Minneapolis uprising weekend

[miss_ljv]

Note: All pictures are shit quality so small - click to see HD.

Saturday was the day the police and troopers decided that they truly were above all laws. I'm particularly referring to attacks on the media. My protests on Saturday centered on the 5th precinct, where we did a sit-in. At 8:40, they bombed us out with their full arsenal: the staples of flashbangs, tear gas, and rubber bullets with the added fun of mace and high-velocity paintballs.


(this image was pulled from the net)


(this image was pulled from the net but I can spot my sister on the left-hand side. I'm obscured by some lady with a camera.


This beautiful George Floyd flag blocked our view of the oncoming advancement of law enforcement, but it is so amazing.

Sit-in.


Estimates were 75-150 state troopers attacked us where we sat. They attacked the media first, there's tons of raw footage out there. The media were wearing vests and helmets with PRESS on it, huge cameras and boom mics. It was obviously a purposeful decision on whoever's in control of the police's part to violate everyone's rights regardless of the law.


(this image was pulled from the internet)


We escaped to this side because my car was in this direction. Behind us is the highway, so I think they turned most of their focus the other directions first.

That night we left after there were reports of gunshots. We took Lyndale out of the city and took the roundabout way home because of the closed roads and aggression by law enforcement.

I would definitely say it was the scariest night by far.




Sunday, we marched from US Bank stadium, to the Government Center, to Hennepin Ave/1st Ave bridges, to University, and onto 35W. It was amazing how many people came out (estimates are 5-6000), all peaceful, all together. We stopped and took a knee at each big location.


After kneeling we all sat for a bit.

This image was taken by a resident as we walked by. So cool.


Exiting off University onto the bridge.


View of Minneapolis and the Mississippi River from 35W




Kneeling/sitting for George Floyd.

I was on southbound 35W, not northbound where the semi truck plowed into the crowd. How that asshole didn't see that he was the only vehicle on the road for miles (the highways were closed in the city), and that all other remaining vehicles were turned around is beyond me. They also neglected to show on the media that when the cops came, they attacked the entire peaceful crowd (again, with tear gas, flashbangs, and new fun, dropping things from helicopters) and maced the guys who had surrounded the idiot to keep him from being mobbed by scared people who almost got run over by a white guy in the middle of an AMAZING day and protest.

Comments

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

Goodness!

[brittdreams.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the on the ground reporting.

[miss-ljv.livejournal.com]

I can only report what I see and my own experiences, and I think it's important to document! I feel like I need to flesh out some of it, but it's hard! I was thinking about how hard it is to remember things when the situation is chaos and hard hard to see - my vision is tied so strongly to my memory!

Anyway, there has been a LOT of coming together from citizens. From my perspective. Even like, there are tons of donations pouring into the southside/Lake street area, so my sister and I brought supplies (baby wipes, diapers, cleaning products/soap, earplugs, food and water) to a tiny pet shop temporarily repurposed in North Mpls. While it was a modest setup, there was a steady stream of people both picking up items, and donating items.

City council members tweeted yesterday that ways to defund the police are being discussed (it may be lip service of course but we have their attention), and the Mpls parks department ended their ties with the MPD and are changing their uniform color to green instead of blue.

[brittdreams.livejournal.com]

It’s definitely worth documenting. Future historians will thank you and, as you said, it helps you remember too.

The influx of donations is great and a reminder of how evil capitalism is.

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

Be safe. =/

What's with the smoke? Is the govt trying to spread covid?

[miss-ljv.livejournal.com]

And then blame protesters for being in close proximity when they forced it AND used a chemical weapon to spread droplets.

When we get our second wave, no one will remember the people screaming about not wanting to be told what to do and the amount of people who gathered on Memorial day..........

[leucocrystal]

Really fantastic that you took part in this, good on you. And of course, the police response was horrific, as it seems to have been just about everywhere. Gotta love how their response to a protest against police violence, among other issues, is to increase their violence x100.

They attacked the media first, there's tons of raw footage out there. The media were wearing vests and helmets with PRESS on it, huge cameras and boom mics.

See, this has been crazy-making to me to see this, because despite the violence against so many members of the media, including that CNN reporter (a man of color, what a shock!) being arrested live on the air, it seemingly took major news stations 10 DAYS to finally start airing footage of what the police have been doing! Like... why? What is your interest in censoring violence that's being perpetrated, especially when it's been directed at your own profession as well? Unfathomable to me.

Very glad you made it out safely.

[miss-ljv.livejournal.com]

I agree!!! Like, wouldn't you want to expose your government taking away your right as media to be there??? It definitely speaks to the political agendas of whoever controls the information that airs. In one of the videos I recorded of the press being attacked at our sit-in, when the camera cuts back to the anchors, their faces say it all: one man is wiping away tears and the other has the most horrified bemused expression frozen on his face - he was absolutely blown away and repeatedly expresses his shock. Later segments of this clip CUT OUT the discussion the news team had about how insane it was that that happened.

Re: police violence - omg, this image going around, spot on:


That's like the whole point of this police abolition. Police aren't trained to respond to most situations. So they SHOULDN'T respond to most situations.

[leucocrystal]

Ugh, that is crazy! Editing context like that out is just completely unethical (and in the midst of a movement like this, also just plain dangerous).

LOL that meme sums it up perfectly. What an insane absurdity.

But yes, police really aren't trained to do most of what anyone actually expects them to do (and they're hilariously, horribly inept at doing what they ideally should be doing, i.e. solving or curbing crime in any way whatsoever). There was a thread the other day where the OP asked, on Twitter, think hard: when have police ever actually HELPED you? Most people said never, myself included.