--- title: "Hundreds Protest Outside Tesla Dealership, Storm Building" description: "Hundreds of protestors gathered outside a Tesla dealership in Manhattan over the weekend, with some storming the building." date: "2025-03-10" modified: "2025-03-10" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/hundreds-protest-tesla-dealership" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" tags: - "elon musk" - "tesla" --- # Hundreds Protest Outside Tesla Dealership, Storm Building ![Hundreds of protestors gathered outside a Tesla dealership in Manhattan over the weekend, with some storming the building.]() *\Image: Mostafa Bassim / Anadolu via Getty\* 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]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()