A New York driver who has been involved in violent clashes with anti-Israel protesters blocking traffic said Monday he was in their hands after they prevented him from crossing a bridge to see his daughter. He said he felt like a hostage.
On Monday, a video went viral showing Kevin Rivera ordering protesters to stop blocking his car as he tried to drive onto the Manhattan Bridge.
He was seen shoving and screaming at protesters before returning to his car.
“I have a daughter in Brooklyn,” he shouted at one point, before a group of people carrying bullhorns and wearing bright safety vests relented and let him through. After the incident, he posted a video of himself reading his heartfelt statement about what happened.
Pro-Palestinian caravan yells at traffic around New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports
A sketch artist's depiction of a confrontation between his father, Kevin Rivera, and a group of anti-Israel protesters blocking the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn, New York. (Gene Nelson/Fox News, inset: @KevFrmBK_/X)
I couldn't allow those people to block my passage and essentially hold me hostage.
“I wish I hadn't been videotaped so angry and acted like that, but those people were blocking my passage and essentially running me over,” Rivera said. We could not allow them to be held hostage,” he said in a statement. X. “I love this country that I live in. I am blessed to be an American. I say that because, as citizens of this country, we have no right to violate the law.” Because you have the right to peacefully protest unless you do that, which is like disrupting traffic on the road.”
More than 100 people were arrested across New York City during protests that blocked bridges and tunnels in and around Manhattan, the NYPD said.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations calling for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict take place in New York on Monday, January 8, 2024, with protesters blocking the Brooklyn Bridge and police making arrests. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacchi)
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Some of them sat in the middle of the road with their arms tied with PVC pipes. NYPD officers had to cut them apart before handcuffing them. Actress Susan Sarandon, who was recently removed from a talent agency as a client due to her anti-Semitic comments, also appeared.
Pro-Palestinian protests take place across the US, with demonstrators blocking traffic in major cities amid the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists, who attacked the country from their base in the Gaza Strip on October 7. It's an obstacle for Americans.
“I wish I didn't have to resort to my actions, but I had to go home,” Rivera added in the X video.
Pro-Palestinian protesters drive in a motorcade near JFK Airport during a demonstration targeting JFK Airport on January 1, 2024 in New York City. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
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Rivera finished his video appealing for world peace.
“I will not tolerate any human being killed in any war,'' he said. “I am saddened to see what is happening in the world we live in and pray for real change towards world peace. Thank you all and God bless you.”
Fox News' Stephen Sorace and Pilar Arias contributed to this report.
