DC on Friday and Saturday

I was in the DC metropolitan area all of Friday and Saturday. Spent almost the entire 2 days walking around the city.

I can tell you that, from my perspective, the news is guilty of catastrophizing the whole thing. Besides the few incidents during the day on Friday, 99% of the protestors were peaceful and didn't cause any problems beyond standing in the middle of the road and blocking traffic a few times. The group that I followed along with on Friday night was very small and the most heated moment during the whole thing was when they confronted a bunch of wealthy looking Trump supporters in tuxedos and gowns standing safely behind their guardrails on the sidewalk. They pretty much just exchanged insults, and the Trump supporters were just as glad to engage in petty vitriol as the protestors. I will say, though, that a lot of these people on both sides were disappointingly uninformed and usually just resorted to parroting the same lame, overused slogans.

The women's march was impressive-- the entire city was inundated by the crowds. Most of their signs were handmade, though some were a bit unimaginative (I saw a few that literally just had the word "vagina" written on them), instead of the usual mass-printed signs that all say the same thing. The hats they were all wearing were just funny looking.

Honestly, I couldn't possibly see how anyone could get so incensed over a bunch of women and girls in pink hats, nor even the earlier protests. On the whole it was all mostly placid and relatively civil. It's the right of every American to protest, anyway, even if they protesting something stupid or don't know exactly 'what' they're protesting.

This is just the opinion of one person, however, so don't start foaming at the mouth because I'm telling you a different story from my view.

I was watching multiple livestreams on Friday.

Generally each protest had violence.

Someone was also streaming the one where the rich folks & Trump supporters with the fancy clothing were next to the protest (if it's the same one you talked about) Protesters threw water and other objects at em.

originally posted by: Kuroodo
Someone was also streaming the one where the rich folks & Trump supporters with the fancy clothing were next to the protest (if it's the same one you talked about) Protesters threw water and other objects at em.

Was that on Thursday night or Friday? Some might have done that, I just didn't see it I guess. At that point I think I was off away from the group trying to weave in and out between some cops on motorcycles.

I came across one livestream which was labelled "Protesters block Bikers checkpoint".
There was a large crowd in front of the gate and fences, but a passageway had been left clear. Other groups were walking down that passage, side by side, four or five abreast. The bikers, I assume.
Later on, the crowd had moved over in front of the gate, and stood facing outwards, linking arms, and chanting "This checkpoint is closed! This checkpoint is closed!"
As far as I could see, this was a symbolic blocking which they were allowed to get away with because the people using the gate had stopped coming. Nevertheless, I suppose they will be boasting in future decades about the way they once "blocked a checkpoint" at the 2017 Inauguration.

I walked among the hundreds of thousands in LA. No violence seen. But I know the right wing folks love their stir-the-pot cherry-picked news that blows the very few incidents around the entire country completely out of proportion. Then they can try to do some sort of magical math that negates the millions of people that protested this coming (and already seen) insanity due to a few random bad apples. You're being told what to think. And it isn't the truth.

dfw.cbslocal.com...

About 230 were arrested on Friday, 217 for rioting. Facing 10 years in prison. I hope it was worth it to them.