On the 29th of September, at least one very high quality, either professionally made or very well repainted sign saying “Defund Police-invest in communities” showed up, bolted to a sign post bearing parking restriction signs of the same size, shape, material, and mode of fastening.
Both the paint on the front and the bare aluminum on the back appeared to be brand-new.
On the 29th of September, a series of “speak outs” began outside the Supreme Court. Activists (some with frontline healthcare ties) demanding that nobody be confirmed to the Supreme Court prior to passage of a coronavirus relief bill or better yet, the Inauguration.
Day 2: Handmaids at the Supreme Court (DCnewsvideo photo)
Day 1: Sep 29
Day 1, Sep 29: Mother of now-healthy child born 3 1/2 months early(!) warns of return of pre-existing condition exclusions in health care if Barrett court throws out ACA
On the 27th of September, a “No Confirmation without Inauguration” rally was held in front of the Supreme Court steps. Speakers warned this would be “a fight.” A fight indeed: Fundamentalist Christians and outright white nationalists showed up to counterprotest and harass, using their bullhorns in siren mode plus their chants in a failed attempt to drown out the sound system.
As events wrapped up, the videographer interviews a man wearing an “It’s OK to the white” T-shirt, this man denies being a racist and at attempts to compare white pride and nationalism to Native American resistance. With him are an America’s Voice News cameraman, and an African-American man in a red Trump hat, betraying his community.
Video: far-right disrupts the rally, and interview attempt w man in “Its OK to be White” shirt 2 min 17 sec
No confirmation before Inauguration!
Protesting Trump’s attempts to ram his nominee through while people are ALREADY voting
Woman in Handmaid’s Tale costume counter-counter-protests the right wing disruptors
Man on left and center both claimed white nationalism is OK
The 26th of September was an ugly and violent day in DC. Hours after Trump announced his nomination of Amy Coney Barret to the Supreme Court, bike cops violently attacked the They/Them FTP march (3 arrests), and followed up on that with a 4th arrest on Black Lives Matter Plaza. Earlier an estimated 30,000 theocrats supporting Amy Coney Barret rallied on the Mall, and at one point burned a BLM flag.
The mess at the They/Them march could have been much worse were it not for the valient efforts of the bicycle cavalry blocks, who ensured cops could not casually enter the march and pick off whoever they wanted. As the march began, a very large number of bike cops shadowed it from behind as light rain began to fall. Soon the march went up 17th st and protesters began reading some facts of life pertaining police brutality against Black and Brown people to outdoor diners, plus reminding diners on this GLBTQ area (well mostly white Gay men), that “Stonewall was a riot.”
Shortly thereafter bike cops pounced up the left side sidewalk and made one violent arrest. Once protesters successfully disengaged from that scene, bike cops started positioning themsevles immediately behind the rear bike cavalry bloc defending the back of the march. Then the cops attacked again, getting off their bikes and each cop picking up their bike in both hands, facing them laterally to the march. The bike cavalry bloc stopped and made an overlapping bike fence, which normally would cause the cops to stop.
This time, the cops pushed right into the bikers, chanting “MOVE BACK” at the top of their lungs. This appeared to be an attempt to cause the bike line to collapse, at which point cops would be able to single out individual bikers, swarm on them and arrest them on real or ficticious charges. The bike line gave ground but held together, preventing a swarm of arrests followed by uncontrolled cop access to the rest of the march. Later on, cops managed to make two more arrests, infuriating the protesters, who now changed “MOVE BACK” back at the cops while still holding together. At this point, even if protesters could defend themselves Bowser and Newsham could throw hundreds or even thousands more cops into the fight. If protesters also called for backup they would get fewer people responding and likely later. The decision was presumably made at this point to call off the march, avoidng the race to reinforce.
The march was reported to have dispersed at this point, but people soon began building up at Black Lives Matter Plaza for an all-night sit-in, rain or not. Some suggested this was safer than attempting to walk home with all those pigs prowling the area looking for targets to pick off. It was not to be: cops arrested yet another person at Black Lives Matter Plaza. Of the four arrests, one was reported to be an uninvolved bystander. One arrestee was reported released, possibly this person but NOT confirmed as such. Charges on the others unknown. It has also been reported that US Attorney General Bob Barr intervened personally to file new charges against a few people who were arrested in the August kettles only to have their charges dropped. Things are getting very ugly.
