I went to the protests in Detroit last night and wrote down some of what I saw before I went to sleep. Here it is:
There were maybe a thousand protestors just kind of chilling around city hall when riot police started slowly pushing the crowds back with tear gas, shields and mace. I didn't see anyone rioting but there were a few people who were obviously trying to provoke a bigger confrontation with the police.
Occasionally the police would charge crowds without their shields and arrest whoever didn't get out of the street fast enough. I saw about five or six unarmed people with their hands in the air get thrown to the ground and beaten during these charges. I saw one police officer fire some sort of tear gas cannon directly into a girl's back from about 3 feet away as she was walking away. I also saw police beat and arrest numerous people who's only crime was shit talking them.
A teenager was shot in the head about 50 feet away from me which started a small stampede. I saw his feet as the body was loaded into the ambulance a few minutes later.
Some videos I took before and during the initial riot police push:
It's so weird to see shit escalate more every year in the US. It feels like there are only two sides which become increasingly radical with less chance for compromise in pretty much all parts of society and it's been getting worse every year in the last 5-6 years. Between Obamacare failing despite agreement from the republicans that this might be a good thing over the constant police violence to the Trump administration which first somehow got elected and then embraces armed vigilantes if they are on their political spectrum the right radicalized immensely. On the other side we have extremely one-sided media coverage ruining the credibility of pretty much every large media platform and driving the divide, BLM having open racist policies at times and getting embraced by the dems anyways and people running down people with MAGA caps on demonstrations.
It's like the middleground and normality just collapsed. If this continues the US will get a civil war.
To be fair... If you wear a Maga hat to such a demonstration, you blatantly want trouble. Freespeak whatever, it's just plain stupid... You wouldn't go into a Punk bar wearing a Swastika not expecting a beating.
I get what you mean, but there's a difference between a Swastika and a Maga hat and I feel that people more and more forget that. There are also mobs gathering in front of right reporter's houses after they got doxed pounding in windows and throwing fireworks and people trying to get acid into ventilation systems of right gatherings and it's not like BLM has taken steps to stop the looters either.
There's just less and less acceptance for any opinion that isn't the owned and increasing tendency to answer with violence and my impression is that both sides use every escalation of the other side to escalate further.
EPT
