Politics
A Peaceful Demonstrator’s Inside View of Police Actions
Demonstrations — last resort of the desperate. How government prepares to use force. What’s really happening, unfiltered by the News Media.
A Facebook post
Yesterday, June 2, my nephew Joey shared this Facebook post by Emma Chambers about her experience in the Orlando demonstration.
It is both chilling and moving.
I felt that it needed to be shared with the world. With permission, here is Emma’s story in her own words.
Orlando, Florida, May 30, 2020
Yesterday, my younger sister Lucy and I attended the downtown Orlando #BlackLivesMatter protest. This is a long story, but worth the read.
We arrived at around 3 pm, and walked until we heard a group of protesters congregated outside of the Orange County Courthouse. We joined with our signs and began chanting along with the protesters.
It was almost 100 degrees with the humidity level, and I was sweating almost immediately with my mask on. I witnessed two protesters become faint (I’m assuming from the heat) and saw other fellow protesters carry them to safety and take care of them. All the while, we were completely surrounded by police, who seemed to do….nothing about these people being ill. Protesters were handing out free water, making sure everybody was staying safe and peaceful.
There was a group loudly shouting
“We aren’t thugs!” “We won’t be rioters!” “We are protesting for JUSTICE!”
Soon after, we began to march down Orange Ave. We passed by most of downtown Orlando. We marched past a construction team, and cheered at a black construction worker who pumped his fist at us in solidarity. We ignored the white women at the outdoor bar down the street who looked at us all incredulously.
We ended up at City Hall, and congregated around the steps as we continued chanting and holding our signs up. As soon as we arrived, there were cops all around us. Cop cars with their lights on were lining the street, and helicopters flew overhead. I saw quite a few people decide to leave as it began to rain. Others (namely…white people) were chatting amongst themselves, laughing and sitting down while taking videos.
Suddenly, the man directly in front of Lucy and I began to get more and more angry. He grabbed his friend’s megaphone and started to go off on one of the most powerful speeches I have heard in a long time. I don’t want to mis-paraphrase, but he began to express how angry he was at those who were leaving. Those who were laughing. Those who were sitting. He said… “you should be ANGRY! We are dying EVERY DAY! I’m SICK of this. I’m so SICK and TIRED of this!”
At this point, everyone was silent. We were all shaken. The girl directly next to me yelled, “Let’s MARCH then!!!!” The guy with the megaphone immediately set off and we all followed.
We began to march through the streets that hadn’t been blocked off. We left downtown Orlando, and headed down the street toward the Orlando Police Department Precinct, which I had never been to before. On the way, we passed black-owned businesses and cheered like nobody’s business. Lucy got really tired, as we were out of water and walking very fast with masks on. As soon as we got to the police precinct, we crossed the street to go to a 7/11 and buy water.
We quickly congregated around the police precinct as all the cops surrounded it. Ten minutes later, they told the 7/11 to close so nobody else could get water and people would leave. Luckily, many protesters had bought up all of the 12-packs and were handing them out for free.
As we stood there protesting, not instigating ANY violence, the cops kept putting on more and more riot gear. Some white cop who must have been in charge was pacing in front of us, his hand resting on his gun. We saw them handing out tear gas canisters. I yelled, “what are we even doing????” The cops never responded to our cries.
The sky got really dark, and we saw lightning from afar. Before Lucy and I knew what was happening, the protesters took off. We all headed toward the 408 freeway. Cops pulled up like I have NEVER seen before in my life. We occupied the freeway and demanded justice. It was incredibly powerful.
As we stood there, protesting peacefully and speaking our minds, I saw a young woman get maced. The police did nothing to help her, but hordes of protesters helped her up and poured milk on her face to help alleviate the pain.
As soon as I saw people begin to get maced, Lucy and I climbed back over the barrier to get off of the road. I wanted to continue protesting on the front line, but I was worried for my sister getting tear-gassed because her skin is already ultra-sensitive.
We kept protesting from the side of the highway. Cops kept putting more and more riot gear on, until they were unrecognizable. Before we knew it, they were closing in on the front line protesters and suddenly everybody was running.
