Washington, D.C., commuters were upset after their Monday morning commutes were obstructed or lengthened because of climate change protests.
“One way to get me to help your cause is to purposefully ruin my day and design a plan to cause my hellacious commute to get worse,” Grant Paulsen, a radio show host in DC said Monday on Twitter. “Who thinks ‘let’s infuriate millions of people to gain more support!'”
The sentiment was shared by many who took to Twitter to complain or mock the climate protests.
One way to get me to help your cause is to purposefully ruin my day and design a plan to cause my hellacious commute to get worse. Who thinks “let’s infuriate millions of people to gain more support!”
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) September 23, 2019
One of the most frequent complaints against the climate protests were people pointing out that blocking morning commutes disproportionately affects low-income workers including those who live in cheaper housing outside the city and have longer commutes to work.
Video from the protests shows one protester claiming that “this is more important than your job” when asked about whether the protests were hurting low-income people of color.
Climate protesters on my way to work decide that their protest is more important than a low-income worker’s job pic.twitter.com/DHuBjlMGqm
— Katrina B Haydon? (@katrinabhaydon) September 23, 2019
Saw on the r/washingtondc subreddit about #ShutDownDC – I’m all for climate change activism, and I think sustainable energy will be the future. But this is really going to hurt the people you don’t want it to hurt. pic.twitter.com/YrMRZ4fJ60
— Carly Anne Wooten (@CarlyAnneWooten) September 23, 2019
Yeah, not here for the #ShutDownDC climate traffic block protests man. Here for the message, but all it’s doing is making the morning commute / life of all the minimum wage / low income people of DC a nightmare today. No one with any power in DC is riding the bus or driving in..
— ChampagneBP (@RealABP) September 23, 2019
White privilege is not having to work on Monday morning so you can stop people in a majority POC city from getting to their jobs. https://t.co/KOvlKcHi2s
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) September 23, 2019
Climate change protest Monday aims to block “key infrastructure to stop business-as-usual, bringing the whole city to a gridlocked standstill,” organizers said.
Yes, inconvenience everyone in this Democratic stronghold. That’s the path to success. https://t.co/qUnQhkzF3n
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) September 22, 2019
Let’s recap #ShutDownDC:
• The only people they’re hurting by blocking traffic = low income people, middle class people and sick people
• Creating unnecessary emissions
• Forcing more fossil fuels to burn from the cars they’re blocking from getting to workAbsolute geniuses.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 23, 2019
Right now, climate strikers are blocking & trying to disrupt busy intersections in DC.
You’re preventing working families from making money.
Why don’t you head up to Baltimore & pick up 19 tons of trash, like we did? #ShutDownDC
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) September 23, 2019
The protests in the nation’s capitol were organized as an attempt to force lawmakers to respond to climate change concerns. The organizers called the event “Shut Down DC” and involved activists standing in intersections to keep cars from commuting to work.
“I think that we were very successful in holding the majority of the blockades people had planned,” a spokesperson for the group said. “We significantly impeded traffic in some of the main areas we were in for about three hours.”
