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some speakers come. That was really powerful, to hear their stories. And they had people walking around with a clipboard if you needed help registering to vote. It was a very positive event. Then they had a part at the end at the courthouse where we took ten minutes in honor of George Floyd’s death. Just a silence. That was really emotionally hard, but it was really powerful and cool to see everybody respect that. LOUIS MOENCH, 19 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA It started at city hall—the Santa Monica city hall and courthouse. Which is, you know, the courthouse to the stars—like, that’s where O.J. was tried— and a ton of my friends from high school were there. And everybody was masked. I was with my girlfriend. Well, the reason I went was because my girlfriend was like, “We should go.” Because it was a couple days after there was like conflict, really physical conflict in Santa Monica, in the downtown area, which I’ve been hanging out in since I was like six. It was in a little bit of a disarray. So there were a lot of boarded-up windows and stuff like that. And so we thought, you know, we should go—like, this is big. There hasn’t been, ever, in the history of Santa Monica, any kind of instability in that area. Like literally, like ever. The promenade is where the real craziness happened—where they broke into an REI, which is hilarious. People were stealing camping gear. So we were like, this is obviously a major historical moment. Or at least that’s how I was feeling, like we should definitely go and partake and also, being on the left, like, I do support Black Lives Matter—at least, yeah, I do support them. ALSA BRUNO, 30 SAN FRANCISCO Early on I went to this huge, poorly communicated protest in a big park. And when I drove up, there were police blocking me off, so I was like, okay, this might be a real protest. Then I realized the police were there to protect the protest. And then I realized, this is not a protest—this is a picnic. Like, 39
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“Don’t You Knel” We’re all here together with you. Somebody signed a form at the Government House saying we are going to protest you. At this time. Is that good for you? Please send the police that we were protesting. And I remember specifically, right as I was parking, I saw this sister walking with her daughter—this Black woman walking with her daughter. And there was a traffic cop making sure that you walk by. And this woman talked to the officer as she went across the intersection, and then I heard her because she passed by me, on my side. I heard her tell her daughter, “It’s okay to talk to the police. Because sometimes that keeps you safe. Sometimes that keeps you alive.” So at this protest against police brutality, she was one of maybe six Black people I saw at this protest. So not to say we weren’t there, but it was like, this is not by us. And therefore it can’t actually be for us, it’s not really trying to serve us. ÉZÉ AMOS, 46 CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA Richmond had something happen that was quite similar to George Floyd. There was a gentleman named Marcus David Peters. He had a mental breakdown. And he was out in the streets, he was actually naked, in the street. Police responded to that, and instead of trying to help him, they just shot him in the back. A man running around the streets naked—he wasn’t running at them, he was just running around the street. And instead of them trying to help him, they decided to put him down, like a dog. So apart from the whole protest of George Floyd, Richmond also had that to protest against. I remember the one I went to, the protesters actually went to the police station and surrounded police headquarters and demanded change and to defund the police and all that. And the police came up and started tear-gassing people and beating them. At one point, some of the protesters burned down a dump truck up the road from the station. They broke the windows to some of the big-box stores, Whole Foods was vandalized—a lot of people shopped there—and the windows and glass were destroyed as well. And they set some buildings on fire. I think they were arrested and the police arrested and shot at everybody. They shot at everybody. After that very first protest I went to in Richmond, I quickly realized that I needed a helmet and a bulletproof vest. 40

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“Don’t You Knel”

We’re all here together with you. Somebody signed a form at the Government House saying we are going to protest you. At this time. Is that good for you? Please send the police that we were protesting. And I remember specifically, right as I was parking, I saw this sister walking with her daughter—this Black woman walking with her daughter. And there was a traffic cop making sure that you walk by. And this woman talked to the officer as she went across the intersection, and then I heard her because she passed by me, on my side. I heard her tell her daughter, “It’s okay to talk to the police. Because sometimes that keeps you safe. Sometimes that keeps you alive.” So at this protest against police brutality, she was one of maybe six Black people I saw at this protest. So not to say we weren’t there, but it was like, this is not by us. And therefore it can’t actually be for us, it’s not really trying to serve us.

ÉZÉ AMOS, 46 CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA

Richmond had something happen that was quite similar to George Floyd. There was a gentleman named Marcus David Peters. He had a mental breakdown. And he was out in the streets, he was actually naked, in the street. Police responded to that, and instead of trying to help him, they just shot him in the back. A man running around the streets naked—he wasn’t running at them, he was just running around the street. And instead of them trying to help him, they decided to put him down, like a dog. So apart from the whole protest of George Floyd, Richmond also had that to protest against.

I remember the one I went to, the protesters actually went to the police station and surrounded police headquarters and demanded change and to defund the police and all that. And the police came up and started tear-gassing people and beating them. At one point, some of the protesters burned down a dump truck up the road from the station. They broke the windows to some of the big-box stores, Whole Foods was vandalized—a lot of people shopped there—and the windows and glass were destroyed as well. And they set some buildings on fire. I think they were arrested and the police arrested and shot at everybody. They shot at everybody. After that very first protest I went to in Richmond, I quickly realized that I needed a helmet and a bulletproof vest.

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