An evening tour of DC ... with youngest daughter @beatrice_frum did a tour of central DC at sunset. Allowing for the necessary limits of our limited perspective, here's what we saw:
@beatrice_frum We started south and east of the White House. The Mall in vicinity of Aerospace Museum and Pennsylvania Avenue from Treasury to Capitol Hill were empty and tranquil. Trump Hotel was heavily guarded - but no protesters there at all.
Trump hotel Pennsylvania Avenue front 
The area east of the White House toward Capitol Hill mostly patrolled by DC police, friendly and non-confrontational.
DC police bike patrol , Pennsylvania Avenue east of White House
In this quadrant were also a few unaggressive National Guard controlling auto traffic
Capitol Hill itself was an important center of peaceful demonstration this evening. Lots of Capital Hill police in face masks
But man, things changed as you moved westward from Capitol Hill back toward the White House. The security perimeter has been *enormously expanded.* It now reaches all the way north to L Street.
On the east, the perimeter begins at 9th, on the west at 19th. Enforced by Humvees barricading streets
EG
The show of military power swept the central district of all protesters. We reached 16th Street, just north of the perimeter, about 9 pm. By that time a great stream of people was walking northward away from the White House, effectively repelled.
So in one sense, Trump won the evening: he successfully asserted military control over a huge sector of central DC real estate, denying any place of protest to anybody who might choose to try to exercise their rights in a way that incommoded Trump. But ...
... in the more important way, Trump utterly failed. The protesters *were* repelled. But nobody seemed even slightly afraid - and instilling fear was the true purpose of the "domination" exercise. The northward-walking mass of people seemed cheerful, undaunted, unbullied.
It was Trump who has shown fear over these days: the fear that drove him into a bunker to hide, the fear that caused him to tear gas peaceful protesters so he could chase them out of his path across Lafayette Square - the fear you can smell rising from his noxious Twitter feed
Demonstrations are symbolic tests of potential force. The only form of force Trump understands is violence. I wrote in Trumpocalypse, "Pain is all he has, so pain is all he can give."
But there are other forms of force too, and in a rule-of-law democracy, they will prevail
But there are other forms of force too, and in a rule-of-law democracy, they will prevail
This moment ended before @beafrum and I reached the White House area from Capitol Hill ... but somebody captured it for history
@BeaFrum What you are hearing is people singing, "We are not afraid of you. We are not afraid of your tear gas, and your no-insignia Trump paramilitary, and your upside-down Bible photo op, and your crazy lies about mob vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial. In fact ...
@BeaFrum ... we know, YOU are afraid of US."
That's what they are singing. Trump is hearing it, and so are all those American soldiers and police who signed up to serve - and who probably were not at all happy to spend today in the broiling sun under orders to intimidate.
That's what they are singing. Trump is hearing it, and so are all those American soldiers and police who signed up to serve - and who probably were not at all happy to spend today in the broiling sun under orders to intimidate.
There has been looting in US cities - less in Washington than elsewhere, but here too. There has been mindless vandalism: windows broken, etc.
So that's all wrong, must be stopped, should be punished when the thief or vandal is caught. But most of what the president is describing as "desecration" is just graffiti - like the scribble I saw in front of Joe's Stone Crab this morning: "Fuck steak, I want justice."
But the single most common message I saw scribbled on walls and hoardings was an urgent and direct refutation of the president's lies: "WE ARE UNARMED." I saw that over and over again.
On Friday, a DC police officer suffered a fractured leg. wtop.com/dc/2020/05/geo… Some Secret Service people have been reported injured too.
Aside from that, though, the protests are peaceful - and seemingly becoming more so with each passing night.
Aside from that, though, the protests are peaceful - and seemingly becoming more so with each passing night.
That's why President Trump is becoming more and more desperate and irrational with each passing night. Social chaos is his most important political resource. It is his most urgent psychic need. It is the goal he seeks with all his police and military tactics.
The protesters seem to have figured him out. And they seem to have collectively decided: to deprive him of what he craves.
I returned home at about 945 pm and have been typing and fiddling with photos ever since. Maybe the situation has changed for the worse in the interim; maybe it'll change for the worse after tonight's curfew at 11 pm. Or maybe tomorrow.
But for now, even as Trump seizes the streets - he is losing the fight.
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@BeaFrum ... sorry @beatrice_frum now
