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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.
|
