Re: Kill them - Vigilante climate activist group deflates Bay Area SUV tires overnight

In article <[email protected]>
ignorant emotional democrats <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Seriously.  Kill a climatist today.  You won't be sorry.
>

“ATTENTION – Your gas guzzler kills. We have deflated one or 
more of your tires. You’ll be angry, but don’t take it 
personally. It’s not you, it’s your car.”

The letters placed on windshields, along with said deflated 
tires, are what greeted several Bay Area drivers on the morning 
of July 5. The letters contained a message written by an 
international group that deflates the tires of SUVs and other 
larger vehicles in the name of fighting climate change.

“We did this because driving around urban areas in your massive 
vehicle has huge consequences for others,” the leaflet says. 
“We’re taking actions into our own hands because our governments 
and politicians will not.”

The incidents took place in Vacaville and soon went viral 
through Facebook and Reddit posts. This is the first known 
instance of members from Tyre Extinguishers, the group 
responsible, deflating tires in California. The U.K.-based group 
made their U.S. debut over the past few weeks by deflating tires 
in Chicago, New York City and Scranton, Pennsylvania.

“As far as we know, this is the first action in the Bay Area - 
the first of many!” Marion Walker, a spokesperson for Tyre 
Extinguishers, said in an email to SFGATE. According to Walker, 
the group’s autonomous nature prevents other members from 
knowing who is deflating tires and where.

<https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/26/41/47/22682066/3/rawImage.jpg>

This letter was left on the windshields of SUVs in Vacaville.

Image courtesy of Jennifer Martin-Sierra.
Lt. Katie Cardona with the Vacaville Police Department said the 
department received one report on July 5 of a tire on a 
resident’s Honda Pilot SUV being deflated overnight.

“We are aware that there are reports of additional tire 
deflations on social media, but those have not been reported to 
us,” Cardona told SFGATE. She added that the incident involving 
the Honda Pilot is being investigated as a case of vehicle 
tampering, which is a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to a 
year in jail and a maximum fine of $1,000.

Despite the Tyre Extinguishers claiming to target SUVs in urban 
areas — “You will have no difficulty getting around without your 
gas guzzler, with walking, cycling or public transit,” the 
leaflet says — the group’s first Bay Area deflations took place 
in a largely unwalkable suburban neighborhood.

“We encourage people to target rich urban areas, but SUVs are a 
menace everywhere. This is an emergency,” Walker said. Users on 
Facebook and Reddit were livid over photos posted of the 
leaflet, which garnered thousands of comments across the two 
platforms.

“If they do this to my car which I need to drive a whole 45 
minutes to work and 45 minutes back from work at 10 p.m. when no 
public transit are working, well … [I’m] willing to take a week 
off to hunt them down and make sure whatever they’re using to 
puncture tires will be impaled somewhere on their body where the 
sun don’t shine,” a disgruntled Reddit user commented. (Police 
said there were no reports of vandalism to tires, and Tyre 
Extinguishers’ website only instructs people how to deflate 
tires, not to slash or damage them.)

The Tyre Extinguishers posted on their website yesterday that 12 
SUVs had tires deflated in Vacaville, and encouraged members to 
avoid “cars clearly used for people with disabilities, traders’ 
cars (even if they’re large), minibuses and normal-sized cars.”

“We want to make it impossible to own an SUV in the world's 
urban areas. Deflating tyres repeatedly and encouraging others 
to do the same will turn the minor inconvenience of a flat tyre 
into a giant obstacle for driving massive killer vehicles around 
our streets,” Walker said.

https://twitter.com/t_extinguishers/status/1524013913318346755

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/climate-vigilantes-
deflate-suv-tires-17293468.php