Hundreds of protestors gathered outside a Tesla dealership in Lower Manhattan on Saturday, remaining there for two hours and effectively shutting down the location, the New York Times reports, with some attendees even storming the building.
The demonstration is among the latest expressions of public backlash against the electric vehicle maker's CEO Elon Musk, who's become an increasingly controversial figure since serving as a senior advisor to president Donald Trump, leading initiatives to gut federal spending.
"Nobody voted for Elon Musk," protestors chanted, per the NYT, as well as "Oligarchs out, democracy in."
According to an organizer named Alice Hu, some protestors entered the Tesla dealership, located in Manhattan's West Village, and six were arrested, in what was otherwise a nonviolent demonstration. Images and footage from the incident show a glass door was shattered, but it's unclear if there was any other damage to the property.
In all, the New York Police Department said that five protestors were issued summonses for disorderly conduct, with one facing a charge of resisting arrest, per the NYT report.
According to state senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who represents the district where the showroom's located, the protests have raged on for weeks, with each weekend drawing a larger crowd than the last one.
Similar anti-Musk sentiment has swept the nation, in some cases expressed even more furiously. Vandalism of Tesla locations — and even of its cars out on the streets, particularly the Cybertruck — has not been uncommon. NBC reports that there have been at least ten acts of vandalism directed against Tesla in recent weeks, based on police and local reports.
One favored method is spray painting messages and images implicating Musk's flirting with Nazism. Musk has frequently spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, performed Nazi salutes, and has thrown his support behind Germany's far right AfD party.
Some vandals take things even further. Late last month, a Tesla dealership in Oregon — which was empty at the time — was blasted with gunfire, shattering windows and pelting some of the cars. In Loveland, Colorado, a 40-year-old woman allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at a Cybertruck parked at a local Tesla dealership — and then returned to the location another four times over the course of a month to chuck even more of the incendiary bombs before being arrested. Meanwhile, in Boston, police say that seven Tesla charging stations were intentionally set on fire last week.
This is just a small sampling of just how inflamed — literally in some cases — the public ire against Musk has become, a trend that's being mirrored in Europe, too. However much power Musk wields as Trump's right hand man, the backlash could be hurting his bottom line: Tesla sales have faltered considerably, with many analysts blaming the downturn on Musk's politics.
More on Tesla: Someone Stole the Wheels From All the Teslas in This Parking Lot
Share This Article