Saturday night, downtown Denver got to experience the same joy that antifa and #BlackLivesMatter has brought to places like Minneapolis, Portland and Seattle.
Several dozen people, some donning shields and helmets, and police clashed at the headquarters of the Denver Police Department on Saturday night.
A group had organized a protest to start at 8 p.m. in response to an incident earlier this week when police and others clashed as the city removed people experiencing homelessness from a camp near 29th and Glenarm. A flier told people to “bring your gear.”
Sometime before 9 p.m., a van arrived to provide some of the people with shields. As the people marched toward the Denver police headquarters, Denver7 reporters witnessed people with a bat and an ax.
The group expressed various motives: defunding or abolishing the police, ending homeless sweeps, stopping racism, justice for Elijah McClain and more, including several who said they were there for vandalism and were done with peaceful protesting, according to crews at the scene.
But McClain’s mother earlier this week disavowed rallies like the one Saturday night, and she and others held a peaceful rally in memory of her son earlier in the day.
McClain was a black man killed in police custody in 2019. As in Portland and Seattle, there seem to be few if any black people involved in these riots, just white leftwing radicals attacking police and destroying property.
Antifa are smashing the windows of every storefront in Denver, Colorado. pic.twitter.com/mhw2xxeSjw
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 23, 2020
Antifa has surrounded the Denver police department and is besieging it with fireworks. Looks like a sight similar to the federal courthouse in Portland. pic.twitter.com/REaysspRjQ
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 23, 2020
Some raw footage:
These riots aren’t about police brutality, they’re about a hard-left, anti-police activism that’s rejected by the overwhelming majority of American citizens.
In Austin, state troopers and APD quickly clamped down on this stupidity before the idiots could do much damage. Other cities should follow their lead
Tags: #BlackLivesMatter, antifa, Colorado, Crime, Democrats, Denver, riot