Roberta X reports on the combined behavior of protesters and law enforcement:
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Force mobilized. They showed up in full battle-rattle, helmets with face shields, armor, gloves, and armed with every modern crowd-control tool, from batons to tear gas along with their normal sidearms. They formed a deep line across Meridian and when the marchers neared the Governor’s residence at 8:30, the police stopped the marchers cold.
IMPD ordered them to disperse within the next ten minutes. The marchers stood fast and chanted slogans. There was some yelling back and forth. The police were much better armed — and enormously outnumbered.
It looked bad. Someone — a lot of someones — was going to get hurt.
Deputy Mayor Dr. David Hampton, a man I had never heard of before today, stepped in as a negotiator. What did the marchers actually want? There was a brief huddle between the Deputy Mayor, high-ranking police officers, and the people at the forefront of the marchers.
And then something happened. I’m not sure who started it, but the chanting changed, coalescing on on slogan, over and over, spreading through the crowd:
The huddle of police and marchers dissolved into fist-bumps and shoulder slaps; the line of contact between police and marchers broke out in handshakes and even hugs, social distancing notwithstanding.* You could see the strain easing in expressions and postures. The police were still wary and the marchers were still upset, but they appeared to be seeing one another as people instead of symbols or threats.
White supremacists or antifa, this must be disappointing for those entities hoping for more fighting and alienation between law enforcement and protesters. This is, in fact, how adults resolve matters – negotiation, good will, acknowledgement of each others’ requirements and working towards a mutually acceptable solution.
Not absolutist, I get it all – you get nothing negotiating tactics.
Like Flint, Michigan, Indianapolis is leading the way out of this morass. Sober, inclusive leadership will be far better for us than the hysterics we’re seeing on the right. Enough of fear, enough of faux-outrage. Similarly, if Congress refuses to help lead the way out of our economic and health mess, it’ll be more than time to replace McConnell and his supporters in the House and Senate in November – replaced with non-ideological problem-solvers.
