Bike cops attack protesters leaving Breonna Taylor emergency march, one arrest

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

Sen Lindsey Graham gets 6AM wake-up call over Supreme Court

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

Extinction Rebellion DC sets off smoke flares in Adams-Morgan over wildfires

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

Huge Sat night crowd at Supreme Court as protesters march in gentrified areas

On the 19th of September, a crowd estimated by Twitter posters at over 1,000 gathered at the Supreme Court to remember Ruth Bader Ginsberg-and to warn GOP Senators NOT to attempt to ram through a Trump nominee prior to the election. Elsewhere in town, the Fuck the Police march confronted wealthy white restaurant patrons about the behavior of the police they are funding.

PSL Protests at White House against Denver arrests of organizers on Trumped-up felony charges

On the 19th of September, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) protested at the White House (and also in Denver on a larger scale) against the arrests on bogus “kidnapping” and other phony felony charges of six organizers in Denver who it is alleged organized a protest in which a police station was surrounded.

In Denver, the pigs used a military MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) armored vehicle and a tank to raid one organizer’s house. Those arrested include organizers for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a co-founder of the Front Line Party for Revolutionary Action, and others. The PSL has warned “They are facing heavy felony charges – an obvious frame-up aimed at stopping the movement. IT WON’T WORK” in a recet tweet. The original Denver protest drawing the charges was over the murder of Elijah McClain, who was killed by Aurora, CO police using an injection of Ketamine as the murder weapon back in 2019.

On July 3, 2020, furious protesters surrounded and beseiged an Aurora police station (possibly offending police station?) for 7 hours, and blocked the doors. Since the police were armed and protesters were not, the 18 cops inside could have forced their way out under a blizzard of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets probably even without help from outside any time they wanted. If not, they had other police stations and even a option to escape by air. Using a helicopter to pull those cops out was considered and rejected, possibly for fear the station would be destroyed. Since that means the police in question chose to stay put, one of the “particulars” of a kidnapping charge (not able to leave) is not present in this case, yet it was filed anyway.

As this is going on, we have Attorney General Barr calling for the filing of sedition(!) charges against protesters, and we have the news that Trump’s Federal troops seriously considered using a microwave heat ray device (a literal ray-gun) against protesters near the White House in early June. They have shown they are willing to do nearly anything if they think it will stop peaceful or otherwise unarmed protesters.

abcnews(dot)go(dot)com/US/wireStory/crowd-protests-charges-denver-anti-racism-leaders-73119024

Activists remember Ruth Ginsberg at Supreme Court

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died on Sep 18, and was remembered that night by progressive activists outside the Supreme Court. The stakes just went WAY up for the 2020 election. No replacement can likely be confirmed before the election, and if the Senate changes hands any Trump nominee will be rejected. The next Supreme Court justice will be picked by the NEXT president, and may or may not be confirmed.

Video of the Supreme Court gathering originally uploaded to Twitter by Joe Khalil 11 sec

Still from video by Joe Khalil

Extinction Rebellion DC releases smoke at CNN to protest lack of climate/wildfire attention

On the 18th of September, Extinction Rebellion DC showed up outside CNN’s DC headquarters with a desk,a mock CNN anchor team, characters including a devil and fire spirits, and plenty of brightly colored smoke. They were there to protest CNN’s near-total lack of coverage of the role of climate change in fueling the West Coast wildfires whose smoke plumes have reached Europe.

CNN has said almost nothing about the hotter, drier conditions that have led to these fires. Protesters charge this is so as not to anger fossil fuel companies that buy ads on CNN. Out of 49 segments run by CNN on the fires, only 5 ever mentioned climate change.

An XRDC spokesperson released this statement: “This is a climate and ecological emergency. The climate crisis has set our home on fire. Mass extinction is already happening. People are being burned alive. Worse is to come. Billions will suffer. And yet CNN is still failing to tell the truth about the gravest existential threat facing humankind. The media must stop missing the story of the century. Outlets like CNN have a moral duty to make the emergency headline news every single day.”

Video-smoke rises over mock CNN anchors at CNN’s HQ” 1 min 18 sec

XRDC pops smoke at CNN

CNN anchors in money blinders

Fire spirits share their essence at CNN

Video: Trump rally disrupted, venue fined for virus rules in Henderson, NV

On the 13th of September, Donald Trump held an indoor/unmasked campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada. Black Lives Matter protesters infiltrated the event and disrupted it. Afterwards, the owner of the venue was fined $3000 by Henderson for violating social distancing requirements by packing thousands of his supporters with many or most of them unmasked into this indoor space.

