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Watch: Chaos Erupts As U-Haul Driven Into LA Protest Against Iran Regime

Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden
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Amid reports that hundreds of anti-government demonstrators in Iran have been killed in recent days -- and President Trump reportedly considering US intervention -- tensions over the Iran crisis hit a flash point in Los Angeles on Sunday when a U-Haul truck with signage opposing the reinstallation of an Iranian monarchy drove through a group of marchers calling for regime change. The crowd quickly went from frightened screams to outraged violence, mobbing the truck after it stopped and pummeling the driver as police took him into custody. 

The incident, which appears to spring from clashing views within the Iranian diaspora, unfolded at 3:40pm on Sunday afternoon, after a crowd of demonstrators had gathered in LA's upscale Westwood. Along with adjacent Westside neighborhoods, Westwood forms the epicenter of LA's prosperous Iranian-American population. At approximately 138,000, it's one of the largest populations of Iranians in the world outside of Iran. As the crowd was in the vicinity of the Wilshire Federal Building, video showed a truck moving at a decidedly unsafe but not necessarily homicidal speed down Wilshire Boulevard as it was lined with demonstrators. 

There's reason to believe the U-Haul driver didn't intend to hurt people: He was in a large truck and caused no casualties. No ambulances were called to the scene, and police said they've only confirmed that one person was hit by the truck, and wasn't seriously injured. The Los Angeles Fire Department said the two people whom they evaluated at the site of the incident declined treatment. LA Police said they do not consider it an act of terrorism, but rather that it started with an altercation. That would seem to indicate the driver may have been using the banner-laden truck to advertise his particular views on Iran's future, and triggered a potent response from the demonstrators that led the driver to flee in haste. He had no prior arrest record, but now faces possible charges of assault with a deadly weapon. 

The driver of the truck came out the worst of anyone. After he stopped, a mob surrounded him, jabbed him with a flagpole, and tried to drag him out of the vehicle. After police worked their way through the crowd, they struggled to take control of the area, and some serious shoving went on between demonstrators and officers too:   

After managing to take the bloodied, cooperative driver into custody and putting him in cuffs, officers were unable to prevent members of the crowd from continuing to beat him, and a man standing on the truck's hood kicked him in the head. He was taken to a hospital for treatment for unspecified injuries, and hasn't been named yet. Not satisfied with beating the driver, some in the angry mob also made U-Haul pay a price too, smashing the windshield of the rental truck and trying to break its mirrors. 

The truck driver's precise political convictions aren't yet clear. The outside of the truck had signs written in both English and what is likely Farsi. One of the English ones read: “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah.” The "no regime" and "no mullah" elements of the banner seemingly indicate the driver was opposed to both the reinstallation of a monarch and the current regime. 

The admonition against the USA repeating "1953" is clear. That's the year that US and British intelligence engineered a coup d'etat that ousted Iran's democratically-elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, and restored Reza Pahlavi as the shah, a royal title meaning "king" in Farsi. Prompted by Mosaddegh's nationalization of the company's oil industry, "Operation Ajax" involved the use of CIA-funded Iranian agents and "rented" crowds of anti-government demonstrators. The shah's reign -- sustained with the repression of rights and sometimes-brutal treatment of dissidents --  lasted until the 1979 Islamic revolution that ushered in the country's current government. 

A banner affixed to the truck has led some observers to speculate that the driver is allied with the MEK, a Marxist-rooted Iranian group that opposes both the Islamic government and a monarchy 

Many in the Iranian diaspora are calling for the reimposition of an Iranian monarchy, led by the son of the late Shah Reza Pahlavi, a 65-year-old who shares the same name, and lives in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC. While there are reports of Iranian protesters chanting that "Pahlavi will return!", it would be a mistake to assume that Iranians inside Iran support the reinstallation of a monarchy in the same proportion as do those living abroad. After all, the diaspora is heavily composed of people who fled Iran after the fall of the Shah, and their descendants. 

Others in the diaspora, including Pahlavi himself, say that, rather than becoming a monarch, Pahlavi should serve as a transitional figure as the country uses elections to determine its future. Pahlavi is aggressively pursuing that role, pitching a 100-day transition plan, and receiving warm press from Deep State-allied outlets like the Wall Street Journal. 

Exiled Reza Pahlavi wants to be a transitional leader for a democratic Iran, but some are skeptical (Abdul Saboor/Reuters via Al Jazeera)

Another key player in the push for Iranian regime change is the Marxist-rooted Mujahedin-e Khalq, also known as the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, but typically referred to as the MEK. Founded in the 1960s, often characterized as something of a cult, and designated by the US government as a terror organization until 2012, the MEK allied with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and has been accused of serving as a conduit for phony intelligence about Iran's nuclear technology created by Israel's Mossad, and helping the Mossad assassinate Iranian scientists. Operating both inside and outside Iran, the MEK has infamously doled out hefty speaking fees to a parade of US political figures, including John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani.

Having participated in the revolution that dethroned the Shah, the MEK has long opposed a revived monarchy, instead favoring a secular democracy. Some social media users speculated or assumed the truck driver in Westwood was an MEK devotee: 

While they have their differences, the anti-monarchy MEK and opposing monarchy-nostalgic elements of the diaspora have one thing in common: deep pockets and influence that make them potent players in the info war being waged amid the intensifying push for regime change in Iran. 

Speaking of potent players, check out the guy doing the Indiana Jones routine atop the lurching truck: 

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