Meet the Main Line Woman Determined to Take Down Tesla
Plus, behold the Box Demon. And a new Philly TV show.
Main Line resident Janet Gilbert, who organizes the anti-Elon Musk Tesla Takedown protests each Saturday at the Tesla dealership in Devon in the suburbs of Philadelphia (photo courtesy Janet Gilbert)
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Meet the Main Line Woman Determined to Take Down Tesla
If you’re not a big fan of what Elon Musk is doing to the country and you’re free this Saturday morning, Main Line resident Janet Gilbert would like to see your face at the Tesla dealership at 470 West Lancaster Avenue in Devon. That’s where she holds a Tesla Takedown protest every Saturday from 11 a.m. until noon.
Tesla Takedown is a grassroots movement that sprung up in mid-February amid the drastic changes that the Tesla founder was making to the federal government. The movement is now nationwide and extends to Europe as well.
“Take action at Tesla showrooms everywhere,” reads the Tesla Takedown website. “Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines. Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk. Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.”
You just decide you want to organize a Tesla Takedown protest. And you list the protest on the movement’s site.
The Tesla dealership in Devon, site of a local Takedown Tesla protest outside of Philadelphia (photo via Google Maps)
“We started with maybe 10 people,” says Gilbert, who works in tech, of the Devon Tesla Takedown protests. “Then we had 60 people. And last Saturday, we actually had more than 100 protesters.”
Gilbert says that the first week the group was out there, the local cops came out for a friendly conversation, explaining the rules, such as stand on public property (there’s a grassy area outside the dealership) and not on Tesla’s property. And, obviously, keep things peaceful. Gilbert says the protesters had one brief interaction with dealership staff at the first event and that customers just tend to ignore the group.
“There was one guy driving by who just started yelling slurs at us,” Gilbert recalls. “But he wasn’t there to shop for a Tesla. He was just there to yell.”
She says she used to think Musk was “really cool” because he wanted to go into space and he was building electric cars. But the more she learned about him: “I realized that he’s just an awful, awful person. My opinion of him goes lower any time I hear about him. He’s encouraging extreme-right activists. He’s encouraging antisemitism. The tech industry used to be this bold force for hope and goodness. It has become very dark recently.”
Earlier this week, Donald Trump said that anyone caught committing acts against Tesla company property would be prosecuted as a domestic terrorist. He added that any such defendants would “go through hell.” While Gilbert says that all of her protests have been peaceful, I asked her if the president’s remarks concern her.
“I think it’s terrifying,” she replied.
Police Blotter
ICYMI: A federal grand jury just indicted this Northeast Philly guy, accusing him of a super scary sextortion scheme involving a 14-year-old girl. Fortunately, the girl was not physically harmed.
I Don’t Normally Cover York County, But…
If you ever want to really freak somebody out, here are the steps you need to take:
- Dress up as a freaky clown.
- Go to their porch.
- Say “I am the Box Demon” into their Ring camera.
- Leave a box on their porch.
- Walk away.
It’s that simple, as shown here:
Police out in York County investigated the matter, identified the Box Demon, and spoke with the unidentified person behind the mask. “There are no public safety concerns,” said a police spokesperson.
What Are You Doing at 2:26 a.m.?
Dressing up as the Box Demon and scaring the pants off your neighbor? Don’t do that! Instead, check out the total lunar eclipse that sounds like it will be visible in the Philly area.
By the Numbers
$17: What a cheesesteak will cost you at Uncle Gus’ in the Reading Terminal Market. It’s the hot new cheesesteak place in town. Getting lots of hype. Craig LaBan over at the Inquirer loved it. But this restaurant critic says it’s completely overrated.
$125 million: Donation that the Roberts family (as in Brian/Comcast) just made to CHOP. The money is for CHOP’s $2 billion hospital tower. And it’s the biggest donation in the history of CHOP. So that might make you feel just a little better about your ridiculous cable bill.
1: Number of measles cases in Philadelphia. For now. This just-announced Philly case appears to be unrelated to the cases in Montgomery County.
97 percent: Efficacy of the measles vaccine.
10 percent: Portion of children in the United States who aren’t vaccinated.
Local Talent
Today marks the debut of the new crime thriller series Long Bright River on Peacock. The show is set in Philadelphia. It’s based on a book by this South Philly mom, who is a favorite of Barack Obama. And one of the pivotal characters in the show is played by Philly’s own John Doman. If his name isn’t immediately recognizable to you, his face certainly is. This is officially on my binge list.
