Reports are very sketchy. But something pretty dramatic seems to have happened in DC tonight with the ‘Occupy’ protestors. I’m piecing together what happened from the Twitter feed of Washington Post reporter Tim Craig.
From what I can make out, Occupy protestors tried to blockade the Koch Brothers backed conference (Americans for Prosperity) put on today in DC — blockade in the sense of keep people from leaving the convention hall. Then someone drove a car into protestors acting as this sort of human blockade.
Precisely whether this was intentional or just what happened is hard to be certain of. But the incident was at least interpreted by the protestors as hostile and intentional. And things apparently escalated from there. Craig has a short item up on the Post’s breaking news blog. But more details and flavor are contained in Craig’s twitter feed from the scene.
Late Update: The Fox local affiliate has a bit more detail here. The Fox report cites police saying that the car hit one group, then kept driving and hit another group. That would at least suggest that it may not have been an accident. “A FOX 5 photographer on the scene says protesters have surrounded the car and are shouting “shame!'”
Latter Update: TPM Reporter Ryan Reilly shot this picture at the OccupyDC protest earlier in the evening.
Even Later Update: Here’s video from the local Fox affiliate …
Car Plows into Crowd of Occupy D.C. Protesters in Northwest: MyFoxDC.com