Protestors and demonstrators across the nation have been rallying behind cries of justice and defunding of American police departments after George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were the most recent victims of a broken system.
When I arrived, it was almost 4 p.m. and the streets were crowded with thousands of people chanting, holding signs, and distributing free supplies such as water, food, and umbrellas. My friend and I slowly made our way to the front of the protest, where it was blocked by a metal barricade dividing the protestors from the police about 20 yards away.
There was a consistent chanting of various phrases such as "Whose lives matter? Black Lives Matter!", "Don't Shoot!", and "No Justice No Peace, Abolish the Police". Groups of two to four people would occasionally step outside the barricade and peacefully kneel in opposition to the policing of the protest. The posted officers would then gather a group of twenty or so cops to escort the "trespassers" back behind the barricade without excessive force.
I thought it was strange that a peaceful protest was being monitored and surrounded by police since it's traditional to allow protesters to march freely with a path organized by the leaders of the protest.
At around 7 p.m., a female Black speaker with a microphone attempted to start a dialogue with the posted police officers in the hopes that something productive would come out of it. After several attempts to kindly get an officer or representative to come to her, she claimed if they wouldn't go to her, she would go them. Once again, several officers escorted her back behind the barricade and dialogue never occurred.
This mixture of being policed, limited in protest, and an obvious disregard for dialogue elicited a response among the already angry and passionate body of protesters. Our resolve was to slowly push forward the barricade inch by inch until they would allow us to march.
After five warnings, nearly 20 feet of progress, and no attempt by the police to allow us to march peacefully, an SPD representative asserted,
"If you do not take five steps back, this will no longer be a peaceful protest."
The previous rhetoric used by SPD where the barricade's purpose was to "protect" both the police and protestors were now thrown out the window and a borderline —if not full — threat of force had been issued against the protestors.
Fully knowing that a barricade and limiting of a peaceful protest were unjust, most protestors in the front-lines did not back down.
Despite remaining peaceful, the police began ripping umbrellas out of the hands of protestors.
Before I knew it, my umbrella and face shield was covered in pepper spray.
After taking a few steps back, the first flash-bangs and tear gas canisters were deployed within ten feet from me in the middle of the crowd, and the SPD had begun taking back their "territory" with violence.
Except they didn't stop after the twenty feet we had moved forward. In fact, they didn't stop until after several blocks and nearly twenty to thirty minutes of unnecessary macing, flashbacks, tear-gas, rubber bullets, and chaos.
I was shot with a rubber bullet in the leg, and a flashbang went off right next to my feet, rendering my hearing useless for a few minutes.
After the assault had started, I remember hearing over the SPD speakers that someone had "attacked" an officer, and that was enough for the police to continue their assault even though it was obvious that any violence from the protestors was in clear retaliation and fear from the heavily armed attackers zooming through the crowd.
In this environment, there was not a single "good" cop.
All officers were helping each other and participating in the violence. I even recorded footage of an officer five feet away from me randomly grabbing a girl and throwing her to the ground. She looked almost traumatized and frozen while his hands were on her and when he stopped he proceeded to chase an old man that was recording him. I had to eventually stop recording to avoid pepper spray he had released.
Almost four blocks later, the attacks subsided and it seemed that the officers had gotten orders to stop. They were slowly and willingly stepping back and returned to the space they had taken previously. It almost looked like we were pushing them back, but it was obvious that they were backing up in an organized fashion.
Though it was completely ridiculous that police engaged in police brutality towards protestors protesting against police brutality, I genuinely believe this June 6 protest fostered a massive stride forward for Black Lives Matter in (once again) demonstrating how broken and easy it is for humanitarian crimes like this to occur.
The attacks demonstrated a system working exactly the way it was designed to and this protest played a pivotal role in the goal to defund the SPD and strip officers of this unnecessary power.
It was through protest the unconstitutional curfew was removed.
It was through protest that there are no longer barricades used in the marches.
And it was through protest that the very same ground that was once filled with tear gas and screams now functions as a space of peace, comradery, kindness, and autonomy.
The capability for the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone – now known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest – to even exist gives me hope that justice is possible if we fervently work against a system that has wronged Black folk and people of color, time and time again.
Commentaires