Cops Detain Six as Hundreds of Angry Anti-Musk Protestors Surround Tesla Showroom

A crowd that grew to about 350 people gathered outside the Tesla showroom in the Meatpacking District on March 8, protesting cuts being made by Elen Musk, which the rally goers say will endanger lives and make the world less safe.

With drums and whistles, the boisterous crowd chanted, “hey, hey, Ho ho, Elon Mush has got to go!” Dozens of people from an earlier women’s march that started in Union Square around and marched to Washington Sqaure swelled the ranks of the anti-Musk protest near the end.

Organizers said that at least six people entered the Tesla showroom at 860 Washington St, as the rally was breaking up shortly before 2 p.m. in an act of civil disobedience. “They entered the showroom and knew they’d be arrested,” said Sophie Shepherd, a spokesperson for the coalition of groups behind the rally.

In reality, the NYPD said only one of the half dozen who stormed the showroom was actually arrested–and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest; the other five were issued summonses.

Most of the crowd was spirited by peaceful. “I think we’re heading toward Nazi Germany,” said a protestor who stood calmly in the crowd and identified himself as B. Wurtz from the lower East Side. “We could get there. It’s very scary.” He held a handmade sign that said “NO TO FASCISM.”

Erin McConnell, one of the organizers, read a long list of grievances that she said was tied to the disbandment of United States Agency for International Development that President Donald Trump shut down.

”People will die,” she said. In undeveloped countries, she predicted at least 10,000 children and 10,000 pregnant women will die now that the AIDS medications that were being dispensed by USAID have been abruptly halted.

”They lost access to HIV vaccines in the quest to lower taxes for the ultra wealthy,” said McConnell, leading a chant from the crowd.

The DOGE team that Musk is heading, “took a wrecking ball and squashed programs that tens of millions of people rely on merely to exit,” she said.

”Divesting USAID will make the world and America less safe,” she said.

Sonni Mun dressed in a silver mini skirt and a yellow chicken outfit held a sign that said, “Don’t be a Chicken in a COUP!” “People need to stand up for democracy,” she said. She said she dressed like a chicken to draw attention to this being an abnormal time in American history. “This is not a normal time in America,” she said.

Elizabeth Payne said, “We’re living under a fascist coup...Democracy is in peril. History is going to ask why didn’t anyone do anything. I don’t want my daughter asking me, ‘why didn’t you stand up?’”

In fact, her daughter, Avery Tsai accompanied her to the rally, “I’m here to stand against fascism and for democracy,” she said.

Shepherd, said she was a spokesperson for a number of groups that included Planet over Profit, Climate Defenders, NY Communities for Change and Extinction Rebellion NYC. “We’re hoping to keep it going with more demonstrations in the future,” she said.