Skip to main content
Read page text
page 34
feet back, and I think they said there were a thousand people there, so most people didn’t actually hear what was being said. Then we walked through downtown on Central Street and Main Street, and Bangor PD shut off the streets—police were there. They closed down the roads so that we could walk through downtown. And then we met at another park right by the Bangor Police Department, where there was a choir singing. And there was a moment of silence and then there was one point where everyone white in the crowd took a knee. For once in Bangor, I saw—you could clearly identify, here are all the people of color, so that was kind of unique and powerful. TRISTAN TAYLOR, 37 DETROIT On May 29th, I think it was a Friday, it was the first rally. I almost didn’t go because this was when I was technically cleared to get out of the quarantine, but I was wanting to be extra cautious and someone was like, “Well, as long as you have your mask and stuff, you’re good, and besides you’re out of the range. So we know that you’re no longer contagious.” And it was funny because we wrote a statement—Detroit Renter City—that we wanted to pass out. And we were saying to ourselves, “Well, how many copies do you think we need?” And I’m like, you know, “A couple of hundred would be good,” because I was like, I don’t want to make more than what we need, because who knows how many people are going to come out. So we get there, and it’s like a fucking sea of people. Thousands. Well, clearly, we needed more than just a couple of hundred. And I remember going to Kinko’s and making the copies and seeing a friend, a longtime organizer who also does stuff around housing justice, making copies as well. At a certain point, the rally begins. The rally, by the way, begins inside the parking lot of Detroit Police Department headquarters. A section of the crowd started to leave because they couldn’t hear. And as is the case with these big crowds, they’re there to take action, they’re not necessarily there to be an audience, in the sense where they are just there to listen. And so a huge section of people started to make their way down the street, Michigan 33

Page Text

View plaintext

feet back, and I think they said there were a thousand people there, so most people didn’t actually hear what was being said.

Then we walked through downtown on Central Street and Main Street, and Bangor PD shut off the streets—police were there. They closed down the roads so that we could walk through downtown. And then we met at another park right by the Bangor Police Department, where there was a choir singing. And there was a moment of silence and then there was one point where everyone white in the crowd took a knee. For once in Bangor, I saw—you could clearly identify, here are all the people of color, so that was kind of unique and powerful.

TRISTAN TAYLOR, 37

DETROIT

On May 29th, I think it was a Friday, it was the first rally. I almost didn’t go because this was when I was technically cleared to get out of the quarantine, but I was wanting to be extra cautious and someone was like, “Well, as long as you have your mask and stuff, you’re good, and besides you’re out of the range. So we know that you’re no longer contagious.”

And it was funny because we wrote a statement—Detroit Renter City—that we wanted to pass out. And we were saying to ourselves, “Well, how many copies do you think we need?” And I’m like, you know, “A couple of hundred would be good,” because I was like, I don’t want to make more than what we need, because who knows how many people are going to come out. So we get there, and it’s like a fucking sea of people. Thousands. Well, clearly, we needed more than just a couple of hundred. And I remember going to Kinko’s and making the copies and seeing a friend, a longtime organizer who also does stuff around housing justice, making copies as well.

At a certain point, the rally begins. The rally, by the way, begins inside the parking lot of Detroit Police Department headquarters. A section of the crowd started to leave because they couldn’t hear. And as is the case with these big crowds, they’re there to take action, they’re not necessarily there to be an audience, in the sense where they are just there to listen. And so a huge section of people started to make their way down the street, Michigan

33

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content