Multiple Protests take the streets for the 17th Saturday in a row

Video: Refuse Fascism's protest against Trump and his expected efforts to remain in office regardless of any vote 1 min 21 sec

At least four separate protests took to the streets in DC on Sat, Sep 12. There was a march for Black women, the evening Fuck the Police march, Refuse Fascism's 2nd weekly protest of Trump's expected refual to leave office, and a protest at the home of Laura Zeilinger (DC Dept of Housing Services director) over housing issues affecting Black DC residents

The Refuse Fascism protest was the second Saturday in a row of that organization's protests looking forward to the upcoming mess in November, when Trump is expected to attempt to stop the counting of votes while in-person votes from GOP supporters have him ahead and mail-in votes have yet to be counted. Refuse Fascism's supporters are of course among a great many people who fear that a second Trump term will lead to much worse government behavior than in the past. There are also widespread fears of "massive civil unrest" or even outright civil war(!) stemming from a disputed election. The Transition Integrity Project included a wide range of government officials, campaign officials, and national security "experts" and wargamed a variety of election scenarios. All of them except a Biden landslide ended in huge street protests where both Trumpers and progressive duke it out in the streets and massive civil unrest follows. The scenarios never reached Jan 20 because they all had Congress deadlocking on Jan 6, with the House certifying Biden and the Senate Trump as "winners."

The afternoon march from Malcolm X Park was reportedly even more confrontational than the later Fuck the Police march(usually the reverse is true), and "tensions rising" with police was reported several times on Twitter feeds. As in previous weeks this march included a blockade of Key Bridge between Georgetown and Rosslyn, and calling out rich restaurant patrons spreading covid and capitalism in Georgetown. Relatively few videos were published on Twitter due to security concerns. This is not the kind of situation where protesters can have any confidence that police and fascists are not getting ideas about "later," given the events of the past week, three kettles in less than a month, and charges from kettles being dropped only to be replaced with new charges after Mayor Bowser screamed about them being dropped. While photos and video are great for expanding the reach of a protest (and in this case showing yuppies why they should not move to DC) this can become rather unappetizing when it comes with a side order of raids and warrants.

The evening Fuck the Police march, while plenty confrontational managed to avoid any arrests or major fights, even while returning to the exact venue where a rich white diner spit on a protester (in the middle of a pandemic!) back on August 22.The march waited at Dupont Circle for the Black Women's march folks to join them, then set out to protest at upscale dining areas and luxury apartments in neighborhoods where Black and Latinx families used to live but now cannot afford to.

The Fuck the Police march asked that photographs and video not be taken, as police have been scouring social media posts for photos to use as the bases of criminal charges, warrants, and raids. Several times upscale restaurant patrons started filming those protesting their wealth and luxury, no doubt happy as clams that police would take advantage of their footage. Each time they did, protesters raised umbrellas as shields to block the offending cameras. Sympathetic bystanders asked not to record for the same safety reasons usually shut off their cameras immediately. Meanwhile cameras were still present in the march, ready to deploy instantly if police opened fire with another fusillade of flashbangs, stingballs, rubber bullets, and tear gas.

The "long hot summer" of 2020 has segued into a spicy fall of increasingly hot protests. Tear gas, rubber bullets, and grenades (flashbang or stingball) used to be rare and now they are increasingly common. It used to be unheard of for protesters to hold rich white "New Washingtonians" and similar yuppies all over the continent accountable. Now it happens all over Turtle Island.The rich who fund the police are finding they can't buy enough cops to keep the rage of those they make homeless with rising rents from giving them indigestion at their expensive dinners.

If the fighting and kettles of J20 too place today J20 would be considered only a moderately spicy day. Rich gentrifying yuppies who are targetted by protests and the upscale businesses they patronize are starting to reconsider living in DC. This can drive gentrification backwards if protesters can maintain the pressure long enough. Over time, that will force down rents. The elephant in the room however is the upcoming election. When that blows, progressive protesters, their fascist/MAGAT enemies, and the cops all will take the field with 5 months of what amount to weekly (in some places daily) training under real-world conditions.