Corrections Officer Drives into Crowd of Protesters with Pickup Truck, Resigns

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Captain Thomas Woodworth, senior corrections officer at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island, has resigned after being placed on administrative leave for driving his pickup truck into a crowd of peaceful protesters (WLNE-TV via AP)

By Ashoka Mukpo

A senior corrections officer at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island has resigned after being placed on administrative leave for driving his pickup truck into a crowd of peaceful protestors on Wednesday night. The attack left one man, 64-year-old Jerry Belair, with a broken leg and internal bleeding, and four others were hospitalized after the officer’s colleagues used pepper spray to disburse the crowd.

In an interview with the ACLU, Matt Harvey, a spokesperson for the Jewish-led civic group that coordinated the protest, called the officer’s actions a “shocking and ugly example of the violence that is an integral part of American immigration policy right now.”

The protest was coordinated by the Rhode Island chapter of Never Again, a loose federation of activists formed in response to the Trump Administration’s hardline immigration policies. It was the second major action the group has taken at Wyatt this summer. In early July, 18 of its members were arrested after blocking the entrance to the privately owned facility where over 100 detained immigrants are being housed under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to Harvey, the protest was attended by up to 500 people. Gathering at 7PM, the group heard from local faith leaders and community activists, leading one another in chants and songs outside the facility. Anticipating a shift change by guards, around 30 members of the group moved to block the main parking lot used by employees of the prison at around 9PM. Harvey says they intended to use “peaceful protest in the civil disobedience mode” to disrupt Wyatt’s operations for a few hours.

“We worked really hard to create the right atmosphere for the event,” he said. “And that atmosphere was committed and serious, but also peaceful and positive.”

But around 9:45, events took a chaotic and frightening turn. Footage captured by one attendee shows the line of protestors sitting peacefully outside of Wyatt’s gates while being led in a call-and-response chant by a man with a megaphone. Without warning, a pickup truck takes a sharp right turn into the line of protestors, nearly running a number of them over before gunning the engine and driving through the crowd.

On Thursday, Wyatt administrators identified the driver of the truck as Captain Thomas Woodworth, a senior officer at the facility who was subsequently placed on administrative leave “pending the results of the independent investigation being conducted by the Rhode Island State Police, and the Wyatt’s internal investigation.” On Friday afternoon, Woodworth resigned.

Harvey says that after Woodworth drove into the crowd, officers from the facility poured into the parking lot and used pepper spray against the protestors. Of the five people who were hospitalized following the incident, two were treated for injuries related to Woodworth’s attack, and three others for pepper spray-related injuries – including one woman in her 70s.

In a statement, the ACLU of Rhode Island described the truck attack and subsequent use of pepper spray against the crowd as “an attempt to chill the exercise of First Amendment rights by hundreds of peaceful protestors” and “completely unacceptable uses of force.”

In 2017, Rhode Island was one of several states where lawmakers introduced legislation that would prevent drivers who strike protestors with their vehicle from being held liable. Rhode Island’s proposed law, HB5690, was introduced by three Republicans and two Democrats but ultimately died in committee.

Wyatt has a troubled history and has long been controversial in Rhode Island. The facility is located in Central Falls, a city that contains a large portion of the state’s immigrants and which census figures list as being 63.8% Hispanic or Latino. In 2009, the ACLU of Rhode Island filed suit against Wyatt on behalf of the family of Jason Ng, a 34-year-old Chinese man who died in custody after being denied medical care for a broken spine and liver cancer. The family received a multi-million dollar settlement in 2012.

Earlier this summer, in response to pressure by local lawmakers and civic organizations, Wyatt’s board of directors voted to terminate the facility’s contract with ICE and ordered the warden to return all immigrants detained there to the agency’s custody within 7 days. Furious over the loss of more than $130 million dollars that would result from the board’s decision, bondholders for the private facility sued to keep the contract intact.

“From the perspective of the Never Again movement, looking to shut down ICE and stop the deportation machine, the place where that intersects in Rhode Island is at Wyatt,” said Harvey. “There are more than 100 ICE detainees at that facility, and it’s the locus for the national immigration conversation here.”

In a Twitter post, Never Again Action described Woodworth’s resignation as a “first step” but called for Wyatt to be shut down and for people detained there to be released.

“If this is what he’s willing to do to a crowd of mostly white protestors in front of cameras, just imagine what’s happening inside that prison where no one’s watching,” said Harvey.

Asoka Mukpo is a staff reporter for the ACLU


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7 thoughts on “Corrections Officer Drives into Crowd of Protesters with Pickup Truck, Resigns”

    1. John Hobbs

      “And this incident, in RI, is pertinent to CA, Sac Valley, Yolo County, or Davis, how?”

      When they come for Alan you’ll know. ;>)/

      The Trumpists are intent on squelching dissent at any cost. This is coming to an ICE detention protest near you.
      Maybe I’m hypersensitive, a similar incident happened closer to home last year when the SSD ran over a grandmother at a Stephon Clark vigil.

      1. Bill Marshall

         a similar incident happened closer to home last year when the SSD ran over a grandmother at a Stephon Clark vigil.

        That is truly a fair response… a fair connection… once you mentioned that, I saw the ‘pertinence’… thx.

      2. Alan Miller

        When they come for Alan you’ll know. ;>)/

        I’m only the token conservative here (which I’m not by any stretch, except compared to y’all) because the real ones got driven off — and because they wouldn’t play ball and show their faces in public.

        Actually, I have no idea which “Alan” he was referring to. I suppose we’ll find out when a house falls on one of our siblings.

      3. Alan Miller

        And this incident, in RI, is pertinent to CA, Sac Valley, Yolo County, or Davis, how?

        Simple.  It’s the “a mentally ill person who is on the ‘other’ side did something horrific, so we’ll point it out and paint everyone on the ‘other’ side with a big fat brush of evil” syndrome.

        It’s an awful tactic, but the Vanguard engages in it all the time.  Rush Limbaugh marked his brand doing this starting on Sacramento local radio in the early 90’s.  It’s a dirty tactic both ‘sides’ use, and it is ruining this country.

        That’s why I’m not on a ‘side’ . . . and because I’m not on a side.

        1. John Hobbs

          “Simple.  It’s the “a mentally ill person who is on the ‘other’ side did something horrific, so we’ll point it out and paint everyone on the ‘other’ side with a big fat brush of evil” syndrome….That’s why I’m not on a ‘side’ .”

          A stupid name for a nonexistent syndrome. It sounds more like a smart-alack remark from someone unable to justify their beliefs intellectually.

          You are most definitely on a side even if it is your own.

        2. Bill Marshall

          Not a ‘syndrome’, John, but a ‘ploy’ often used to make political points… on both of the far sides of “the aisle”… frequently used ploy by those on the second/third deviation on either side of the bell curve of beliefs… and it has been arguably demonstrated that it has some effect on those with weaker comprehension/convictions…

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