As US heads into election day, tensions and hostility play out in streets

Law enforcement authorities are increasingly worried; FBI probe underway

Vehicles with Trump flags halted traffic on Sunday on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey and jammed the Mario M Cuomo Bridge between Tarrytown and Nyack, N Y. Another pro-Trump convoy in Virginia ended in a tense shouting match with protesters as it approached a statue of Robert E Lee in Richmond.
 

In Georgia, a rally for Democrats was cancelled shortly before it was scheduled to begin on Sunday, with organisers worried about what they feared would be a “large militia presence” drawn by Trump’s own event nearby. As the nation races toward Election Day, the tensions and acrimony surrounding an extraordinarily divisive campaign, coming on the heels of a summer of protests and racial unrest, are bleeding into everyday life and adding further uncertainty to an electoral process in which Trump has not committed to a peaceful transfer of power. 
 

Sunday’s incidents came a day after a group of Trump supporters in Texas, driving trucks and waving Trump flags, surrounded and slowed a Biden-Harris campaign bus, leading to the cancellation of two planned rallies. The FBI confirmed that it was investigating the incident.
 

On Saturday, Trump tweeted a video of the incident with a message, “I love Texas!” After the FBI announced it was investigating, he tweeted again, saying, “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong,” and instead “the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA.” Law enforcement authorities are increasingly worried, too — not just about what they have already seen, but also about what has been threatened, especially online.
 

Most of the internet threats have not migrated to the nation’s streets, according to a senior law enforcement official. But law officials fear that online posts by instigators could materialise into violent acts.