Protesters have continued to pour onto the streets of Washington, D.C., night after night, despite the city’s attempt to suppress protest through the deployment of the National Guard and the imposition of nightly curfews.
The righteous rage and pain felt in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is palpable throughout the streets of this city, as many Black, Indigenous and Latinx people are already dying at large numbers from the lack of resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and the everyday forms of systematic abuse and slaughter.
In response to the growing protests, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser activated the National Guard and set curfews beginning on Saturday which extended through Wednesday. Police Chief Peter Newsham has said that those who break curfew will be arrested through the use of the city’s CCTV system, even going so far as to ask business owners to turn over their camera footage and offering rewards for information that leads to arrests. These acts stifle the right to peaceful protest and could turn people against one another while the U.S. is in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
On Monday, Trump referred to those peacefully protesting as “rioters” and “criminals” and threatened to activate the military. The D.C. and federal government’s violent overreaction to protests has included the use of multiple law enforcement agencies and the military. On Monday night, at the U Street District in Northwest Washington, D.C., I witnessed protesters repeatedly being greatly outnumbered by police and being tear gassed, shot at and terrorized throughout the night. A small group of approximately 15-20 people kneeled and sat on a small neighborhood street in the U District and were quickly swarmed by at least 50 Metropolitan Police Department officers. A bus full of military police were brought in, but then left.
The scene on Tuesday night was different, however: It appears that the curfews have only further enraged D.C. residents rather than persuading them. On Tuesday night, as I moved through Lafayette Square and surrounding areas, I witnessed protesters greatly outnumbering law enforcement as they peacefully demonstrated and marched late into the night, demanding change to the racist system that has been killing many since the creation of the U.S. This photo essay offers a glimpse of both the protest energy and the police presence over the past few days.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 143 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy