On January 11, 2026, a U-Haul box truck barreled into a crowd gathered in Westwood, Los Angeles, for a march supporting anti-regime protesters in Iran, forcing demonstrators to scramble and sparking chaos on the street. Los Angeles police say they detained the driver for investigation after officers intercepted the vehicle several blocks away.
Raw video circulating online shows the truck moving quickly through an area thick with marchers, then being boxed in by officers while enraged protesters swarmed the vehicle. Eyewitness footage and helicopter shots captured windows shattered and people clambering on the truck as officers tried to keep the crowd from tearing the driver apart.
Officials initially reported that one person had been struck but suffered no life-threatening injuries, and several others declined treatment after paramedics evaluated them at the scene. Authorities later clarified details as the investigation unfolded, underscoring the confusion that follows violent, fast-moving incidents in big-city protests.
Video also shows protesters attacking the detained driver — punching the cab and even thrusting flagpoles through the window — a mob response that was both dangerous and unlawful. The truck bore a banner referencing the 1953 coup in Iran, a reminder that ideological battles among exiles and sympathizers can spill into American streets with ugly consequences.
Let there be no mistake: driving a vehicle into a crowd, whether intentional or reckless, is a criminal act that must be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Equally, vigilantism — jumping into a stopped vehicle and attacking a man whose guilt has not been adjudicated — is not justice; it’s lawlessness dressed up as righteous fury.
Los Angeles is a city that too often showcases the collapse of basic public order, where political passions become permission slips for violence and where accountability is stretched thin. If we are to stand with brave Iranians demanding freedom, we must also insist on the rule of law here at home: punish the guilty, protect the innocent, and stop coddling mobs that think physical force is an acceptable substitute for due process.
Conservative Americans should be clear-eyed: this incident is a warning about the erosion of civic norms in our major cities. We can support dissidents abroad and defend free speech at home while demanding that police chiefs, prosecutors, and city leaders do their jobs — keep the peace, uphold the law, and ensure that neither drivers nor mobs get away with terrorizing public gatherings.
The bigger lesson is simple and urgent: restore order, enforce the law, and stop normalizing political violence. Hardworking patriots who respect freedom and decency will not tolerate our streets being turned into battlegrounds where ideology excuses criminality or where mobs play judge, jury, and executioner.
