Each night it seemed like thousands gathered. On some nights there were separate large marches on different paths, led by different people. They all ended at the capitol and back out they would go. Some would join the group and others would fall out at the capital.
The crowd was pretty broad and fairly diverse in terms of age. Less so in terms of ethnicity but you might say the crowd was far more diverse that a typical Denver crowd. It was a positive crowd with positive energy driven by a universal outrage. The much cited moral tipping point had been reached with many of these protesters.
Because the crowds were quite large in this period, the hardcore protestors were less evident, though by no means invisible.
The neighborhood came out overwhelmingly in support of the marches. I'm sure a few people were put off by it, but that would definitely have been the exception. Block after block in Capitol Hill saw residents come out in support. And to be clear, this wasn't support for looting or destruction, it was support for police reform. That's what people were talking about and that's what the marches were demanding.
The first weekend saw a large and angry crowd clash with police repeatedly across the State Capitol, Veterans Park and Civic Center park as well as into the surrounding areas. There was lots of chanting and speeches and outrage. NWA's "Fuck tha Police" boomed incessantly from cars stereos from all around. The initial appeal was quite understandable and a common conversation with people of all backgrounds was, "we should be able to have police treat everyone fairly and without unnecessary violence" - "we know it exists and we believe it can be fixed, if we all decide to fix it." Not direct quotes but sentiments you could easily find. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying however, there were most definitely plenty of people with a very diverse set of ideas - some quite extreme - but they all shared common cause with the larger crowd on the topic of police brutality and systemic racism.
Saturday night of the first weekend saw an 8pm curfew declared in Denver and as that hour approached you could feel that both sides were gearing up for a fight. The previous night saw things get pretty out of control in the Civic Center area. There were plenty of windows broken by protesters.
The 8pm curfew brought the howling that had been happening each night during the early days of the pandemic shutdown.
There was talk of "white anarchists" taking advantage of the situation and hijacking the message of the George Floyd protest. There was also fear that right wing agitators were part of the crowd. I'm sure there was a small element of something like this (and police did confiscate weapons from alleged right wing extremists), but I would characterize it much more along the lines of those white anarchists were part of a larger crowd of people, all of whom, were there to voice outrage over the George Floyd killing. The crowd was diverse and possibly only unified on one topic: police brutality and outrage over George Floyd.
I saw plenty of window breaking and this was done by all sorts of people, not just a bunch of white kids. Not by a long shot. I would also add the lots of the window breaking was done in response to a police action - pepper balls, tear gas or maybe an arrest.
I would also point out to people who saw and misunderstood the presence of boarded up windows to indicate those windows were all broken. Most of the boards were there to protect windows from being broken, not to cover broken windows.
Police fire flash bang grandes at protesters at the State Capitol.
Creating havoc as they go, protesters were pushed up 15th Street from Colfax. The crowd dissipated shortly after this.
The Sunday of the first weekend - the crowd was lower energy than Saturday night. You could smell weed everywhere and it had more of a chill feeling from the crowd. Nothing like Saturday.
The march headed east on Colfax and was met by a line of riot police in the middle of Colfax at Clarkson. The march was turning right a block earlier but before much time passed police launched tear gas and pepper balls. I was not in the front so I don't know what happened, if anything, that might have triggered the police or if they just opened up. Once it happened though the sleepy crowd quickly got angry.
I believe that was the night windows at Cheba Hut were broken. (Seriously? Cheba Hut?)
Cheba Hut might be a victim of wrong place since the District 6 Police Station is across the street and the corner of Colfax and Washington would see many more nights of protest.
The Monday after the first weekend, the Denver Chief of Police, Paul Pazen, met with some of the march organizers and walked with them to pay respect for the demands of the movement. I'm pretty sure some commitments were made on some policy changes, which you can certainly look up. Many called it a photo op.
The immediate impact of the Police 'photo op' on the street was twofold:
1) police backed off their aggressive approach which quite obviously provoked the crowd on Sunday night and on that Monday evening they were back in their blues in regular cruisers and motorcycles, providing escort to the marchers, - no riot gear, no armored cars, no SWAT teams on SUVs.....no Jeffco or Aurora cops in support.
2) the protest movement began to form internal divisions between the competing groups out front. After just a few days, it looks like groups with divergent agendas seemed to be at odds over a number of issues around leadership. The overwhelming majority of people marching we not affiliated with any of these leadership groups. They were they on a specific issue, not as supporters of any specific group. And I would add, the organized groups were also primarily there to protest police.
The crowd walks by Wax Trax in Capitol Hill on a Sunday night.
Reaction to some organizers walking hand in hand with the Chief of Police.
There were lots of spontaneous artistic expressions. These guys just pulled up in front of the Capitol with a generator and a big projector.
Vigil at Cheeseman Park.
Walking through Lodo.
While there was an effort to back off the marchers and not provoke them, DPD frequently provided reminders to the crowd that things like going onto the highway we not going to be tolerated. But by the middle of the second week, the police were mostly in the background and provided escort and traffic management.
Marchers walk on 6th avenue.
PSL organizes a visit to the District Attorney Beth McCann's neighborhood.
Restaurant workers take a moment from their shift to support the marchers on 6th avenue.
Lot's of mini shrines could be found in the parks near Civic Center at the time.
A march passes Larimer Square on 15th Street.
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