Suzette Smith

One officer expresses that a lot of officers working in the Justice Center every night have wanted to be out here doing this.

As we’re talking, a caravan of honking cars drives North on SW 4th and no one can hear me yelling through my mask. The officers aren’t wearing masks.

Obligatory lady listening to Chilish Gambino’s “This Is America” on a personal speaker at the protest.

A group of cops hustle past saying, “They seem to be erecting a structure.”

People start chanting “quit your job!” and “ACAB” etc.

The officers have put their clear face shields on.

Mostly one person is yelling in this tense moment. Another person yells, “Don’t talk to cops! Heckling cops is still talking to cops!”

“Hey, if anybody wants to yell at cops, there’s some over there,” a protestor shouts, in a sort of sing song manner.

Police stood in the intersection of SW Madison and 4th for a few minutes before moving south on 4th Ave. Then they climbed onto one of those vans cops hang off the side of (What are those called?) and drove North on 4th, waving like pageant queens.

Now that the police have seemingly left Chapman Square the tension is GONE. A couple immediately switches their focus to finding vegan burritos. Crowd is still super scattered but maybe 400 deep now.

Mic Crenshaw is next!

Crenshaw is projected through a generator-powered speaker while back-up hype men echo him on smaller bullhorns. I’m tempted to call them “office-sized” because my boss used to yell at me through a similar one in the Mercury offices.