The irate driver who was videotaped confronting anti-Israel protesters as they blocked traffic during Monday morning’s rush hour said he felt like a “hostage” as he was prevented from entering the Manhattan Bridge.
The driver, who posted a 90-second video on X a day after the street kerfuffle, further explained his reasons for shoving protesters who were blocking his vehicle but said he regretted being filmed “in such an angry state.”
“I was on my way home, wanting nothing more than to be where I needed to be,” said the motorist, who posted the video under the name Kevin Rivera.
“I wish that I had not been captured on video in such an angry state and behaved in such a way, but I could not allow those people to impede my passage and in essence hold me hostage.”
The disgruntled driver was among hundreds who had their morning commute disrupted by hordes of demonstrators who descended on the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges in Lower Manhattan to block traffic.
Some also stood defiantly in the middle of the roadway outside the Holland Tunnel.
Authorities eventually arrested more than 300 protesters, agreeing with the Brooklyn man who pointedly told the protesters they were breaking the law.
“You can’t do that! It’s against the law!” he yelled at some before he got out of his SUV and shoved three protesters while wearing a Brooklyn Nets hoodie.
He warned them to stay away from his car and told them his daughter was in Brooklyn waiting for him to get home.
The driver, who wore the same hoodie in his follow-up post on X, said all the attention from social media “has been somewhat difficult to deal with.”
“There have been some unkind comments sent my way, but I’m not worried about them,” he said. “I’m more grateful for those who have been kind during all of this.”
The father said he was also blessed to be an American.
“I say that because we as citizens of this country have the right to peacefully protest, so long as we do not break the law, such as disrupting traffic on the roadways,” he said. “I wish that I did not have to resort to the actions that I did, but I had to get home.”
He stressed he doesn’t condone any of the countless deaths occurring across the globe as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on.
“I’m saddened to see the things that go on in this world that we are living in and pray that there is a true change for global peace,” the motorist concluded.
