On Friday when President Donald Trump took his oath of office, troublemakers in the streets disturbed the peace with riots. Protesters and rioters took to Washington D.C.’s streets to express their outrage at Trump’s alleged Islamophobia and his supposed bigotry toward Hispanics.
The rioters showed their hate for Trump, harassed and assaulted his supporters, smashed the glass doors and windows of businesses closed for the inauguration and destroyed private property, including torching a limousine in front of the Washington Post building.
The problem is that the burned limo belongs to a Muslim immigrant and its driver, a Hispanic man a 58-year-old named Luis Villarreal, was forced to flee the limo after it was attacked by rioters. Villarreal was bloodied by several cuts from broken glass and required medical attention at a hospital. The protesters supposedly were protecting these minorities from Trump, according to the Washington Examiner.
Red Alert Politics reported that Muhammad Ashraf, owner of Nationwide Chauffeured Services LLC in Alexandria, Virginia, told them what happened to him, his car and his employee. He was not a happy camper.
“I have a different point of view,” Ashraf said of Trump, whom he did not support. “I did not agree with many of the things he said, but that still does not give me the right to go and affect someone’s livelihood… (We’ve) been in business for over 25 years and this is the first time this has happened,” lamented Ashraf, who added that if insurance doesn’t cover the total loss of his torched limo, he could end up out of pocket for over $70,000, not including the driver’s salary and medical bills.
A fellow limousine service operator from Florida, confirmed that insurance doesn’t always cover damage incurred through vandalism or riots. It also won’t cover refunds for cancelled reservations or the pay expenses owed the driver. He opened a GoFundMe account for Ashraf and people are giving to it. It is doubtful that the rioters are on the list of donors.
The rioters would claim they are protesting to protect people like this limo owner and his driver. Instead the Trump haters turned them into victims.
The destructive actions of the rioters against the limo owner and his driver should be condemned. The truth is it would be no better if the victims were Trump supporters. It wouldn’t make it justified. We hope reason and sanity soon come back as the language of dialogue. Violence won’t do, no matter how ‘noble’ the cause.