I mean, have you ever been in a parking lot after the end of a show, game or the closing of an amusement park? Does anyone have the right to just run people over in the parking lot? Context is important. If a jury can find her reasonably under duress then so be it. The idea of anyone driving through people because they are being "blocked" is dumb and warrants some danger or fear of life. ie. people purposefully touching the car to forcefully enter or cause damage to property or persons.
If that happened here, then I don't blame her. If that didn't happen, then she needs to be held accountable.
There's a difference between a traffic jam and people deliberately gathering in an area where vehicles have a right to be driving. Also a difference between a crowd of people who were gathered for a specific event and are in the process of departing (very different from people just gathering in a parking lot or street and staying there). When a big game or other big spectator event finishes, there is normally paid, uniformed staff directing both pedestrian and vehicle traffic departing the venue. Obviously, I wouldn't condone anyone plowing into people or other vehicles in that kind of situation. But the minute a rowdy crowd stops following instructions from staff directing traffic (e.g. fans "protesting" a decision that affected who won the game), all bets are off. People have been killed in riots after big soccer games, because they weren't able to get away from the rioting "fans" in time.
With BLM-Antifa "protesters" present (per all accounts), even if there was only a small number of them compared to the number of Trump supporters, and people standing in the way of the vehicle proceeding toward an exit, the driver would have been reasonably fearful of what might happen if she was not able to drive away immediately. And I don't think any legal proceeding should be needed, if there's any video of people standing in front of her car who weren't actively and quickly getting out of the way. People shouldn't have to fear being bankrupted by legal proceedings, when deciding they need to get away from a volatile situation. It doesn't matter if they end up being "cleared" -- their lives can still be destroyed.
I mean, have you ever been in a parking lot after the end of a show, game or the closing of an amusement park? Does anyone have the right to just run people over in the parking lot? Context is important. If a jury can find her reasonably under duress then so be it. The idea of anyone driving through people because they are being "blocked" is dumb and warrants some danger or fear of life. ie. people purposefully touching the car to forcefully enter or cause damage to property or persons.
If that happened here, then I don't blame her. If that didn't happen, then she needs to be held accountable.
There's a difference between a traffic jam and people deliberately gathering in an area where vehicles have a right to be driving. Also a difference between a crowd of people who were gathered for a specific event and are in the process of departing (very different from people just gathering in a parking lot or street and staying there). When a big game or other big spectator event finishes, there is normally paid, uniformed staff directing both pedestrian and vehicle traffic departing the venue. Obviously, I wouldn't condone anyone plowing into people or other vehicles in that kind of situation. But the minute a rowdy crowd stops following instructions from staff directing traffic (e.g. fans "protesting" a decision that affected who won the game), all bets are off. People have been killed in riots after big soccer games, because they weren't able to get away from the rioting "fans" in time.
With BLM-Antifa "protesters" present (per all accounts), even if there was only a small number of them compared to the number of Trump supporters, and people standing in the way of the vehicle proceeding toward an exit, the driver would have been reasonably fearful of what might happen if she was not able to drive away immediately. And I don't think any legal proceeding should be needed, if there's any video of people standing in front of her car who weren't actively and quickly getting out of the way. People shouldn't have to fear being bankrupted by legal proceedings, when deciding they need to get away from a volatile situation. It doesn't matter if they end up being "cleared" -- their lives can still be destroyed.