I went to my local capitol protest today and it went peacefully. I was prepared for (and very much expecting) escalation. I wrote the ACLU phone number on my leg, left my phone at my girlfriend’s house, and carried pepper spray in my pocket. My gf and I (and a number of other people) wore medical masks. We also brought clear, full-face shields in our bag too, just in case.
The capitol and the police station were near each other; lots of cops drove by our crowd, but thankfully that’s the only interaction we had with them. But a lot of drivers, bicyclists, and other passers-by made noise in solidarity.
I should also probably note that I live in a blue state. I haven’t heard yet about the experience in red and purple states, but hopefully people will be sharing their stories soon.
One last thing - I’m glad you made the note about phones. Apparently some of the people at the protest reasoned, “I might get arrested, therefore I should bring my phone.” Then they were confused when I used the exact same reason to justify me not bringing my phone. Do people not realize that the police seizes a person’s belongings when they arrest them? Considering the way this administration is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if they rewrote the law to allow police to break into phones without a warrant. At the very least, they certainly won’t stop cops who do it unlawfully.
Happy you made it. Ours was small and uneventful except one person brought us all a bunch of pizzas which was cool for those that could eat cheese, I brought a big pack of hand warmers and a big caraffe of hot mint tea. It was pretty much just a lunch. None of the state reps came out, and there was no counter protest. Fliers were handed out for another protest soon. Hopefully others are seeing the attendance numbers and planning for more better organized protests.
I handed out the EFF protesting .pdf that I had printed out at work.
Oh hey, we had someone handing out hand warmers too! She saw me and my girlfriend trading one pair of gloves between us and asked if we wanted a warmer. It was a sweet gesture, the kind of look-out-for-your-neighbor thing we were all there for.
I went to my local capitol protest today and it went peacefully. I was prepared for (and very much expecting) escalation. I wrote the ACLU phone number on my leg, left my phone at my girlfriend’s house, and carried pepper spray in my pocket. My gf and I (and a number of other people) wore medical masks. We also brought clear, full-face shields in our bag too, just in case.
The capitol and the police station were near each other; lots of cops drove by our crowd, but thankfully that’s the only interaction we had with them. But a lot of drivers, bicyclists, and other passers-by made noise in solidarity.
I should also probably note that I live in a blue state. I haven’t heard yet about the experience in red and purple states, but hopefully people will be sharing their stories soon.
One last thing - I’m glad you made the note about phones. Apparently some of the people at the protest reasoned, “I might get arrested, therefore I should bring my phone.” Then they were confused when I used the exact same reason to justify me not bringing my phone. Do people not realize that the police seizes a person’s belongings when they arrest them? Considering the way this administration is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if they rewrote the law to allow police to break into phones without a warrant. At the very least, they certainly won’t stop cops who do it unlawfully.
Happy you made it. Ours was small and uneventful except one person brought us all a bunch of pizzas which was cool for those that could eat cheese, I brought a big pack of hand warmers and a big caraffe of hot mint tea. It was pretty much just a lunch. None of the state reps came out, and there was no counter protest. Fliers were handed out for another protest soon. Hopefully others are seeing the attendance numbers and planning for more better organized protests.
I handed out the EFF protesting .pdf that I had printed out at work.
https://www.eff.org/files/2017/06/19/protest-one-sheet.pdf
It’s usually enough for most people.
Oh hey, we had someone handing out hand warmers too! She saw me and my girlfriend trading one pair of gloves between us and asked if we wanted a warmer. It was a sweet gesture, the kind of look-out-for-your-neighbor thing we were all there for.