On July 3 - PSL - the Party for Socialism and Liberation - organized a march for Elijah McClain. Protesters were to meet at the site where Elijah McClain was killed by the police and march to the Aurora Police Headquarter at the Aurora Municipal Center campus. I had been on a few other marches that were organized by PSL. They alway seemed to be highly organized and they were trained in how to do a protest march, including a strong super aggressive left wing political message.
A little background....
In the immediate week or so after the first protests the entire movement was driven by the outrage of George Floyd and that dominated everything from chants to street art. As time passed, the most organized groups stepped up and led marches. PSL is one of those. I expect a hard leftist message from PSL. I'm definitely not a socialist and certainly not a revolutionary socialist so the "PSL dude" as I called him in my mind - his ability to go on and on with these quasi-Castro length speeches most definitely wore on people. It did on me and it wasn't too long after their ascendancy that the peak crowds began to taper off. Not saying it was PSL, but as Colorado moved quickly at the State level to pass some measures that acknowledged the issue of police violence, crowds wained.
Regardless of who organized the march - the participants were very diverse in their political views. No one cared that PSL were socialists with a socialist agenda. Most people shared common cause on the issue of police brutality and that is when the movement's voice was the loudest.
When the Elijah McClain story resurfaced from Aurora, action went East. First was a massive march that had very little problem stopping all traffic on 225. I did not get to this one. It was thousands of people. Protests continued and after the debacle where police in riot gear to broke up a violin concerto for Elijah McClain, they were anxious to maintain control.
APD was determined not to look like fools again. They projected a strong reaction to any marchers who stayed beyond their time of welcome at the Municipal Center.
PSL on the other hand was playing them. I parked over by the Muni center (in my secret and safe spot for all future protests) and took an Uber to the start of the march and caught it just as it was starting to move.
That's 'PSL dude' leading the march. (I think his name is Joel). He is able to yell very loudly and for very extended periods.
After about 1 minute it was clear this march was not going to where I had parked my car. We crossed under 225 and headed north from 6th towards, you guessed it, the Aurora Police District 1 Station at the edge of the Anschutz Medical Campus on Montview a block west of 225.
PSL, on their ever present truck and in their red shirts announced that they were surrounding the building and were not leaving until after the three officers were fired.
I don't actually think there were many people in the building. Maybe a handful. The parking lot was full so all the cops out on patrol were not able to come back. I am pretty sure they could have come out had they tried. The guy on the loudspeaker was going on and on about not leaving until the cops were fired, but the people in the crowd were more chill.
But the cops did go into lockdown and geared up. I walked around the perimeter and there were indeed people all around the fend of the property. Not that many along the north fence but you would not be wrong to say it was "encircled."
The mostly white and mild mannered crowd chanted "quit your job."
This dude and his buddy spent some time taking in the view. No more threatening than this though.
The evening carried on.....
PSL dude on the way to police station.
The crowd shortly after arrival.
More crowd.
Some protesters attempted to build barricades on the perimeter. This was a questionable tactic in my opinion. There were 4 of them but with no way of know which direction the police would from from, it seemed to me to create a safety hazard as protesters would retreat. It was silly.
Lot's of food was brought to support the protest. This was just the pizzas. There was much more food than this.
Note the antifa flag on the right side - at a PSL march. These aren't competing groups but actually show that the notion of antifa is just that - a notion. Some of these guys are pretty geeked out on the whole anti-fascism thing - I overheard two guys talking about the form of another flag from the Spanish civil war. Definitely geeking out.
As the evening progressed, a fair amount of people left, just as others began to arrive. I most definitely saw people arriving past 10:30 pm, some of them bringing things like helmets and shields. It's worth noting that while things like helmets and shields were certainly present, they were less prominent at this time because there were so many people at the early protest marches. So seeing new equipment arriving after dark stood out to me.
Some people in the crowd began to build barricades with items collected from the street. These were mostly silly efforts that at most would have cause the police to walk about 40 feet around the barricades. More likely, they would have ensnared protesters fleeing the inevitable police line that was forming a few blocks away.
A pretty sizable gathering of police were a few minutes down the road. I think because it was involving a police station and one of those had been burned down in Minneapolis, they called for pretty heavy response. It was a multi agency presence as well - I saw Denver and Jefferson County Bear Cats in the staging area along with lots of police in riot gear. Well over 100 officers.
An inside view of the "barricades."
At one point, there was a conference call between the acting the Aurora Chief of Police and one of the PSL leaders in which the police made it clear there would be no terminations of the officers involved. The woman from PSL eventually hung up on the Chief.
Sometime after midnight, the organizers announced that they were going home. Some in the crowd supported this and others were complaining that PSL was yet again backing down. I actually think it was smart of them. It was clear that a major police presence was forming down the road. The crowd was dwindling to just the night crew and it started to seem pointless (again).
Most people left after that, including me. The video of the police arriving later in the morning - around 3am - made it clear there were very few people left at that point. PSL had gone home hours before.
Update: In late September, 6 of the organizers of this event were charged with some pretty serious crimes including kidnapping (for the people who were inside the building). The cases are still working through the legal system. None of the three officers who were involved with the bungled stop that killed Elijah McClain have been charged with any wrongdoing as of this update.
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