I began to run alongside my sister, but I tripped on something and fell, just as hundreds of people were running behind me. I barely had time to think “I’m about to be trampled” when I felt my arms being instantly picked up and my feet were on the ground again. Protesters alongside me had seen me fall and had turned back to help me up. I dropped my sign and let it stay there as I kept running.
That’s when I noticed that my phone was missing. When I fell, it must have dropped from my pocket and there was no time to think. I wanted to go back, but that was when I noticed that the police were still firing tear gas at us, even as we were running away. They had told us to clear the roadway, but still fired tear gas at those who HAD cleared the roadway. And then it started pouring down rain.
My sister and I were far enough away that we didn’t get tear-gassed fully. But as the rain began, our eyes were burning, our masks gagged us, and we couldn’t see where we were going. Police didn’t do anything to help us. Someone was lying on the street having an asthma attack, and I had to YELL at a police officer to help them. “This person needs some F***ING HELP???? Will you do something GOOD for once???!” My privilege allowed me to yell and swear at him as coarsely as I did. I was pissed.
We crowded under the awning of a Church’s Chicken as we waited for the thunderstorm to pass. I was soaked. Literally could have wrung my clothes out. The employees kept coming out to check if we were okay, and somebody came to offer us free chicken. We all commiserated together, and as we left one by one, we said “goodbye!” and “stay safe!”
We walked back to my friend Emma’s car, and she drove us to ours. I felt numb, driving back home. I had almost reached home when my sister got contacted by a random number. It was a protester who had found my phone and wanted to return it. I met them at the parking lot of a Denny’s and was so grateful I didn’t even know what to say. Apparently, they had gathered a bunch of lost phones and were returning them to everyone who had lost them.
Absolute and unconditional kindness, love, and solidarity between the protesters
I’m still so overwhelmed by the events I witnessed yesterday. I surely witnessed violence from police, as everybody has been seeing, but I was even more moved by the absolute and unconditional kindness, love, and solidarity between the protesters.
I have been to many protests. I can assure you, I have never seen a police presence like what I saw yesterday. And for what??? I was disgusted by the police precinct building, towering high and mighty above the under-funded and over-policed area of Orlando that I, as a privileged white person living in a segregated country, had never spent time in.
I was moved to tears as we walked past businesses that I had never stepped foot in, as people I had never met shouted names of the murdered I had never heard of, as a white police officer grinned at the sight of our angered voices.
Some say that Orlando’s protest was one of the most peaceful ones yet, and we were still tear-gassed. No wonder people are finally raising hell. Enough is f***ing enough. It isn’t just the names we all have memorized.
This is happening EVERY DAY!!!!!!
As the cops were beginning to put on gas masks on the 408, I yelled “we aren’t even being violent!!!!”
A black woman standing next to me who was recording said, “we don’t have to be violent. They’ll do it anyways.” I immediately felt ignorant and became silent. I didn’t know what else to say besides, “I am so sorry. You don’t deserve that. Nobody does.”
She said, “No need to be sorry. You’re here. That’s what matters.”
My additional comment
I went to one anti-war demonstration in the ‘60s in Terre Haute, Indiana. The police level of violence and callousness then was low, practically nothing, compared to now.
This year, in Orlando, the demonstrators were generally peaceful and helpful towards each other. A few thugs used the demonstration as a cover for looting. Many of the police probably wished they were somewhere else. A few appeared to want to push people around and to show who was boss.
Bullies and thugs are always with us, spreading misery everywhere. Most people are not like that, but it only takes a few and complacency within the majority of the rest. They get embedded into institutions, in this case the police, and thrive as long as they are not noticed. Unfortunately, it took a death to bring such abuse to light.
It takes demonstrations such as these to get those with the power to make changes to move. Their bravery and effort will make a difference. Changes will be made, eventually, and will last for a while.
All of these problems come back to stereotypes. This article does a good job of identifying racial stereotypes, but stereotypes carry through to most aspects of life.
Stereotypes are usually based on ignorance, like in this article (nothing about race or gender):
