not it.
If breaking the law was first amendment protected, we just go around beating down people we didn’t like and call it “our truth.”
They’re breaking the law. If they get ran over it should be on them.
They should be arrested.
— LockeUpLiberty (@Vingancia) January 20, 2024
Wrong. It is actually a crime to block roads. pic.twitter.com/03XrZmSgZA
— Gretchen Smith (@MAGAgpsmith) January 21, 2024
It’s not clear whether any of the zealots were arrested. Ideally, they should have been, which is exactly what happened in late December when similar zealots pulled the same stunt at Los Angeles International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“Thirty-six people were taken into custody at LAX, where demonstrators became unruly, the Los Angeles Police Department said,” Reuters reported at the time.
“Across the country, the Port Authority Police Department of New York said 26 people were arrested for disorderly conduct and impeding vehicular traffic during a protest along the Van Wyck Expressway inside JFK Airport in Queens,” Reuters’ report continued.
#BREAKING: LAPD are in Riot Gear as Pro-Palestine Protesters has blocked the entrance to the LAX Airport armed with Rocks and Throwing Cones and Construction Equipment
⁰#LosAngeles l #California ⁰⁰Currently Numerous law enforcement other agencies are currently on the… pic.twitter.com/zdEs2C1nXb— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) December 27, 2023
#BREAKING Multiple roads into JFK Airport are BLOCKED by Ceasefire Now protesters demanding an end to the war in Gaza. #happeningnow pic.twitter.com/8ec5132B49
— Oliya Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) December 27, 2023
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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