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+---
+title: >-
+    Denver Protests
+description: >-
+    Craziness
+---
+
+# Saturday, May 30th
+
+We went to the May 30th protest at Civic Center Park. We were there for a few
+hours during the day, leaving around 4pm. I would describe the character of the
+protest as being energetic, angry, but contained. A huge crowd moved in and
+around civic center, chanting and being rowdy, but clearly was being led.
+
+After a last hurrah at the pavilion it seemed that the organized event was
+"over". We stayed a while longer, and eventually headed back home. I don't feel
+that people really left the park at the same time we did; mostly everyone just
+dispersed around the park and found somewhere to keep hanging out.
+
+Tonight there has been an 8pm curfew. The police lined up on the north side of
+the park, armored and clearly ready for action. We watched all of this on the
+live news stations, gritting our teeth through the comentary of their reporters.
+As the police stood there, the clock counting down to 8, the protesters grew
+more and more irritated. They taunted the police, and formed a line of their
+own. The braver (or more dramatic) protesters walked around in the no-man's land
+between them, occasionally earning themselves some teargas.
+
+The police began pushing forward just before 8 a little, but began pushing in
+earnest just after 8, after the howling. They would advance, wait, advance, wait
+again. An armada of police cars, ambulance, and fire trucks followed the line as
+it advanced.
+
+The police did not give the protesters anywhere to go except into Capital Hill,
+southeast of Civic Center Park. We watched as a huge crowd marched past the
+front of our house, chanting their call and response: "What's his name?" "GEORGE
+FLOYD". The feeling wasn't of violence still, just anger. Indignant at a curfew
+aimed at quelling a movement, the protesters simply kept moving. The police were
+never far behind.
+
+We sat on our front stoop with our neighbors and watched the night unfold. I
+don't think a single person in our building or the buildings to the left and
+right of us hadn't gone to protest today in some capacity. We came back from our
+various outings and sat out front, watching the crowds and patrolling up and
+down the street to keep tabs on things.
+
+Around 9pm the fires started. We saw them on the news, and in person. They were
+generally dumpster fires, generally placed such that they were away from
+buildings, clearly being done more to be annoying than to accomplish anything
+specific. A very large set of fires was started a block south of us, in the
+middle of the street. The fire department was there within a few minutes to put
+those out, before moving on.
+
+From the corner of my eye, sitting back on the stoop, I noticed our neighbors
+running into their backyard. We ran after them, and they told us there was a
+dumpster fire in our alley. They were running with fire extinguishers, and we
+ran inside to grab some of our own. By the time we got to the backyard the fire
+was only smouldering, and the fire department was coming down the alley. We
+scurried back into the backyard. A few minutes later I peeked my head around the
+corner, into the alley, to see what happening. I was greeted by at least two
+police in riot gear, guarding the dumpster as the fire department worked. They
+saw me but didn't move, and I quickly retreated back to the yard.
+
+Talking to our neighbor later we found out she had seen a group of about 10
+people back there, and watched them jump the fence into another backyard in
+order to escape the alley. She thinks they, or some subset of them, started the
+fire. She looked one in the eye, she says, and didn't get the impression they
+were trying to cause damage, just to make a statement.
+
+The fires stopped not long after that, it seems. We're pretty sure the fire
+trucks were just driving up and down the main roads, looking into alleys and
+stopping all fires they could find. In all this time the police didn't do much.
+They would hold a line, but never chase anyone. Even now, as I write this around
+midnight, people are still out, meandering around in small groups, and police
+are present but not really doing anything.
+
+It's hard to get a good view of everything though. All we have is livestreams on
+youtube to go on at this point. There's a couple intrepid amateur reporters out
+there, getting into the crowds and streaming events as they happen. Right now
+we're watching people moving down Lincoln towards Civic Center Park, some of
+them trying to smash windows of buildings as they go.
+
+The violence of these protests is going to be the major story of tonight, I know
+that already. That I know of there's been 3 police injured, some broken
+windows, and quite a bit of graffiti. I do believe the the tactic of pushing
+everyone into Cap Hill had the desired effect of reducing looting (again, as far
+as I can tell so far), but at that expense of those who live here who have to
+endure latent tear gas, dumpster fires, and sirens all through the night.
