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Typically I wait until the next morning to review and post my footage of unprovoked and indiscriminate police violence, but the night is young and the (wretched, godforsaken) plane in still in the air, so I expect VSP to come back again. All of this was shot between 10-11:20pm.
OK, some of my commentary gets a bit blue in these vids. Apologies in advance, this month of constant terror and violence is starting to kinda get to me just a little bit.
9:59pm: Dozens of VSP arrive and stage up East of MDP Circle, many w/o visible identifying info.
9:59pm: Dozens of VSP arrive and stage up East of MDP Circle, many w/o visible identifying info.
Multiple officers decline my invitation to identify themselves.
This officer refuses to identify himself because I called him "GI Joe"
Riot officers don gas masks and ready weapons at 10:08pm. An officer threatens a member of the press because of the light on his camera... And then immediately shines his light in MY camera.
10:14pm I'm honestly not even sure what happened here. I noticed an officer had sat down on the grass and was being attended to, but I didn't see anything happen. Then it looked like they started throwing flashbangs and then a firework went off. The police seem as confused as me.
10:22pm After the chaos begins and multiple rounds are fired into the crowd on the North side, I made my way to the South side. A flashbang detonates directly in my face. @woznyphoto caught this from another angle. Then a man is shot in the face right in front of me.
Here's the other angle.
https://twitter.com/woznyphoto/status/1276734657237864448?s=21 https://twitter.com/woznyphoto/status/1276734657237864448
https://twitter.com/woznyphoto/status/1276734657237864448?s=21 https://twitter.com/woznyphoto/status/1276734657237864448
Multiple times while I was filming this I was hit with projectiles and shrapnel from the cannisters and flashbangs detonating all around me. I was in a complete daze and don't remember much of anything after the explosive burst in my face.
10:25pm I'm totally disoriented, choking on gas. Cops are continuing to indiscriminately bombard this residential neighborhood with chemical weapons, explosives, and projectiles. I throw up. Gross!
After arresting several people, VSP just... uh... packs it in? Almost as if there was no good reason for them to be there? Then protesters go right back to the Circle. At 2:25am some familiar RPD faces swing by the neighborhood to check things out. We must work the same shift.
And to think, this whole night started with me taking a @GoadGatsby selfie. OK y'all, I'm gonna lick my wounds and try to get a couple hours of sleep. See you out there again tonight.
