An MRCTV cameraman and myself journeyed into Washington D.C. on Tuesday to check out what was going on in the aftermath of the conflict between people who call themselves protesters and Metro Police. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of swearing and a lot of self-righteous preaching from protesters to the line of officers who were there to block protesters from disrupting the city's sanitation crews cleaning up after the previous evening's interactions.
We saw a young man walking up and down the police line the entire time we were there - which was about two hours - and berate officers for a multitude of reasons he had come up with. There were also people pleading with police to look upon and question their own profession, and asked officers what they're going to tell their kids about doing their jobs.
I'd say that there were, at most, about 30 to 50 actual protesters who were at the police line in front of the White House on Tuesday. The rest of the relatively small crowd were comprised of onlookers just seeing what was happening and media just looking for the right soundbite for their purposes. We legitimately just wanted to talk to people and have conversations about their take on the events that have unfolded in the last month after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.
I will say that if anyone showed poise and restraint in the situation just outside Lafayette Park it was police who didn't respond to the protesters, even if some screamed and shouted right in the officers faces. We weren't able to capture it on camera, but two protesters could be heard trying to shame and demean a female Muslim officer wearing a hijab, telling her that Allah was ashamed of her and that she should go back to her country and get blown up.
The more active protesters had no time to pursue for any show of unity or peace between themselves and police. All the ills that they supposedly have faced was blamed on and directed at officers.
On a lighter note, we did witness a man going around placing small American flags and flowers on barricades in order to show his support for both police officers and peaceful protesters.
There is nothing wrong with protesting. It's your right as an American. But as I noted in a commentary video I did a couple of weeks ago, some people just want to watch the world burn.
In case you were wondering, there was Black Lives Matter merchandise tents lining portions of the streets. They were selling everything from Black Lives Matter t-shirts to "Dump Trump" buttons.
As with most protests that we've covered over the years, there wasn't much accomplished by protesters who were taking out their frustrations - justified or not - on the police. It's funny that everyone is racist to them, but them. Cops are racist. President Donald Trump is racist. The GOP is racist. But that argument kind of falls flat when you take into account which politicians are in charge of the cities and states where most of the unrest has taken place.
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