Last night I witnessed the development of media narrative in a nauseating way. I was at a protest outside the police station which got increasingly tense. They had us surrounded — cops in front, riot cops behind, and snipers on the roof above.

There was an arbitrary curfew put in place. 9p. So the twenty minutes leading up to 9p were growingly tense. We all expected them to tear gas us at the hour. I was passing out goggles and soaking rags in lemon juice in preparation for things to get bad.

Protestors started yelling for the cops to get on their knees if they are human. The only black cop did. The others looked like they were making fun of him. The crowd kept yelling and someone with a megaphone kept telling them to get on their knees because they work for us.

Eventually a mediator asked if the crowd would be peaceful if they got everyone to kneel, and someone said yes. So the cops reluctantly kneeled. Protestors with a megaphone started yelling for the riot cops behind us to kneel also. And the snipers.

It took some visible arguing with the mediator, and several riot cops got inside of the van rather than kneel for us.

But then they kneeled. And then the crowd peacefully dispersed saying that they would be back again tomorrow night.

This is now a fluff piece in the local press about cops kneeling in solidarity with protestors. It’s the piece saying they were the good ones or whatever.

But it was clear they capitulated, out of fear of an outbreak, to the protestors. They didn’t want to do it.

The mediator made them do it. They gave in to demands from protestors because they were getting pressure from the tear gas and rubber bullets they’d used the previous night.

But I’m watching the article get shared around. The cops kneel in support of protest.

And out in another part of town where a riot broke out, some white dudes with megaphones were telling people they should go to the police station because "the cops will protest WITH US." They saw the kneeling article.

I told my mom that I was at the protest with the kneeling, and I explained what actually happened. She went "No! They supported the protest..." about to tell me, someone who was there, the media narrative.
She stopped and went "sorry. You were there."

That bit is the most bizarre to me. The way the media narrative was, for just a second before she caught herself, more true than the actual reality I’d experienced.

And more so, it’s hard to watch a reality I experienced slowly fade into cop PR. To a point that it no longer matters what really happened. A new narrative took over.

But be aware. Those same cops will be tear gassing kids tonight.