Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Tesla’s exhibition hall in the Meatpacking district of Manhattan today as part of the “Tesla Takedown” movement.
For weeks, the protests have been organized by groups, including the action network, people on profits and the interruption project to denounce the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, and their participation in the federal government.
Many of the protesters said they are pointing to the business that made Musk the richest man in the world. Forbes estimates that its net assets is just under $ 200 billion.
“If we can move forward and continue protesting to Tesla as strong as possible and let the world know that it is a toxic brand that feeds it, it is when you start pressing someone. When you control their money, you control it,” said Mark, a protester who was not willing to share his full name for fear of his safety.
Karin Schall brought Chak to the protest and used the word “stop” already painted in the asphalt to write “Stop Elon and Doge”, the acronym for the Efficiency Department of the Musk government.
“We are here and the movement is growing because Elon Musk is a person not chosen in DC at this time. He does not have an office and does not have an email, so we cannot go there to express our problems and concerns, so we have to appear at his business point, and one of his business places is Tesla,” said Schall.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a comment request on Saturday.
The impulse against the electric car company seems to have had real consequences. The company’s shares closed at $ 248.71 on Friday compared to its maximum of 52 weeks of $ 488.54 in December, although it is still valued higher than for much of 2024.
Musk spoke at a Tesla All-Hands meeting this week and told his employees that there are better days ahead. “Stock your stock,” he urged his staff.
In addition to peaceful protests throughout the country, at least 80 reported cases of vandalism or fire caused by Tesla vehicles have reached the owners in the United States and Canada.
The FBI issued a statement that addresses the increase in crimes that have led three people who face federal charges, and said that “criminal actions seem to have been made by solitary criminals.”
Even so, the agency is encouraging the public “to exercise surveillance and seek suspicious activities” nearby and its concessionaires of Tesla.
Several Tesla owners have said that they have been attacked since Musk supported Donald Trump for president and faced harassment, violence or threats from the public. Others have He got rid of vehicles.
Dr. Kumait Jaroje, owner of two Teslas, said on Saturday that the “peak of harassment” was the death threats he has received towards him and his family.
He said that someone sent him a comment that “someone will interrupt me and stop me a gun and shoot me and my family.”
Jaroje said he has even had to move his cars away from his house in Massachusetts because he feared for the safety of his family.
“Elon Musk is trying to do something good, I think, saving the government, reducing waste, it’s good, you know,” he said.
“I do not agree with everything he is doing, you know, but at the end of the day, I bought a truck before. It’s a personal choice,” said Jarje.
Winsome Pendergrass, a speaker in Saturday’s protest with the planet about profits, said he believes that all Americans run the risk of losing funds and critical resources thanks to Musk’s efforts.
“We are not going to be silent, we are not going to sit and allow us to simply run over. We are going to stand up. We are going to fight,” Pendergrass said.
“The Americans have done it before … They have closed the Montgomery bus company, so that we can turn it off again, and we can close all this nonsense with which they are happening, and we can rebuild a America that is for all, the United States that includes all of us,” he said.