One literal bright spot was the successful projection of pro-healthcare (this includes abortion) and anti-Barret messages on the sides of Trump Hotel. Amy Coney Barrett is a militantly anti-abortion “conservative Catholic” and also has written in oppositon to “stare decisis” the practice of giving great weight to prior similar decisions by the Supreme Court.
Video of the police attack on BLM marchers 1 min 39 sec
Bike cops following the march up 17th st shortly before they pounced
Bike cops using their bikes as handheld push bars in one of the police attacks on the FTP (Fuck the Police) march (still from Madison Muller video)
Theocrats held an anti-abortion prayer rally at the Supreme Court. Much smaller than the Ruth Bader Ginsberg rallies of previous days but serious MAGAt country
Religious extremists near the Mall rally
A Twitter poster estimate 30,000 fundamentalists and theocrats at a Mall prayer rally
Theocrats (or possibly Fascists?) burn a BLM flag at the prayer rally
Some points on the board for our side!
On the 24th of September, GOP Senate “Majority” leader Mitch McConnell got a AM protest in front of his house, complete with go-go band Moechella and protesters banging pots and pans. Later that morning, some of the same protesters greeted Trump at his Supreme Court visit with a chorus of boos and chants of “vote him out!”
Protesters were there to warn Mitch not to attempt to ram through Trump’s expected Supreme Court nominee prior to the election, although many other problems with Mitch McConnell came up.
Video: intensely LOUD protest at Mitch McConnell’s house 1 min 2 sec
Leaving Stanton Park on the way to Mitch’s house
Banging pots on the way in
In front of Mitch’s house
Seen at the protest
On the 23ed of September, the second night of Breonna Taylor protests took to the streets hot and heavy. Bullhorns in siren mode combined with the sound of folks beating on metal signs to create a deafening battlefield din. This combined with skilled and powerful bike blocs both in front of and behind the protests served to deter all but a few arrests.
The protests began with a march from the Dept of Justice to the White House, and a rally there was joined by a second group of well-equipped protesters in bloc formation. Chants often replaced the well-known “shut it down” with “burn it down” and this was widely reported and was audible on at least one video posted to Twitter. From there marchers headed north, then through Dupont and up to the wealthy dining area at Adams-Morgan, once a lively Latino neighborhood.
There are unconfirmed reports of tables turned over and a broken window in Adams-Morgan, though the author of this story never heard the sound of a heavy safety glass window being smashed. Baseball bats or hammers breaking this kind of glass often sound like a bar throwing out all their beer bottles at the end of the night, no such sound was audible from the front bike bloc. In all fairness the whole march was extremely loud overall. It is confirmed that the restaurant where an upscale patron SPIT on a protester in the middle of the COVID pandemic is in that row of restaurants however. Much later, the Starbucks in Dupont Circle received a broken window, this confirmed by video posted to Twitter and showing only the window and no protesters.
WTOP News reported that every time cops tried to approach the main march to make arrests, bikers blocked them out. Well, cop bikers tend not to be the most skilled riders and their steeds are heaby clunkers, so they tend to do poorly in a joust against opposing bike cavalry. At any rate the bike cops (normally among the most dangerous units) were heavily outnumbered (as well as outridden and outmaneuvered) by the bike cavalry attached to both the front and the back of the march.
There was one ugly and dangerous incident that looked like a kettle closing up at 14th and Harvard, where the march went right to riot cops setting a line across 14th st. As the march approached 14th st on Harvard, this line of armored “turtle cops” suddenly started shifting position towards blocking Harvard. This looked like the closing of a kettle but appears to have instead had two objectives: make one or more targetted arrests, and demonstrate the ability to trap protesters in a kettle.
Minutes earlier, many police vans screamed through nearby streets, probably positioning those riot cops for the trap. Why the march went right to the trap is unknown. Maybe someone steered them to it, maybe the march just took too long to get to 14th st. Bike cops had been unable to move in on protesters over the opposition of that powerful bike bloc after the pass through Adams-Morgan, so MPD tried something else. They resorted to what one Twitter poster called the most heavily armored cops they had seen since the start of the George Floyd protests back in May. Since a kettle and mass arrest followed by mostly dropped charges ends with Trump and Bowser complaining to the US Attorney’s office, targetted arrests have been the recent pattern with Sep 23 no exception. At least three arrests in total have been reported.
