Police Brutality Protest. (Detroit, Flint: college, live, budget)

[Coldjensens]

Interesting protest marched past my window an hour or two ago.

It was labeled a police brutality protest. I think it was meant to focus on the murder of George Floyd. However it was more a mix of causes according to the signs. There were trans rights signs, Black lives matter signs, anti-trump signs, several signs in Spanish something about college. A few about police - some about brutality and mistreatment some just calling them names. I did not write down or remember all the different causes referenced on the signs but they had a lot of diversity.

There were very few professionally printed signs. To me that indicates a more real grassroots kind of protest. to me that makes the protest more credible. Probably none of them were paid.

The protest was larger than most that I have seen downtown. There were probably 200 to 300 people. Possibly even more. Usually protests we see here are a lot fewer.

I was surprised to see it appeared that considerably more than half of the protesters were white. In fact it seemed like very few Black people participated. Maybe more joined in later. i wonder whether Black people will feel like the white people are trying to usurp their cause? Or will they feel appreciative to be supported? After all Police brutality and murder is really a cause for everyone to be concerned about.

Nearly all of them were wearing masks, so you could not make out what they were yelling. Also they seemed to be yelling different things at the same time, so it may not have been intelligible without masks. They were not repeating chants lead by a megaphone wielding leader like many of the protests we see, it seemed more ad hoc.

It was orderly and peaceful.

It was pretty nice out today, I wish i could have joined in, it seemed like a nice protest. I am not aware of a lot of brutality in modern times by Detroit police, but the murder of George Floyd was pretty despicable.

No one stole any televisions or burned down any buildings, but they still seemed to get their point across.

[Coldjensens]

It turned ugly later. the thugs and drunks turned out late at night. That is too bad. It demeans the message.





In Flint some of the police joined the protest. The wanted to show that the murderer cop was "not one of us" Now some hate mongers are trying to turn the gesture into something nefarious. Some people are vile, or at least prefer doing vile things over productive or helpful things.

[keraT]

Thanks for your comment. I have been watching it in news where I keep hearing the morning protest (real protest) was peaceful everyday and evening turned ugly. I want to believe Detroit after all the struggle it had & the struggle its own police force has managing such large area with tight budget... that we don't have anything against our police force.


sounds like it really was peaceful in the real protest.

[Coldjensens]

It continued well into the evening. i did go out and join in for a while. it remained peaceful while I was there. There were a lot of people with kids and a lot of young teens. It appeared there were more white protesters than black. The protesters behaved well and were friendly (to me) for th most part. There were a lot of different causes represented according to their signs. Later I saw more signs relating to Floyd and police brutality. I was amused by one gal's sign which had probably a dozen sentences on it written in small print. Even when I got close to her to read that sign, I still could nto make out what it said, and she would have needed to stand still for five minutes or so to allow anyone to read all that.

The police behaved well and held back traffic to keep the protesters safe, but otherwise gave them some room. When I left our building there were a large number of police cars tucked behind our building out of sigh of most to the protesters but standing by in case of trouble.

People in the protest seemed more excited than angry. It was had to hear what they were saying because most wore masks.

Just before I left the bulk of the crowd suddenly turned and ran north on Woodward, ut as I was leaving I lot of the protesters were headed back to their cars (or so it seemed, they was wandering in groups of 2-4 people and had their signs tucked under their arms etc.

It did not turn ugly until late at night. That was a very different crowd I think and probably not he protesters, but thugs looking for an opportunity to make trouble.

[Coldjensens]

The more recent protests are different. Smaller, better organized, more focused. They seem to have them every night. They tend to stop and mill around in various places and it is kind of a party scene. The marching protesters now appear to be primarily young women (20s) I called my son and told him go get his tail down here and protest. This is the new bar scene, only the odds are stacked in favor of guys.

[keraT]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

The more recent protests are different. Smaller, better organized, more focused. They seem to have them every night. They tend to stop and mill around in various places and it is kind of a party scene. The marching protesters now appear to be primarily young women (20s) I called my son and told him go get his tail down here and protest. This is the new bar scene, only the odds are stacked in favor of guys.

Is it smaller and more organized because the "bad/rowdy" ones got arrested on first few days.

[DTWflyer]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

The more recent protests are different. Smaller, better organized, more focused. They seem to have them every night. They tend to stop and mill around in various places and it is kind of a party scene. The marching protesters now appear to be primarily young women (20s) I called my son and told him go get his tail down here and protest. This is the new bar scene, only the odds are stacked in favor of guys.

Is it this summer's version of the slow roll?

[TiggerDog]

Well I am glad they didn't kill anyone or destroy and loot businesses.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by DTWflyer

Is it this summer's version of the slow roll?

Last night certainly was. It looked like about 50% of the protesters were on bicycles. Not lights on the wheels though, but it was still daylight, so maybe they just weren't on. It looks like different groups take turns on different nights. Last night was heavily teachers (according to their signs) and people on Bicycles.

[Coldjensens]

Today's protest was down to about 50 - 80 people. Mostly older white people this time. Chanting "No Justice, no Peace" to basically no one since the city is more or less closed for Covid. I had not really thought about that before. these protesters are protesting to an essentially empty city. It is a good time for it though. There is not much traffic.

They just a came round again. Slightly more people now, but boy are they exhausted. Especially the people with children (whom they are now carrying). They re all spread out now where they were bunched up before. Makes it lok like a bigger group, but I think it is just because they are really tires. It is hot int he sun. I hope everyone is OK, a few of the protesters are pretty old (70-80).

I find it interesting to watch the protesters each day. Who comes, what they say, what their signs say, their energy level (none today). The only people out watching them are black people. I wonder what they think of a bunch of white people protesting against abuse of black people by police? Is it offensive?