Within hours of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict announcement, as small group of local activists gathered at the state capitol. Numbering no more than 100 a few comments were made by those that wanted including some members of the black bloc crew shouting about the larger group harboring rapists among them.
It was unclear who or what these people were referring to, sounds like it was something other than Tay Anderson. The loudest individual was driven to disruption at one point.
The guy calling the organizers apologists for rapists is clearly part of the protests, but clearly one who thinks there are some wrong things going on. He took off quick and we were not able to talk with him. The scuffle was clearly among friends and it looked like an outburst of frustration more than anything.
Given the size of the group, it did not appear that Denver had much of a reaction to the Rittenhouse verdict. This was not going to be some Rodney King reaction.
The group then set off on a march through downtown from the Capitol down 16th Street Mall.....across Larimer Square and then back up the mall. There were plenty of people in black bloc but like so many times before, many of them did not appear to be aggressive. More cos-playish in some regards - which is not an uncommon feeling one can get from all sides at these street actions (including the actual police).
They walked the 16th street mall chanting - "Fuck Kyle Rittenhouse" and "Fuck Trump, Fuck Biden too, they don't give a fuck about you" (That last one really came off as outdated - like a band playing an old hit that wasn't really good anymore).
The police - DPD and State Patrol were present - providing as usual, traffic control to keep marchers safe and of course they were shadowed by tactical units ready to deploy were any problems to occur. The Denver Street did not see any obvious militia groups following the small and mostly well behaved group. There were lots of chants, a few fire works and some of the normal stupidity but we did not see any property destruction or over harassment of the citizentry who were out downtown that evening.
Some people were joking about who was more annoying on the marchers of their chants or this guy and his friend camped out in front of the Christmas tree.
"Lot's of people preaching for a Friday night one passerby shouted."
The people just want to left alone.
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