Driver speeds through Black Lives Matter protesters in Times Square

Incident follows wave of vehicle attacks across the US

At least two people were reportedly injured by a car speeding through a Black Lives Matter demonstration in New York City last night after the police separated protesters from supporters of Donald Trump.

It follows a series of similar incidents across the US where trucks and cars have been deliberately driven into protests — with far-right groups and activists recommending the tactic to each other and spreading memes featuring offensive slogans like “All Lives Splatter”.

The demonstration in Times Square yesterday saw a large crowd of Black Lives Matter and anti-police protesters clashing with a handful of supporters of Donald Trump, whom the police encircled for their protection.

One witness broke down the events leading up to the incident, detailing the police’s protection of the pro-Trump protesters and then tweeting the car’s licence plate. Some users replied that the model of car is used by the NYPD, but the department has issued a statement saying the vehicle does not belong to them.

Vehicles have been driven into crowds across the US many times since the start of the mass protests over the death of George Floyd. Many drivers have been arrested, though their motives are not clear in all cases.

Among this year’s incidents were one on New York’s Long Island and another in Bloomington, Indiana — both on the same day in July. They came just after a truck rammed through a crowd of protesters in Seattle, killing 24-year-old Summer Taylor.

Using vehicles as weapons against pedestrians has in recent years been a preferred tactic of terrorists associating themselves with Isis, but in the US, it is more associated with white supremacists and the far right.

The most notorious car attack at a protest in the US remains the lethal incident at Charlottesville, Virginia at 2017’s Unite the Right rally, when neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr. barrelled into a crowd of protesters, injuring 35 and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

But over the last few months in particular, this form of attack has been deployed across the country, and anti-protester car-ramming memes have been spreading fast among various groups and individuals — including some police officers.

Just after Ms Taylor was fatally struck in July, Seattle detective Mike Brown was suspended for sharing a Facebook post reading “All Lives Splatter” and “Get your a** off the road” — alongside a cartoon of bodies flying over the front of a truck.

That particular meme dates at least as far back as the Charlottesville attack, with a state legislator in South Dakota and a Sheriff’s Department in Washington State both sharing it in the aftermath of the murders at Unite the Right.

Car-ramming memes more generally were circulating even before that, with some drivers pointing to legislation in some states that gives drivers immunity if they unintentionally strike people who stand in the road.