On the fourth night of major protests in Washington, D.C., over the death of George Floyd, it looks like President Trump’s decision to push the National Guard into the streets to control the chaos worked.
The destruction of property from previous nights was limited to, as far as I could see at the protest Tuesday in front of the White House, one man tearing down the sign for 16th Street. Almost everyone booed him for that.
But when the group walked from the front of the White House to the Capitol and then back to the White House, that’s when you could see a more ugly version of the protesters.
Having the National Guard and more police on the streets, on every other corner downtown, and riding bikes along the sides of the protesters served to maintain the relative quiet, even after the 7 p.m. curfew enacted by the city’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.
But they do it at great test to their patience, especially the authorities who are black.
Black protesters would often single those officers out and say things like: “You know better,” “How do you live with yourself?” and “Is this just a paycheck for you?”
One woman yelled at a group of police, some black and some white, “You’re gay for Trump.” (That’s a quote I’d like to share with all the liberal gays in the district just for fun.)
The tension was crystallized in a brief exchange I saw between protesters and one black officer as the group headed back to the White House from the direction of the Capitol. On that route is the Trump Hotel, where a line of officers had been stationed to protect it from the defacement and vandalism that had on previous nights hit the windows of high-end retail stores, restaurants, and historical monuments within the area.
From the protest in DC last night: protester asks black cop “how do you live with yourself being a cop?” When the officer went to answer, the protester walked away. But I asked the cop what he wanted to say pic.twitter.com/ZiCPzrTHc1
— Eddie Scarry (@eScarry) June 3, 2020
A few of the black protesters approached one of the black officers standing guard.
“How do you live with yourself being a cop?” one of the protesters asked.
The officer repeated the question back in a tone of disbelief.
The protester said: “Yeah, how do you live with yourself knowing so many dead [inaudible]? I’m asking you that question.”
The officer replied, “Let me ask you a question.” But the particular protester who had engaged him walked off to join the rest who had moved on. Resigned, the officer said, “Alright, have a good day.”
But I stayed to ask him what he wanted to ask the man who had walked away. “He’s safe right now, right?” he said. “I was about to ask him that. He’s safe right now, right?”
I asked if he meant because of officers like him who were there on the scene with the intention of making sure no one was hurt. He looked at me and kind of shrugged, and I think he might have thought I was being antagonistic. But really, I felt bad for him.
A separate protester who remained behind and was also black told the officer that actually, he didn’t feel safe with the police there.
“Ain’t nobody safe, because of you, n—-,” he said. “You don’t make us safe. I’m nervous because of you standing there.”
The officer, perplexed, replied: “You’re nervous because I’m standing right here? You came up to the gate. How are you nervous if you came up to the gate?”
There are occasional problems between the police and minorities. But to be a police officer is a thankless job already, and to be a black one right now can be even worse.
