Cops stage fake kettle, harass They/Them FTP(Fuck the Police) march

Video of cops riding recklessly close, the fake kettle, a cop crashing his bike, and more 2 min 27 sec

They/Them's weekly "FTP" march on Feb 6 ran into a police response that may have been capable of stopping the Jan 6 Fascist assault on the Capitol. On 18th between S and T streets, cops set bike lines trapping the protest. The north line moved out when protesters advanced towards it, but made it plain one command from a whiteshirt and protesters would have had to fight their way out.

Later in the march, a police commander was overheard telling bike cops to "push through" on the sidewalk. An Indymedia videographer went around the dangerous "kettle-friendly" street this took place on, and easily passed through or around head-on traffic that stopped police cars also trying to go around the protest cold.No kettle resulted on that block, and the march made it safely to 14th st, turning north to head to their final dispersal point.

In other incidents, bike cops buzzed the protest dangerously close, and at the very start they followed so close as to risk striking protesters's legs with their front wheels. An incident where a bike cop fell over while descending a grassy hill to follow one of the march's many twists and turns showed the cops lacked the bike-handling skills to get away with riding in such ways. On top of all else, cops engaged in what some Twitter posters called "hand to hand combat," in one case swatting down a flashlight when activists tried to literally shine some light on police misconduct with flashlights.