Right Wing Counter Protesters Show Up
It was a pretty basic protest march that ended up at the District 6 Denver Police Station. Lots of yelling at cops. Lots of angry expression. And a visit from a local militia in counter protest.
(Below) Here is the moment the right wing counter protesters or whoever they were walked up behind the protest. The police were moving forward at exactly the same moment - almost as if it were coordinated - but when I watch this I think that is less likely. All I can say is that the timing worked well for the 3%ers. The got to stand up to antifa and antifa flipped them off and then walked back to their cars.
Before and after many of the actions throughout September, there were people shadowing the protest. Not police, but Proud Boy types.
Contact between the groups was not like you might find in Portland, but it's pretty clear that if there are continued protests in Denver, more contact is going to happen. When the police rolled in between the 3%ers and the protest, the first words out of my mouth were "that looks coordinated." But now I'm not so sure. Could have been that police "heard" the group was on the move and stepped in to keep the peace, which is what actually happened.
See police below between the groups. Both sides being careful to keep a distance.
Key Takeaway:
What I mean by "its getting dark out there" is the sinister presence of these militia types. While they were maybe present in June at the big George Floyd - the crowds were too big for them to matter or stand out. But when there are only 150-200 protesters, its a more balanced showdown and is a sinister development. Unsettling for sure. More protests will mean more contact. Most definitely unsettling.
Here's a close up of the police before they decided to call an end to the evening. By this time, everyone was used to the drill at the police station. The local resident and businesses were definitely sick of it. It has provided Romantix, the porn shop, more walk-in traffic than usual. (or so I'm told). That's Romanitx in the left of the video.
This clip (below) was from earlier in the evening but shows how the District 6 protests usually went. It's like a showdown through a chain link fence where after allowing the crowd to state their grievance, the police start with tear gas and pepper balls, then they roll out the Bear Cats and some other vehicles. And slowly they push the crowd until it breaks up. This one has some POV from the protest side.
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