Anyone with a modicum of common sense understands that a person shouldn't try to block a road with his body and then proceed to intimidate and threaten the drivers he's forced to stop.  When push comes to shove, protesters in the middle of the road aren't going to win the battle against a two-ton vehicle, especially if they really make a person fear for his life and the lives of his passengers.  It's just a good rule of thumb, if you happen to be an Antifa or Black Lives Matter protester, to keep your big, dumb, non-caring, socially unacceptable butt out of the middle of the street and try to actually protest peacefully for a change, and you won't get run over.

In December of 2020, Kathleen Casillo found herself in just such a predicament.  She was forced to stop her car near the intersection of 39th Street and Third Avenue around 4:00 P.M. CST, where she and her twenty-nine year old daughter were immediately surrounded and attacked by a howling mob of BLM "mostly peaceful" protesters, who jumped on her car and attempted to smash the windows and open the doors, for the purpose of dragging one or both women out of the car.  They were screaming, "White privilege b----" at the women as all of this occurred. 

Fearing for her life and her daughter's life, Kathleen floored the gas and sped off — rightfully so, and in self-defense — injuring nine protesters (one seriously) in the process.  Who wouldn't, when trapped in the same set of circumstances?  

Many men would be equally fearful and afraid for their lives, especially if they recalled the 1992 L.A. riots, when Reginald Denny was dragged from his truck by a mob of black men and nearly beaten to death — a scene witnessed by millions as it crossed the airwaves.  Far too many of us saw similar acts of violence committed against any person, of any color, who was deemed an enemy of Antifa or Black Lives Matter, including the murder of 77-year-old retired police lieutenant David Dorn — a black man — during the months of chaos created in America's streets by the mindless, Marxist-Maoist, anti-American radicals.

One surely must admire the courage Kathleen has shown in light of the fact that she just turned down a plea deal on a Class D felony vehicular assault charge that carries a seven-year sentence, for the second time, on November 30, 2022, because she knows she is innocent of the charges, given the evidence and the circumstances.  And she's prepared to go to trial rather than accept a light sentence of six days of community service and her license suspended for a year.  (Note: It couldn't have been "reckless endangerment" since that charge doesn't carry that length of sentence in New York.  The seven-year possible sentence suggests that Casillo was actually charged with vehicular assault, despite the report from the N.Y. Post.)

One would have to be nervous as a mouse cornered by the house cat to know that his future and his life hangs in the hands of any jury these days, given the political climate.  But there's no way I'd accept a prison sentence lightly simply because I chose to defend myself and my daughters.  I might also take my chances with a "jury of my peers" were I in Kathleen's shoes, but all the while, I'd be preparing myself mentally to go to prison.

Although everybody's right to protest and assemble is sacrosanct under the First Amendment, not one single American has any right to engage in an unprovoked violent assault against another person who is simply trying to traverse his hometown.  Along with this, nearly every single state and many locales already have laws against blocking roads and highways.  Protest as you see fit, but note that your rights end where another's begin.

In a fit of outrageous arrogance and their own sense of entitlement, some of the protesters who were injured have since asserted that it was "white supremacy" that led Kathleen Casillo to "end the lives" of BLM protesters.  One could just as easily assert that it was their own anti-white racism and their perpetual sense of black victimhood that made them believe they had the right to break every law in the book and abuse, maim, or kill anyone they targeted, in order to take vengeance against the innocent for crimes of the past that they had no part in committing.

Make no mistake: it was the protesters who created this dangerous situation and then cried foul when they came up on the short end of things, with several of their members injured.

During his public statement on November 30, Oliver Storch, Ms. Casillo's defense attorney, declared in part:

Nobody should ever have to be forced into a fight or flight predicament when simply on their way to go Christmas shopping. ... Law and order must return to Manhattan with protesters coexisting with residents not being afraid to be confronted by angry mobs, creating dangerous situations.

It's worth noting that in 2020, Florida governor Ron DeSantis introduced legislation titled the "Combatting Violence, Disorder and Looting and Protecting Law Enforcement Act."  In part, this bill sought to criminalize protests being carried out on roads and to make it a third-degree felony for anyone who obstructs traffic "during an unpermitted protest, demonstration or violent or disorderly assembly."  Unfortunately, a federal judge blocked it as being "overly broad," and it is still going through the appeal process in the courts. 

With my best years probably behind me at the tender age of 65 and entering my last few years, whether they number one or thirty more left, my tolerance for Antifa and Black Lives Matter now sits at zero.  Though I wouldn't wish to damage my soul any further by taking another person's life or become embroiled in some mess, like what Kathleen Casillo has found herself, if I were attacked in a similar fashion, I can't say I would react very differently from how she did.

Self-defense is still a very real and righteous legal defense in America — or at least it used to be.  Everyone will have to make his own choices, if and when the time comes.  Just don't let the Marxist-Maoists make you a victim.

Image: Johnny Silvercloud via Flickr (cropped), CC BY-SA 2.0.