Life can be strangely symmetrical sometimes. Nearly six years ago to the day, I was biking near Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It was the eve of the 25th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Journalists were warned not to go out. I took a ride anyway. 1/x
There were no protests that night. I did see police wrestle a man to the ground at a stoplight. At one point, I realized I was being followed by an old man on a bike. He kept pace with me as I sped up and slowed down. Finally, he knocked into me and I fell to the ground. 2/x
I got up, shaken, yelled at him and then got back on my bike and sped home. I realized later the man was likely there performing “stability maintenance” on that sensitive anniversary. Part of that job is to prevent journalists from doing their job. 3/x
Tonight, six years later, I took another bike ride — to downtown D.C. to observe the protests over the killing of George Floyd. Thousands of people were assembled peacefully on the streets near the White House. They were holding signs, chanting, making their presence known. 4/x
I turned at the corner of Constitution Ave and 15th Street NW, and as I biked up 15th, I realized another biker was keeping pace with me to my right. For an instant, I had a flashback to that night in Beijing. 5/x
Only this time, the biker wasn’t following me. He was a protester heading toward the White House. We both biked past a huge military vehicle and police on Constitution, then past the graffitied walls of the Treasury Department on 15th, until we finally parted ways. 6/x
After I got to H Street near the White House, about 20 minutes before curfew, I spoke with a few protesters. They said the tear gas, rubber bullets and increasingly aggresive behavior of police toward the protesters yesterday made them more, not less, motivated to come out. 7/x
“I am more fired up to come down here when I see stuff like that,” said Ryan Fletcher, a 27-year-old researcher who lives in DC. “Just because you see the system of policing in this country that is not capable of *not* doing police brutality during a police brutality protest.”8/x
His friend Mariah, who declined to give her last name, said she’s Native Alaskan & is protesting in part due to her identity. Slavery and the genocide of native populations, she said, are “the two original sins of this country, and we really need to unify at times like this.” 9/x
I biked home, but not before stopping at the house of Rahul Dubey, who welcomed dozens of protesters into his home last night amid clashes with police. On his front steps were two boxes of homemade chocolate chip cookies, four bouquets of flowers and a ton of thank-you notes.10/x
It’s the eve of the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing now, and any journalist who goes out for a bike ride there tonight is likely to meet not peaceful protesters, but smothering silence. And maybe a plainclothes cop or two. 11/x
America is imperfect — painfully, heartbreakingly and at times infuriatingly so. But the scenes I saw tonight on my bike ride were a small reminder that where there’s freedom to peacefully protest, there’s hope. 12/12
A few photos from tonight’s ride. 
AND: If you’re not already, please follow the phenomenal reporting of the Post’s team covering the protests in D.C. here washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/…
