Protesters calling for rent cancellation for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic on Friday drove vehicles onto I-35, temporarily blocking traffic.
The caravan consisting of dozens of vehicles proceeded at about five miles per hour from Airport Boulevard and onto I-35 where it halted at about 10th Street, blocking all three southbound lanes.
The blockage, witnessed by an Honest Austin reporter, lasted no more than ten minutes before protesters lost their nerve. An Austin Police Officer who was first on the scene single-handedly convinced them to drive to the shoulder of the road and unblock the interstate.
Asked how he had done it, the officer told Honest Austin, “I just asked them to move.” Protesters’ cars displayed hand-written banners with slogans like “no work, no bills,” “rent strike,” “free healthcare,” and “freeze rent.”
One sedan displayed an anti-capitalism banner along its side, and a sign on its tail saying, “We Won’t Die for Your Economy.” Other vehicles displayed anti-police slogans like “Fire APD,” and one sign said, “Free them all.”
Protesters exited I-35 at East Cesar Chavez, where they were swarmed by State Troopers and APD on bikes and in cruisers. Part of the caravan was allowed to drive away without incident, but about a half-dozen vehicles were herded by police into a parking lot opposite the Baptist soup kitchen.
Protesters were given the opportunity to leave the scene on foot, without their vehicles, but those who refused to leave were taken away in an APD van. One young woman complained that she wouldn’t have a way to get home if her vehicle was taken. An officer was overheard telling her, “Call someone. If you don’t leave now then you’ll be arrested.”
It is unclear if the protesters will be charged, since the Travis County Jail has been booking few offenders as a precaution against spreading COVID-19 in the jail. Even if they aren’t charged, however, they may have to pay a hefty fee to get their vehicles back from a tow yard.
Multiple protesters told Honest Austin that the group that organized the event was called Rent Strike ATX, and that they had heard about the event on Facebook.
In a Twitter post at the time of the road block, a user going by the handle @RentStrikeATX wrote, “We are right now in a caravan of 30 cars driving at five miles an hour down I-35 through Austin. Traffic is backed up for miles.”
“We demand the cancellation of rent, firing the police who murdered Mike Ramos and that no one is sacrificed in the name of reopening the economy.”
The protest also was timed to coincide with May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, which has been celebrated by communist regimes and revolutionaries for over a century. Austin City Hall was vandalized with communist propaganda earlier this week.
A protester named Patrick, who participated in the caravan on a motorcycle and afterwards avoided arrest, told Honest Austin that the timing was deliberate. “Definitely there’s a sense of appealing to some history,” he said.
Patrick said that he had not expected police to crack down on the protest in the way that they did. “In other cities they did similar protests without something like this happening,” he said.
In a press release by the Rent Strike ATX group, organizers explained why they were leading the strike. An organizer identified as ‘Mukti’ said, “Without a rent suspension, the reality is that thousands of people will not pay their rent. This will trigger an unprecedented series of mass evictions as people struggle to recover financially after the pandemic has passed.”
The press release also says, “Although the City has given renters a 60 day grace period to come up with rent, unemployed renters will continue to fall behind, accrue late fees, and face eviction – setting the stage for an intensified housing crisis once the public health crisis has ended.”
Police later said in a statement that 20 people were arrested for Obstructing a Highway, a Class B misdemeanor, and two people were arrested for Criminal Trespassing. The latter two charges stemmed from protesters refusing to leave their vehicles that were parked on a private property at which the police had pulled them over.
