How the Rioters Blew It

Unforgettable images from a Los Angeles riot hit us again last weekend. In 1992, it was "rooftop Koreans." During the George Floyd riots of 2020, we saw high-end shops bracing for the worst — and then getting it. This weekend, we witnessed a masked rioter standing atop a burning Waymo automated taxi and waving the Mexican flag in defiance of… everything — decency, the law, even the nation he’d presumably entered illegally.

Authorities say that at least five Waymos were vandalized and set on fire, forcing the Alphabet-owned company to temporarily suspend ride-hailing service in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Waymo says there’s no evidence their cars were specifically targeted, but being able to summon one by app just to burn it? That’s not a bug, that’s a feature, at least to your average street radical.

Believe it or not, this is good news. 

Lenin quipped that "the capitalists will sell us the rope we'll hang them with." When that didn't work out as planned, Communist China figured that the smart move was to manufacture the rope themselves, undercut our rope producers, and hang us at their convenience. 

In Los Angeles, a few lefties figured that automation would provide them with cars to set ablaze — and they were right. 

But the smart move would have been to wait a few years.

Imagine the next riot. The issue won’t matter — the revolution is always the point. The year is 2030ish, and our downtown streets are dominated by Full Self-Driving (FSD) cabs like Waymo, Cruise, and Tesla. Maybe Democrats have all but outlawed single-owner cars on the streets, or congestion pricing has made them too expensive, or maybe people just prefer the convenience of robot ride-hailing.

Now imagine a few dozen strategically-placed rioters hailing Waymos to the intersections and bridges necessary to completely cut off part of a city — and then setting them ablaze. An EV can burn for hours without major intervention, thanks to a process called thermal runaway.

It wouldn’t be quite like "The Dark Knight Rises," where supervillain Bane held an entire city hostage for months, but committed lefties could certainly pull it off for a few hours. And I'd rather not imagine what they might get up to during those few hours. 

And Another Thing: I first learned just how devious Lefties are more than 35 years ago, when I moved to Northern California. Earth First! creeps would sometimes "spike" redwood trees. That is, they'd drive iron spikes into them, hoping that a lumberjack or mill worker might become seriously injured when a chainsaw or mill saw hit the spike. They very nearly killed millworker George Alexander that way in 1987. Who thinks of such devilish tactics? The Left does.

But Sunday's Waymo incident let the cat out of the bag too soon.

Waymo, Tesla — anyone operating or even thinking of launching an FSD taxi service got an alert this weekend to a structural weakness in allowing anyone to hail a driverless car at any time. I don't know what countermeasures they'll come up with, but I'm certain that Waymo at least began high-level discussions no later than Monday morning. 

For once, the Left came up with a brilliant sneak attack — but then blew it on a small-scale operation instead of keeping it tucked away for something truly devastating.

Be thankful.

Recommended: I Love(d) L.A.

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