just got out of the Richmond jail and here’s what’s up: we were peacefully protesting and marching through the streets shortly after curfew as an act of civil disobedience when the police approached our protest from behind (1/?)

They fired tear gas rounds into the crowd as we were walking away from them (zero confrontation on our end to provoke this use of force, surprise) and as they were firing on us, another group of riot police flanked the front of the protest forcing us down a side street (2/?)

Here’s what i got shortly after they fired the first round, they continued firing after this as we tried to figure out where we would be safe to go (3/?)

Once we were in the side street we tried our best to disperse but wound up in an alleyway that was blocked by cops on both sides, raising our hands they tell us that we’re going to catch trespassing charges on top of curfew violations (4/?)

We asked them if we would have safe passage to just go home and the cop gets out of his car and says, “I don’t have time for any of this snowflake shit, just go home and go back to your basements.” Sick burn. So we leave the alley and start walking the way they told us to (?/?)

As we are walking up the street to go home, riot cops suddenly show up out of nowhere and tell us to get on the ground even though they had just told us to go home and even told us which street to walk on to do it (6/?)

We all get carted off to the jail, and then one by one are placed on a police bus in their parking area to wait for processing. This is around 9:30PM. Also, social distancing need not apply when you’re being charged with a crime apparently. (7/?)

At this point the hours start to blur together. We’re just sitting and waiting on a bus for what feels like forever before they finally start letting people off to get their first paperwork done. As the first person is getting off, more and more police vans are pulling in (8/?)

As the police vans pull in and unload their protestors there are people lining the entiiiire walls of this parking area. Like 100+ people with more vans constantly coming in. And once we do our first paperwork, they send us right back on the bus to wait (9/?)

Nothing of note happens for a while, it’s probably like 11PM when a girl at the front of our bus asks what she should do if she’s a minor. They arrested a minor and threw her in the paddy wagon with everyone else. Whoops! (10/?)

They try and get her to call her parents but it’s not working cuz she’s not picking up, she was probably on the bus for another hour or hour and a half I’m guessing before finally being taken away. (11/?)

Once I get off to do my paperwork I realize my blood sugar is starting to freak out (type 1 diabetes) so I ask the cop I’m with if they have any Gatorade or soda or something I can have and explain the situation (12/?)

He goes “we don’t really have stuff like that.” and I push the issue asking if there’s any way I can get something. Don’t remember exactly what he said but I was essentially ignored. I end up back on the bus and a few more hours pass. (13/?)

I’m starting to feel delirious and asked a few times since I got on again if they have anything to help me and every time was basically ignored. Once I made a scene about how I’m gonna fall into a coma and he’ll have to deal with it, he finally goes and finds someone (?/)

I go out to the EMT and my blood sugar was actually really high, and mixed with my exhaustion, crazy pain from how tightly they do those zip tie cuffs, I was mistaking that feeling for the other one (idk if my fellow diabetics can relate but it’s happened to me a few times) (?/?)

I get treated for my blood sugar and at this point it’s about 2AM and barely anybody has been actually processed and released from the jail. The amount of people waiting around the edges of the parking area is roughly the same as it was three hours before. (16/?)

Turns out they have one magistrate to deal with the hundred+ arrests they just made and the process they were using would have the people there “until 1 in the afternoon” from what I overheard. (17/?)

Now I’m waiting for this new method to be approved by the state police or some BS, and the cop guarding me starts talking with me about stuff. I tried having a dialogue with him and he admitted he knows the police are corrupt and that’s why he became a police officer (18/?)

I ask him what he does as a policeman to combat the corruption of the system, and he says he’s tried to bring it up to other officers but he’s always shot down... bro then what are you still doing there if you can’t DO ANYTHING!!! (?/?)

Convinced that supposed “good cops” who are aware of the systems flaws are hard-wired during training to be incapable of realizing their hypocrisy. Anyway it’s 3AM, I’ve been sitting in the worst handcuffs ever for way too long and I finally go to the office to finish up (?/?)

I get my pic taken and then I overhear the officers getting frustrated because apparently nobody was writing arrest reports for everyone they were bringing in, she asks me if I know where I was arrested at. GIRL THATS YOUR JOB TO KNOW. (21/?)

I’m finally on my way out and get escorted to the exit by another cop. We walk outside, and I guess I thought the RVA jail was somewhere else cuz I’m like under a fucking overpass looking at the city skyline LMAO ?(/)

The cop is like, you good? Can someone get you? And I’m like “there’s a curfew in effect, you said nobody can be outside till 6AM.” and he’s literally like, “ah, yep.” So I bid his smart ass adieu and start walkin!

Left the jail at 3:30AM, phone is dead, I finally get home at 5:10AM. I was one of the first dozen or so people to be let out. I don’t think their new process was going any faster. There’s likely still people sitting in that holding area right now, and for what? (24/?)

The cops said themselves to me that the charges are BS, everyone’s time was ultimately wasted, they spent all night enforcing the curfew by stopping cars of innocent people from what I’ve seen elsewhere on twitter since I got home, and do you think we were taught a lesson? (25/?)

A woman sitting across from me was driving home from work (which was allowed under the curfew) and she wound up in there with everyone else too. They can’t even follow their own rules. (A lot/a little more)

Anyway, an act of civil disobedience to fight for what you believe in should not be met with violence. Should not be met with chemical weapons. I’m sad for the world we’re in and I’m going to keep doing what I can to help make it better. (?/?)

I had to do this tweet thread now because I know these memories are gonna evaporate when I lay my ass in bed in five minutes, this is the bullshit that’s happening right now all across the country and has been happening for way too long. Stand up to it. #BlackLivesMatter #ACAB

Also if anyone from #RVA26 is on Twitter, what’s up, it’s Zakk, I had the pink hair, thanks for doing what you’re doing, I don’t think I’ll ever have that much fun fucking with the cops on a prison bus ever again. Hope y’all get home safe.