+
+Even now, at midnight, from what I can see from my porch and from these live
+streams, the protesters are not violent. At worst they are guilty of a lot of
+loitering. The graffiti, the smashed windows, the injured officers, all of these
+things will be held up as examples of the anarchy and violence inherent to the
+protesters. But I don't think that's an honest picture. The vast, vast majority
+of those out right now are civily disobeying an unjust curfew, trying to keep
+the energy of the movement alive.
+
+My thoughts about these things are complicated. When turning a corner on the
+street I'm far more afraid to see the police than to see other protesters. The
+fires have been annoying, and stupid, and unhelpful, but were never threatening.
+The violence is stupid, though I don't shed many tears for a looted Chili's or
+Papa Johns. The police have actually shown more restraint than I expected in all
+of this, though funneling the protest into a residential neighborhood was an
+incredibly stupid move. Could the protesters not have just stayed in the park?
+Yes, the park would likely have been turned into an encampment, but it was
+already heading into that direction due to Covid-19. Overall, this night didn't
+need to be so hard, but Denver handled this well.
+
+But, it's only 1am, and the night has a long way to go. Things could still get
+worse. Even now I'm watching people trying to break into the supreme court
+building. Civic Center Park appears to be very populated again, and the police
+are very present there again. It's possible I may eat my words.
+
+# Monday, June 1st
+
+Yesterday was quite a bit more tame than the craziness Saturday. I woke up
+Sunday morning feeling antsy, and rode my bike around to see the damage. I had a
+long conversation with a homeless man named Gary in Civic Center Park. He was
+pissed, and had a lot to say about the "suburban kids" destroying the park he
+and many others live in, causing it to be shut down and tear gassed. The
+protesters saw it as a game, according to him, but it was life and death for the
+homeless; three of his guys got beat up in the street, and neither police nor
+protesters stopped it.
+
+Many people had shown up to the park early to help clean it up. Apart from the
+graffiti, which was also in the process of being cleaned, it was hard to tell
+anything had actually happened. Gary had some words about them as well, that
+they were only there for the gram and some pats on the back, but once they left
+his life would be back as it was. I could feel that, but I also appreciated that
+people were cognizant that damage was being done and were willing to do
+something about it.
+
+I rode around 16th street mall, down colfax, and back up 13th, looking to see if
+anything had happened. For the most part there was no damage, save the graffiti.
+A mediterranean restaurant got its windows smashed, as well as the Office Depot.
+The restaurant was unfortunate, Office Depot will be ok.
+
+The protest yesterday was much more peaceful. The cops were nowhere to be found
+when curfew hit, but did eventually show up when the protest moved down Colfax.
+They had lined the streets around their precinct building there, but for the
+most part the protesters just kept walking. This is when the "violence" started.
+The cops moved into the street, forming a line across Colfax behind the
+protesters. Police cars and vans started moving. As the protest turned back,
+presumably to head back to the capitol lawn, it ran into the riot line.
+
+Predictably, everyone scattered. The cat-and-mouse game had begun, which meant
+dumpster fires, broken windows, tear gas, and all the rest. Watching the whole
+thing it was extremely clear to us, though not the news casters, unfortunately,
+that if the police hadn't moved out into Colfax nothing would have ever
+happened. Instead, the news casters lamented that people were bringing things
+like helmets, gas masks, traffic cones, shields, etc... and so were clearly not there
+"for the right reasons".
+
+The thing that the news casters couldn't seem to grasp was that the police
+attempting to control these situations are what are catalyzing them in the first
+place. These are protests _against_ the police, they cannot take place under the
+terms the police choose. If the police were not here setting terms, but instead
+working with the peaceful protesters (the vast, vast majority) to quell the
+violence, no one would be here with helmets, gas masks, traffic cones,
+shields... But instead the protesters feel they need to protect themselves in
+order to be heard, and the police feel they have to exercise their power to
+maintain control, and so the situation degrades.