Early update for July 20, 2025
Added 2025-07-19 03:55:01 +0000 UTCback to work
Comments
The first “real” protest I went to (one where the cops did not like what we were doing) I remember coming back home with yellow and black hands, face, and clothes because of the tear gas. We passed by rows of swat officers stationed a few blocks down the street just out of view of everyone at the protest (which got called a riot so they could use the tear gas on us), some plain clothes guys with guns (who were white and the cops didn’t stop), and the remains of burning police cars (which I do not remember any of us setting fire to and likely were set on fire by the cops themselves) as we walked away from the melee. It was the George Floyd uprisings in 2020 and when I got into work on Monday I remember feeling a lot like Asma is here. Harrowed and offset by what I had seen, having to pretend like what I was just a part of was normal and I’m not supposed to be shaken or rattled by anything that the state did to prevent us from saying “maybe the police shouldn’t kill people or use violence” while some of my coworkers made jokes about the protesters and that we didn’t know what we were doing. All this to say, this is a good representation of what that first protest feels like, good job Willis
Justin Wells
2025-07-19 11:31:28 +0000 UTC"back to work" ... yeah, I feel this all too well.
Albi
2025-07-19 11:21:12 +0000 UTC
