On the first commuting morning of the first full workweek of 2024, New York’s permanent “protesting” class demonstrated its tactical approach for the year: to make us miserable on our daily trips, even as the city struggles to attract pre-2020 commuting and tourism crowds. Under the rubric of “Shut it Down for Palestine,” a few hundred people on Monday managed, indeed, to shut down all three Lower Manhattan bridges to Brooklyn, as well as the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey, just after the morning rush. They created gridlock that inconvenienced tens of thousands of drivers, bus riders, bike riders, and walkers. Following months of smaller-scale actions, it was agitators’ most disruptive action yet—and organizers will continue to escalate their behavior unless Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul make clear that blocking key transportation corridors is not “peaceful protest.”

Protests on all sides of any issue are a fact of urban life. But protesters are not free to obstruct movement; the First Amendment protects only speech and assembly, not unlawful obstruction of roads, transit, or sidewalks.

[This is a tactic of the Left, subsidized and protected by municipal governments *only* for their ideological allies. If a MAGA demonstration blocked a bridge in this manner, Eric Adams would have demanded a deployment of National Guard troops. But there’s more danger in this than just hypocrisy. Pretty soon activists of all stripes will respond to the perceived incentives here by adopting the same tactics, and not too long after that, citizens will take matters into their own hands. I’m actually surprised we haven’t seen more of this than we have thus far. — Ed]