Tonight at #BlackLivesMatter Plaza in DC, protesters mocked police putting on riot gear by saying "let's hydrate the pigs" and throwing water bottles at them.
Police responded with tear gas.
The first tear gas canister was right in the center of the crowd, which caused people closer to the cops to go toward the cops to avoid it.
Those lucky people, such as yours truly, had to run back through the tear gas to get away.
At least two different types of gas were used. Some of it was white, but for a moment, the entire area north of the White House was filled with yellow gas.
Protesters tried to use umbrellas to protect themselves from it, which was largely ineffective.
As most of the protesters retreated, one used a lacrosse stick to intercept a tear gas canister and throw it back toward the police.
As protesters retreated, police continued firing non-lethals into the crowd, about a half a block forward.
This was still on #BlackLivesMatter Plaza. The police fired munitions from the "R" in "Matte*r*" to the protesters who were on the "T" as in "Mat*t*er."
Police physically pushed forward using bikes. This moment was a bit of a mess and I was mostly focused on not getting arrested myself, but I believe some of the estimated 7-10 arrests occurred around this moment.
An individual was being arrested and two people tried to come to his aid and were maced.
Police continued firing into the crowd to push them northbound up 16th street, and ultimately held their ground at 16th and I.
Several protesters were injured, and police followed from a distance as they attempted first aid while continuing to retreat all the way to Dupont Circle, where they ultimately dispersed.
Here's my full HD video of the violence that broke out in front of the White House tonight during #dcprotests.
More video from tonight on the way.
I don't want to just focus on the later violence. Let's look at the march from the beginning.
Protesters with the "Abolish the police" march began at the White House, and marched through DC constantly shooting off fireworks.
The activists - led by a shield formation - spoke to outdoor diners at a relatively fancy restaurant called "Le Diplomat."
"Fire, fire, gentrifier!" they chanted at the staff and people eating, before talking about police violence.
"If we don't get no justice, you don't get no sleep!"
At about 11pm, the protesters marched through a few residential neighborhoods, chanting "fire fire, gentrifier!" and "Black people used to live here!"
They used fireworks on lawns and strobe lights to wake people up.
Here's my full video of the "Abolish the police" march that occurred in DC before the tear gas etc. incident at the White House.
Raw copies of all footage available to license. Excited that in fact, ABC7 licensed footage from earlier in this thread.
As a reminder, you can see the full context for every shot in this thread in the livestream:
VIDEO THREAD: Hundreds gathered including several members of Congress Tuesday outside the US Treasury to protest Elon Musk's access to a federal payment system.
Rep @MaxwellFrostFL said "an unelected billionaire and his team have been given full and unfettered access to our taxpayer money and our government."
"We're going to be the opposition!" he said to cheers. "We will fight, we will provide oversight, and we will win!"
All video in thread by @wallendupraw for @N2Sreports
2) Rep @JasmineForUS tells Musk and Trump "We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your asses, and we are gonna make sure you understand what democracy looks like!"
"Y'all about to find out!"
3) Senator @JeffMerkley asks "did anybody vote for a government of billionaires, for billionaires?"
VIDEO THREAD: White Nationalist group Patriot Front marched into Washington DC to hand out flyers and rally alongside the annual March for Life, their third time doing so in four years.
Thomas Rousseau, the group's founder, was among a few out of the approximately hundred who went unmasked.
He reiterated his group's belief to press that only people with "European" heritage qualify as American.
2) A man using a puppet to perform interviews criticized Patriot Front by calling them "law enforcement agents."
"If it's such a good cause, take off the mask!" he said to Rousseau through the puppet. "Take your mask off!"
3) Independent journalist @RichieMcGinniss asked Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau how he feels about Trump's FBI director nominee @Kash_Patel.
Rousseau said "I don't think Indians should be in charge of any departments of the United States, because he's a foreigner."
Pressed on why Patel is a "foreigner" despite being born here, Rousseau reiterated his platform (white nationalism) that only people with European ancestry qualify as American, regardless of birth or citizenship.
VIDEO THREAD: Activists dressed as contractors took down a banner outside the National Archives in Washington DC this morning and replaced it with their own demanding Biden publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) into the Constitution before leaving office.
The activists brought two additional banners which they had also planned to put up in the place of existing ones, but police arrived and confiscated them before the group could get those two up.
2) Kamala Lopez, founder and president of Equal Means Equal, explained that the ERA has already been ratified by 38 states, so she insists that Biden can be a "hero" by publishing it into the Constitution to be enforced.
Without doing this, she calls Biden a "zero."
3) Responding officers told the activists to sit down on the sidewalk and disputed whether their truck had been legally parked.
Additional activists arrived dressed as women from the science-fiction Dune series to advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment.
VIDEO THREAD: Craig Sicknick, brother of Brian Sicknick who died of a stroke the day after fighting on January 6, 2021, spoke at a rally demanding Congress refuse to certify Trump's electoral victory on January 6, 2025.
"I came here today to urge Congress to do its job and block Mr Trump from taking office just a few short weeks from now," Sicknick said.
"They can do this by upholding their oath of office and acting under Article III of the 13th Amendment which clearly states that no person who was involved in trying to overthrow our government can hold any office, state or federal."
2) @JessicaDenson07, a 2017 campaign staffer for Trump who ultimately sued him, is an organizer of this weekend's rallies demanding Congress block him from retaking the White House.
"Donald Trump is an adjudicated insurrectionist disqualified and the only mechanism to remove that disability is by a 2/3 vote of both houses. That's it. We don't need new legislation," she said.
"It only takes 1/5 of both houses of congress... to raise an objection and a simple majority to sustain it!"
She says there was "mixed" reception as she and others lobbies for this idea to members of Congress.
3) "Congresspeople, keep us safe, Hallelujah!" sang protesters demanding Congress block Trump from the White House on January 6.
"Do your duty to the states, Hallelujah!"
"Insurrectionists can't be president!" they chanted. "Call your representatives!"
Now: Anti-Trump protesters gather at the Lincoln Memorial to demand Congress block Trump’s January 6, 2025 certification for being an “Insurrectionist” over his actions on January 6, 2021.
“Insurrectionists can’t be president, call your representatives!” chant protesters on the National Mall.
BIG THREAD: Today, I attended the preliminary/detention hearing for Brad Spafford, charged with possessing a short barrel rifle.
Federal prosecutors say more charges are coming and that his arrest yielded the "largest seizure of finished explosive devices in FBI history."
2) I first reported the case December 19 following Spafford's arrest by the feds, who used a Confidential Human Source (CHS) for two years to get the warrant to arrest Spafford for the alleged Short Barrel Rifle.
3) Rachelann Cardwell, a Suffolk Detective assigned as an officer on the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, took the stand today.
She testified that the investigation into Spafford began in January 2023 when the CHS reported Spafford disfiguring his hand with a homemade explosive.