An Account and Commentary: Out Past Curfew
(5/31/2020)
Omaha, Nebraska tonight was a ghost town anywhere West of the Douglas County Courthouse with the exception of a lone Channel 3 News crew at an empty intersection at 72nd and Dodge. Police had announced a curfew, state of emergency, and had major roads into the downtown and Old Market area closed early in the afternoon. But despite the curfew, the blocks immediately surrounding the businesses of the killer of 22 year old James Scurlock remained occupied by heavily militarized police enjoying the backing of the National Guard, standing opposed to peaceful protestors.
It’s been an emotional 24 hours. Scurlock’s father, community activist Preston Love Jr. and others spoke at a 6 pm gathering at the Malcolm X Foundation Visitor’s Center where a stop to vandalism was layered with grief and sorrow at the loss of yet another young man to the hatred and abuse that has, in a way, always been systemic in our society.
The situation downtown began to unfold shortly before 8. It was clear that people were simply waiting on the fringes of lockdown for an opportunity to organize. The scene, as it grew, resembled a block party more than a protest. All that was missing was a sense of safety and some grub. A continuous line of cars circled the area between Jackson street and Leavenworth, they stopped in the intersection of Jones and 13th for a defiant burnout before filing back in for another go-around. There were obscenities and chants coming from the protestors; who were waving flags and t-shirts, blaring music and dancing. Every once in a while a water bottle would be hurled at the direction of police, which is only notable in that the police were an entire city block away and the bottle would land without making it even half the distance to it’s target. An announcement of the curfew followed by intermittent tear gas canisters being shot into the crowd came from the police, which easily made it the length of the block and landed right on target: the nonviolent protestors.
Due to the curfew and the closures, the crowd was small compared to Saturday nights protests, likely limited to people who could walk from their homes, or people resourceful enough to get around the barriers barring off the area. In my immediate vicinity an also-peaceful contingency of medics, media, and people carrying milk and water for the people being tear gassed could be seen, and heard.
The crowd was different. There was an energy amiss that was hard to pinpoint, but easy to understand for someone who has seen what the Omaha police had done to what could have been a unifying moment for this city. It’s not all their fault, I will note, but firing pepper bullets, rubber bullets, and tear gas onto peacefully protesting citizens does exactly nothing to ease the tension and being arrested is hardly the responsible answer to accusations of brutality. It’s a situation made no better by the ruthless manhandling performed by arresting police officers the night before. It is very likely that the police behavior on Saturday at 72nd and Dodge precipitated the anger that caused serious damage and vandalism throughout the downtown area.
By 9:00 pm Sunday, the protestors had set up a barricade made out of construction barriers from the construction site on the block between 12th and 13th on Jones Street and a dumpster from a residential building West of 13th street. By 9:30 the police had begun to surround the adjacent blocks to protestors. Small groups of police were reported to be sneaking up behind the crowds and letting tear gas loose. Now that the crowd was centralized at the corner of 13th and Jones, the police forces reverted to the tactic used the night before, to catch the crowd in a trap. Many of the people on site had been at the protest the previous night and had seen or been a victim of the tactic. Word came through the grapevine and the movement was swift, but police had closed off enough of the area that the ensuing migration of the crowd pushed them West, at which time the still-peaceful protestors ultimately dispersed.
It almost sounds like a platitude, but the simplicity of merely NOT attacking peaceful protestors seems to fall of deaf ears. While telling anyone who will listen that we do not condone violence, that we only support peaceful protests in the midst of very visible use of violence on said peaceful people it’s a wonder things always seem to get violent.
So what is the end if this is the means?
There is a precedent, and then there is an example. The precedent is continued clashes with police forever and ever. The precedent is for the LA or NYPD to run over protestors with their cruisers and receive support from their mayor. The precedent is race riots, and they have had a long and bloody history in the United States going back centuries.
Fortunately, an example can be found throughout the country, among our fellow citizens. As far away as Camden County, New Jersey and Flint, Michigan and as close as Bellevue. Police departments with any semblance of tact decided to concede the streets, put down their batons, switch off their machines of war — the very tools that embody the militarization of police — and march with the protestors. The Genesee County Sheriff, Chris Swanson said of his department, “the only reason we’re here is the make sure you got a voice,” adding, “I want to make this a parade, not a protest,” before actually joining the march. Meanwhile, in what ABC called “one of New Jersey’s largest and most violent cities,” police joined the march as well. “Yesterday was another example of our ongoing engagement, and a very real dialogue, that we are having with residents throughout Camden that has made our agency part of the fabric of this city,” said Camden County Police Chief Joe Wysocki via The Associated Press.
Throughout the country you can clearly see genuine, honest protestors. There are many videos of protestors reprimanding rioters, saying things like “this is not what we want.” The same rioters have been accused of being undercover police trying to incite violence. There are many more protestors that have been seen standing around police officers who have been separated from their militarized units for protection, what I imagine would be quite awkward for the officer, but shows the well-intentions of protestors.
“But those few bad apples.”
What a great analogy for living in a society. Perhaps removing the conditions for chaos would go a long way to quell unrest, and in many places mentioned above that is already being done. Address the conditions that led to nationwide protests rather than exacerbating them, throwing our cities and communities into turmoil and providing not only the environment but the incentive as well, for riot behavior. Not to mention the vandals and rioters in several instances have been accused of being out-of-state white supremacists and undercover police. Just know that the honest, the genuine, and the caring — as far as I have seen both personally and nationwide — are the majority. Together, perhaps we can make race riots a thing of the past, and step into a new era; but it is not the citizens that need to capitulate. This is no mob, this has purpose as well as poise.
“We are a part of the community,” a Bellevue police officer explains on Channel 3 Nightly News after explaining that they are “standing together for peace” with the protestors. The protest organizer in Bellevue cited the “maturity and respect” of the police officers, while a short distance up-river protestors pick up and throw back tear gas canisters launched on them under a state of emergency and the first curfew in this city in over 30 years.
We can choose peace.
