I saw dozens of cops at the event yesterday. Cops on motorcycles, who stood stoicly as Black protesters screamed "fuck the police". Cops holding traffic at intersections. There was no violence in those cases.

The violence started when the cops *drove vehicles through crowds*.
When the riot police swarm the street where hundreds, or possibly thousands of people are *just standing around*, shit is gonna blow up. #BostonProtests
In one direction, I had to face down a line of riot cops. In the other direction, I watched as an unmarked car sped at 30mph around a crowd of people, and swerved towards a cyclist who was just trying to get away from the trouble. #BostonProtests
The T was shut down. Tear gas had been thrown. I literally spent 10 minutes standing still trying to figure out *which direction would be safe for me to walk*. As I picked a direction, a police paddy wagon pulled up, and I realized having my hand in my pocket was a *bad idea*.
I'm a white dude. I don't get scared by the police easily. But multiple times last night, I genuinely thought: "I have no idea where it is safe for me to be right now." The motorcycles, and then bike unit had forced their way through the crowd: where was I to go? #BostonProtests
At every intersection, cops were facing down with protesters ... for no reason. They were just standing toe to toe, defending nothing. This street was already blocked off by a military-style "rescue" vehicle, but the cops are just standing there, holding batons at ready.
When I tried to escape the common, I ran into these lines of people every time. I had to walk by 4 of them -- in each case, holding my hands in plain sight, hence no pictures -- hoping to god that that the cops weren't actually doing what they looked like: trying to pen me in.
Should people have thrown shit? No. I got hit by a lawn chair. I had to take a baton -- stolen from a police officer, most likely -- away from a kid who I thought was gonna hurt somebody with it.

But none of that happened until the police fucking invaded the crowd!
Literally 10 minutes earlier, thousands had been kneeling, with their hands in the air, shouting "I can't breathe." 30 minutes earlier, we'd done a phone-lit vigil moment.
The change between these moments started when the cops started driving into the crowds gathered on the street, causing the start of 45 minutes of chaos as people ran first in one direction, then another, attempting to get away from the police. #BostonProtests
Focus on that. Why did that happen? Why was the T shut down just *before* people were leaving the protest event? Why were the police forcing their way through crowds? Why were they wielding batons when no one had threatened them? Why? #BostonProtests
I was there. There is no sensible answer to this. And had it not happened, things would have petered out quietly. We'd spend 3 hours, in some cases, toe to toe with cops, and nothing went wrong.

The cops know how to prevent escalation. They showed it earlier! #BostonProtests
Turns out that when you bring in the tanks, people don't react well.

And the cops knew that. This wasn't an accident; it's their MO at the end of a peaceful protest: Get into the thick of things, and escalate.

Fuck that. #BostonProtests
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