so i just want to talk about the protests in my city for a minute (thread)

memphis, tennessee is known as one of the most violent and segregated cities in america. it’s also the place where mlk jr was assassinated while leading the sanitation strikes in the city.

we have an incredibly high rate of gun violence and homicide here. we are often called “the deadliest city in america” and we also have faced our fair share of police brutality and killings

there have been protests every night since wednesday over the killing of george floyd and police murders. however you probably won’t see our protests on national news because they were entirely PEACEFUL.

i am in no way condemning protests in other cities because i have seen how they escalated based on police actions. and nowhere is that more apparent than in what happened here last night.

we had around 500 people marching in the streets downtown with no violence. however once the protestors began to disperse and there were only a few left the police rolled in with dozens of officers in riot gear.

tensions escalated further when one of the officers told a protestor that “white lives matter more to me” and suddenly police were harassing and arresting protestors and random bystanders as they became angry and yelled back.

as you can see the police waited until they were no longer outnumbered by protestors in order to incite violence and find some kind of twisted justification to arrest people.

in light of these events i foresee the protests getting more tense and possibly ending in more arrests so please consider donating to the bail fund for memphis and other cities http://midsouthpeace.org