ABOUT LAST NIGHT. @DCPoliceDept, which claimed to be offended and betrayed by the idea that it was in any way in need of reform, used pepper spray, rubber bullets, and flash bangs on protesters in order to take down mutual aid stations and tents provided for homeless residents.
There is no blaming everything on federal agencies this time. While US Park Police were also involved this was @MayorBowser's @DCPoliceDept leading the way. The police department she wants to give $19 million on top of the $560 million it already has. #DefundMPD #DefundDCPolice
Let's review what they did to DC residents... We often try to avoid tweeting out re-traumatizing images and videos of violence but we think it's important this time for people to know exactly what happened here on "Black Lives Matter Plaza."
They shot pepper balls directly into crowds
This one... we don't even know how to describe
They attacked disabled people
From our organizer @nknapper who arrived just after pepper spray was first deployed: "The air was still heavy with it and I found it immediately hard to breathe as I walked along the letters Black Lives Matter...."
"As I walked people were washing out their eyes and one woman kept crying out that her skin felt like it was going to burn off. I walked through a sea of people who were either begging for help and asking for medics or screaming at the mix of Park Police and MPD in riot gear."
"Right before I arrived folks attempted to take down the Andrew Jackson statue and when I asked one young Black person about it, they said, 'The symbolism of the police violently protecting the statue of one of history's most notorious slave owners is just perfect.'"
"Then police launched at least one flash bomb. I was disoriented but made the decision to leave in case things escalated. Shortly after I left, according to folks on the ground, the protesters were attacked en mass once again with pepper spray."
This a space @MayorBowser named BLM Plaza, a space protesters and activists were INVITED into. Instead of receiving support for Black lives DC residents were attacked by MPD officers as they covered their bodycams. At this point how can anyone ask why we demand that DC #DefundMPD
But where is our Council? Now that their "reforms" have so clearly failed? @CMCharlesAllen @marycheh @VinceGrayWard7 @AnitaBondsDC @cmdgrosso @tweetelissa @CM_McDuffie @CMRobertWhiteDC @ChmnMendelson @BrianneKNadeau @CMBrandonTodd @trayonwhite
If they won't act on their own we will make them act. We join the #DefundMPD campaign in demanding the DC Council #DefundDCPolice #BlackLivesMatter #AbolishThePolice
defundmpd.org
defundmpd.org