Background: On the 23ed of September, the grand jury investigating the police murder of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY returned no indictments except of one cop for “wanton endangerment” reportedly over a bullet that entered a neighbor’s unit. Protesters took to the streets nationwide. In Lousiville itself, two cops were SHOT, shooter captured. News reports as of 11PM had no idea whether the shooter participated in protests or not. Certainly though if Breonna Taylor had not been shot, these two cops would not have been shot either.
Heavily armored riot cops guard a McDonald’s. A similar unit guarded a Suntrust Bank at 18th and Columbia(still from Kate Cantrell video)
Police vans scream through the streets minutes before riot cops set what looked like a kettle attempt across 14th st
Riot cops blocking a street (still from Kate Cantrelll video) this looks like the 14th st fake kettle. Footage of that in author’s camera was corrupted beyond recovery
Smashed window at Dupont Circle Starbucks (Still from Rawsmedia video)
On the 23ed of September, huge crowds gathered as Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s casket laid at the Supreme Court for a public viewing. Shortly before noon, activists including Casa in Action, Spaces in Action, CBD action, and FIRM action left the Supreme Court and marched to Republican Party headquarters. Demands there were simple: No nomination and no confirmation prior to the next inauguration.
Video-the march on GOP headquarters from the Supreme Court 2 min 55 sec
On the 22nd of September, protesters held an emergency march in DC for Breonna Taylor, murdered by police in Louisville, KY. It was expected that a refusal to indict the killer cops would be declared that day, and Louisville had declared a “state of emergency.” As the DC solidarity march was ending, bike cops suddenly attacked a group of departing protesters, one of whom was arrested.
This is the second time MPD has attacked a “Fuck the Police” march or related march immediately after it ended, using the dispersal of protesters as a weak moment in which to launch an attack and targetted arrests.
Video of the police attack 47 sec, from Madison Muller’s Twitter clips
One of the few successful arrests. Most were defeated by bike cavalry blocking the pigs out of the march
On the 21st of September, Senator Lindsey Graham got a 6AM wake-up call and home demo from Sunrise Movement and ShutDownDC. His own words referencing Obama’s end-of-term blocked Merrick Garland SCOTUS nomination were played in front of his house. In addition drums, noisemakers, and lights ensured this electoral alarm clock was heard.
In 2018, Lindsey Graham defended the decision by the GOP to prevent a Senate vote in 2016 on Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. He spoke on this subject with a reminder to “use my words against me” if he went back on his word. Now his master Trump has ordered him to go back on his word, and as per his previous suggestion protesters did indeed use his own words against them. They did so by first waking him up, then playing his words back to him in front of his house.
At one point, MPD threatened members of the corporate media with arrest for using their camera lights to get decent footage of the pre-dawn protest. Later, MPD’s infamous Lt Bagshaw blustered threats of arrest against the entire protest over a bullhorn, but cops were not positioned in a way that would make a kettle possible, and a low-fenced parking lot probably made a kettle impossible. The most obvious escape route with south, past just three members of the Capitol Police followed by a number of unguarded and empty police cruisers. This was the route protesters eventually marched out over, ending as presumably planned at the US Supreme Court.
For Trump to try to kill Roe vs Wade, GLBTQ rights, and so much more with a lame duck nomination to the Supreme Court while both ends of the political spectrum warn of the risk of escalation all the way to outright civil war is an incredibly dangerous escalation.
Video: 6AM wake-up call for Lindsey Graham 2 min 24 sec
On the 20th of September, Extinction Rebellion DC (XRDC) marched from Malcolm X Park through the 18th st restaurant area and other upscale area around Adams-Morgan and nearby. At several stops they played recorded sounds of wildfires and fired smoke flares to dramatize the West coast fires “sparked by money and greed.”
These wildfires are unusually severe, and are caused by extreme climate conditions (dry/hot/windy) that have occurred this year. Human-caused climate change is widely suspected of being behind this. The smoke has reached Europe and scientists say it will entirely circle the planet.
As for the rich people in the restauants, surely they would agree that smoke flare smoke smells a lot better than the tear gas that has permeated entire neighborhoods in Portland, now with a side order of wood smoke from the wildfires. Their greed struck the matches in any case.
XRDC pops smoke on 18th st to draw attention to the role of climate change in sparking wildfires
DC Direct Action News 