Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, on Monday urged people whose routes were blocked by pro-Palestinian protesters to “take matters into your own hands” and confront the offenders, endorsing the use of physical force against peaceful demonstrators.
In a series of social media posts after protesters shut down traffic in cities across the country including major roads in Oakland, Calif., the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and near O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Mr. Cotton called those responsible “pro-Hamas” and “criminals.”He also shared a clip of himself during a recent interview in which he said that if protesters had disrupted public roads in his home state of Arkansas, they would have been met with force from citizens.
“Let’s just say I think there would be a lot of very wet criminals that would have been tossed overboard — not by law enforcement, but by the people whose road they are blocking,” he told Fox News in the interview.
“If they glued their hands to their car or pavement, it’d probably be pretty painful to have their skin ripped off.”
Persons:
Tom Cotton, Cotton, ”, “ Let’s
Organizations:
Republican, Hamas, Fox News
Locations:
Arkansas, Oakland, Calif, San Francisco, O’Hare, Chicago