Observations from last night's West Des Moines Black Lives Matter protest
The group met at Valley Junction, and marched for about 2 miles in a loop around town. The gathering and march were in honor of Breonna Taylor’s birthday — she would have turned 27 yesterday.
Before marching there were speakers who gave us instructions:
We were not to hurt any people or property
We were to remain calm unless provoked
If we saw a dangerous situation ahead (shooting, tear gasing, etc.), we were not to run towards it, or to run away. We were to turn, give the signal for retreat, and calmly walk away
If witnessed anyone being arrested, we were to do everything in our power to “de-arrest them”. It was not clear how exactly we were supposed to go about doing that
“Friends don’t let friends get arrested”
One speaker expressed irritation at being asked by the media if he advocated for peaceful protests. He stressed that he doesn’t feel that we can afford to be “peaceful” if we want to make a change, be we most certainly should be “non-violent”.
By my estimate the crowd was roughly 90% non-black and roughly 90% under thirty years old. On the order of 1000 people total.
Most people wore masks. Though were instructed to march “shoulder-to-shoulder” the typical distance between people while marching was probably around 3 feet.
The march was lead by people on bikes who cleared traffic out of the way, and a van with the back doors open blasting music and occasionally amplifying speakers hyping us up. Biggest hits music-wise based on crowd reaction were “Rock with You” by Michael Jackson and “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion.
At ~ 25% of the houses we walked past, people stepped outside to watch us. Of those who stepped out, around 75% were taking videos, and around 40% expressed support in some way (cheering, raising fists, giving thumbs up). Passing cars occasionally honked or raised fists to show support as well.
The most commonly chanted phrases were “Say his name — George Floyd!”, “ Say her name — Breonna Taylor!”, “Black lives matter!”, “Hey hey! Ho ho! These racist cops have got to go!”, “No justice — no peace!”, and “Hands up — don’t shoot!”
Halfway through the march we took a break, and the organizers gave some heartfelt speeches from the back of the van:
“I expect nothing from the police; I expect everything from all of you. I expect nothing from our politicians; I expect everything from all of you.”
We were reminded that this day we wanted in particular to honor black women. All black women were asked to stand up and we gave a round of applause (for what it’s worth, the leaders of the march seemed to be exclusively male)
We were told that while we should feel a sense of purpose and solidarity at this march, we should also be having fun
We saw police a few times during the march, but there were no interactions. Police stayed about a block away, seemingly just keeping an eye on things.
In accordance with the organizers’ wishes, the protest was peaceful, purposeful, and fun.