The Washington Post has printed an article stating that an indoor Trump rally is 18-19 times more dangerous than a comparable outdoor event. Also, participants in Black Lives Matter protesters that can operate openly can wear masks and almost all of them do. Thus, BLM protests have not caused any known coronavirus clusters except possibly for some cases in Portland spread by tear gas causing people to cough and forcing them out of their masks. The earlier Tulsa, OK Trump event by comparison left a coronavirus cluster behind in that community.

lasvegassun(dot)com/news/2020/sep/14/henderson-fines-trump-rally-venue-3000-covid-flap/

Video-BLM disrupt’s Trump’s Henderson, NV rally 1 min 9 sec

Trump’s Henderson, NV campaign rally. Indoor, packed, mostly unmasked corona party (still from Marie Douvre video)

BLM disrupts the Henderson, NV Trump campaign rally/corona party (still from Marie Douvre video)

Climate-driven storms undermine brand-new Beach Drive

On the 10th of September, climate-change driven storms dumped about 6 inches of rain in the Rock Creek watershed in a matter of hours. Rock Creek came out of it banks, and when the waters receded, part of newly-rebuilt Beach Drive was found to have been undermined. The damaged area has been closed, as it is unknown how much weight the undermined area can support without collapsing.

Video-examining the damage left by the Sep 10th storm that undermined Beach Drive 1 min 20 sec

This part of Beach Drive was rebuilt just two year ago w new drainage, but new more powerful storms have already undermined it

Undermined area on Beach Drive. Immediately south of the beginning of the closure heading southbound, underneath the southbound lane

Multiple Protests take the streets for the 17th Saturday in a row

At least four separate protests took to the streets in DC on Sat, Sep 12. There was a march for Black women, the evening Fuck the Police march, Refuse Fascism’s 2nd weekly protest of Trump’s expected refual to leave office, and a protest at the home of Laura Zeilinger (DC Dept of Housing Services director) over housing issues affecting Black DC residents

The Refuse Fascism protest was the second Saturday in a row of that organization’s protests looking forward to the upcoming mess in November, when Trump is expected to attempt to stop the counting of votes while in-person votes from GOP supporters have him ahead and mail-in votes have yet to be counted. Refuse Fascism’s supporters are of course among a great many people who fear that a second Trump term will lead to much worse government behavior than in the past. There are also widespread fears of “massive civil unrest” or even outright civil war(!) stemming from a disputed election. The Transition Integrity Project included a wide range of government officials, campaign officials, and national security “experts” and wargamed a variety of election scenarios. All of them except a Biden landslide ended in huge street protests where both Trumpers and progressive duke it out in the streets and massive civil unrest follows. The scenarios never reached Jan 20 because they all had Congress deadlocking on Jan 6, with the House certifying Biden and the Senate Trump as “winners.”

The afternoon march from Malcolm X Park was reportedly even more confrontational than the later Fuck the Police march(usually the reverse is true), and “tensions rising” with police was reported several times on Twitter feeds. As in previous weeks this march included a blockade of Key Bridge between Georgetown and Rosslyn, and calling out rich restaurant patrons spreading covid and capitalism in Georgetown. Relatively few videos were published on Twitter due to security concerns. This is not the kind of situation where protesters can have any confidence that police and fascists are not getting ideas about “later,” given the events of the past week, three kettles in less than a month, and charges from kettles being dropped only to be replaced with new charges after Mayor Bowser screamed about them being dropped. While photos and video are great for expanding the reach of a protest (and in this case showing yuppies why they should not move to DC) this can become rather unappetizing when it comes with a side order of raids and warrants.

The evening Fuck the Police march, while plenty confrontational managed to avoid any arrests or major fights, even while returning to the exact venue where a rich white diner spit on a protester (in the middle of a pandemic!) back on August 22.The march waited at Dupont Circle for the Black Women’s march folks to join them, then set out to protest at upscale dining areas and luxury apartments in neighborhoods where Black and Latinx families used to live but now cannot afford to.

The Fuck the Police march asked that photographs and video not be taken, as police have been scouring social media posts for photos to use as the bases of criminal charges, warrants, and raids. Several times upscale restaurant patrons started filming those protesting their wealth and luxury, no doubt happy as clams that police would take advantage of their footage. Each time they did, protesters raised umbrellas as shields to block the offending cameras. Sympathetic bystanders asked not to record for the same safety reasons usually shut off their cameras immediately. Meanwhile cameras were still present in the march, ready to deploy instantly if police opened fire with another fusillade of flashbangs, stingballs, rubber bullets, and tear gas.

The “long hot summer” of 2020 has segued into a spicy fall of increasingly hot protests. Tear gas, rubber bullets, and grenades (flashbang or stingball) used to be rare and now they are increasingly common. It used to be unheard of for protesters to hold rich white “New Washingtonians” and similar yuppies all over the continent accountable. Now it happens all over Turtle Island.The rich who fund the police are finding they can’t buy enough cops to keep the rage of those they make homeless with rising rents from giving them indigestion at their expensive dinners.

If the fighting and kettles of J20 too place today J20 would be considered only a moderately spicy day. Rich gentrifying yuppies who are targetted by protests and the upscale businesses they patronize are starting to reconsider living in DC. This can drive gentrification backwards if protesters can maintain the pressure long enough. Over time, that will force down rents. The elephant in the room however is the upcoming election. When that blows, progressive protesters, their fascist/MAGAT enemies, and the cops all will take the field with 5 months of what amount to weekly (in some places daily) training under real-world conditions.

Video: Refuse Fascism’s protest against Trump and his expected efforts to remain in office regardless of any vote 1 min 21 sec

Refuse Fascism protesting expected refusal of Donald Trump to recognize election results

Protesters return to the Andrew Jackson statue

A prophecy…