At The Blaze, Dave Urbanski relates the story of Mark Staite, a trucker who vows to defend himself from rioters and looters. Staite also encourages other truckers to protect themselves from violence, so they don’t end up like Reginald Denny, a trucker who became a victim of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Urbanski writes:
An independent driver who offers tips and advice to young truckers, Staite told TheBlaze he’d read in online trucking groups about drivers getting stopped and looted amid protests and rioting over George Floyd’s death.
He said his mind immediately flashed back to the 1992 Los Angeles riots and trucker Reginald Denny getting beaten to within an inch of his life by rioters while news cameras rolled.
What happened next?
So Staite said he hopped on Facebook and warned protesters who think they can get away with putting truckers’ lives at risk by trying to block their way or otherwise violate them.
“The American trucker will not be held hostage, threatened, robbed, or killed,” he wrote. “We will not be a victim. We will not be this generation’s version of Reginald Denny. Every driver knows that name. Do you?”
Staite added that truckers “will defend ourselves every time, up to and including, using our 80,000 lb trucks … to run you over. We don’t want to, but will if we have to, to save our own life.”
He also said “cities where looting, rioting, and stopping trucks is happening” are now “on notice.”
“Threaten, delay, attempt to stop a truck, [and] we… the American trucker will consider that act as an attack on our lives. We will defend ourselves, our equipment, and our load,” Staite wrote.
More from his post:
Food, medicine, hospital supplies, gasoline, and a million other daily items we deliver to your cities ARE A-POLITICAL. Everyone needs them, including your dumbass. We don’t ‘need’ to come to your lawless city. YOU NEED us to deliver your food and supplies to your city.
We drivers have social media, too. If your city becomes too chaotic and violent. Becomes too unsafe for us… Word will spread very quickly amongst the 3.5 million truckers. We will stop delivering to your city. Period. No driver will travel into a city that reminds us of scenes from a “Mad Max” movie.
Threaten an American truck driver while he’s working and it will take you, and your city, down a path where YOU WILL LOSE.”He concluded by telling protesters to “keep your silly s**t off the U.S. Interstate and U.S. highway system. Congregating in the roadway will only get you run over. Having people standing and blocking the highway is a threat to our physical safety, and we will respond appropriately to your attack. Standing in the roadway is NOT a protest. It is an attack on our safety. Air horns will sound, steering wheels will be held tightly, but those brakes will not be touched. You will move, or you will die. 80,000 pounds at 70mph will win every time. STAY OUT OF THE ROADWAY.”
And then his sign off: “DON’T F*** WITH THE AMERICAN TRUCKER!”
