No Justice No Pride lockdowns kick MPD, Wells Fargo out of their parade slots

Update June 11: Twitter report of Pride board member calling NJNP "terrorists," overheard saying "we don't negotiate with terrorists."

Update June 11: Twitter report of white cisgendered males throwing bottles (unknown material) and yelling racial slurs at NJNP, also report of post-Pride "fight" at Dupont Circle. Same incident or were there two?

On the 10th of June, No Justice No Pride first marched over the Capitol Pride route, then used hard lockdowns to block the MPD, Lockheed-Martin, and Wells Fargo contingents. The rest of the parade rerouted around the blocked streets. MPD's contingent withdrew, unknown if they managed to get back into the parade. Wells Fargo got stuck, had to rejoin the parade at the back by the garbage trucks. Lockheed-Martin's contingent was also blocked. No reports of arrests, even at the blockades.

As the MPD contingent approached the blockade zone, only a few obvious participants were visible in the crowd of "spectators." A couple contingents ahead of them was DC Black Pride, blockaders could have marched in with them, then blended with spectators, or just been dispersed throughout the dense crowd until the moment arrived. MPD seemed to have overshot the blockade site, then suddenly a surprisingly large number of people swarmed into the street ahead of them. Cables were strung across the streets and protesters locked into them.

Capitol Pride sent in negotiators, and the parade rerouted around the blocked block. Eventually, the three car MPD contingent withdrew, and went south on 16th st while the parade appeared to be going north on 16th st. Later the parade had rerouted south on 16th st again. MPD appeared to have bugged out, but it's possible they rejoined the parade elsewhere.

The next blockade was of Lockheed-Martin, again the parade was rerouted, unknown at this writing what the Lockheed-Martin contingent did. A defense contractor contingent was later seen moving in the parade with two floats of military aircraft well south of most parade contingents. This was later confirmed by the aircraft models to be Lockheed-Martin's contingent.

The final blockade to deploy was the Indigneous focussed blockade of Wells Fargo, infamous for years at Pride for their funding of private prisons and now reviled in Indigenous communities for funding both the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. Wells Fargo's float was trapped between the rerouted parade and the blockade, and had to wait for the end of the parade to rejoin just ahead of the garbage trucks.

Finally, the Wells Fargo blockade unlocked, and everyone marched off, to chants such as "Stonewall was a Trans Riot."

Video of No Justice No Pride blockade against MPD plus footage of pre-blockade march over the Pride route and Wells Fargo blockade

The cable blockade stopping MPD's contingent in Capitol Pride

MPD's contingent blocked!

No Justice No Pride photo of Wells Fargo lockdown

No Justice No Pride marches over the Capitol Pride route prior to stepoff

Drew Ambrogi photo of Lockheed Martin blockade

Lockheed Martin employee gives finger to NJNP: Drew Ambrogi photo

Lacy's photo of Wells Fargo blockade. Chant at that moment was "Hey hey @WellsFargo, how many queers did you kill today?"

Poster seen near Dupont Circle two days later

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