Video of truck driving into protest predates Israel-Hamas war, is from 2020 | Fact check
Joedy McCrearyThe claim: Video shows truck driving into pro-Palestinian protest in Los Angeles
A Dec. 13 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows video of a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer and driving into a crowd of people.
“Truck runs over pro-Palestinian blocking the LA freeway (sic),” reads part of the caption.
It was liked more than 300 times in six days. A similar version posted on X, formerly Twitter, accumulated hundreds of additional shares.
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Our rating: False
The video shows a 2020 protest in Oklahoma that followed George Floyd’s murder, not a protest in 2023 related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Clip shows Black Lives Matter protest in Oklahoma in 2020
A group of pro-Palestinian protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza blocked a downtown Los Angeles freeway on Dec. 13. Traffic was stopped for more than an hour, and 75 people were arrested, Los Angeles TVstation KNBC reported.
The video in the Instagram post purports to show that protest, but it doesn’t. It shows a protest in May 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Fact check: Post falsely claims Palestinian flag in 1939 included the Star of David
The 45-second video in the post shows the moving truck and a woman with a turquoise backpack leaning against its grill. Two men wearing black T-shirts pound the truck’s windows. The woman with the backpack is then shown on the ground with a crowd gathered around her.
The same footage was posted to YouTube on June 1, 2020, by NBC News, which credited it to a social media user with a private account who could not be reached by USA TODAY. The video’s caption states that it shows an incident that took place during a Black Lives Matter protest that blocked Interstate 244 in Tulsa.
The Tulsa World posted video showing the same event from a position behind the truck. Two people were hospitalized, the newspaper reported, but no charges were filed against the driver of the truck, according to KJRH-TV in Tulsa.
Protests related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war have been frequent sources of misinformation. USA TODAY previously debunked baseless claims that students at the University of Pennsylvania chanted "We want Jewish genocide" at a pro-Palestinian protest and that an October protest at the Capitol was an insurrection.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
- NBC News (YouTube), June 1, 2020, Truck Plows Into Group Of Oklahoma Protesters | NBC News NOW
- USA TODAY, June 1, 2020, New York, Denver, Minneapolis: Disturbing videos show vehicles plowing into George Floyd protests across USA
- Tulsa World, June 1, 2020, Pickup rolls through protesters gathered on Interstate 244; state troopers questioning driver
- KJRH-TV, June 24, 2020, Tulsa Co. DA: No charges filed for driver who drove through crowd on I-244
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