Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Report From Hamilton


Note: I posted this on Facebook yesterday, and figured I'd put it somewhere I could find it again. I filmed this whole thing, too, on my iPhone, but for the life of me I can't get it out of there. Kevin captured the moment, though

Kevin Maki, reporter for KECI, captured this disturbance at the Hamilton Black Lives Matter action yesterday. A tall, angry man started wading through the crowd, slurring his words and being verbally abusive. I was standing within a few feet from him for all of it and I'm pretty sure he was drunk. Anyways, watch the video (here). A female Hamilton Police officer steps in to lead him away from us, he was abusive and defiant to her. She told him he was detained (you know what that means if you're not a privileged white guy) and when she tried to lead him away he struck her hands and arms several times, until she quit and called for backup, which ended up being a white male officer who came up and shook his hand and talked about all they had in common. The guy ended up walking. 

Admittedly, the officers were trying to calm the situation this guy was creating, which is of course what the police are supposed to do. But imagine what would have happened to you or me if we had struck an officer after she told us we were detained. 

There were also some local angry young men with pickup trucks rigged to spew out black diesel smoke (a sign of support for the fossil fuels industry I guess) and at least one of them passed by repeatedly blasting peaceful demonstrators on the sidewalk within feet of the traffic lane with intentionally-toxic fumes. There were many teenagers and some kids in the crowd. Countless cars with angry drivers revved and zoomed past us in direct violation of Hamilton Police Dept's (usually) rigorously-enforced 25 mph speed limit. In fact I had been given a $100 ticket for driving 29 mph in this very zone only a couple months ago.The dept. has made a very emphatic point to the community that enforcing safe driving through town is one of their main reasons for existence, and yet when I pointed to another officer who came in that the guy had struck the female officer after he'd been told he was detained, and that the rules that we play by say that if we did that we'd be down and arrested, he said something to the effect that, well, we're just trying to keep the peace etc. And great, I say, trying to keep it as light as I could, but what about these guys speeding by here within feet of kids and what about my $100 speeding ticket and (WTF under my breath), he basically just shrugged it off. 

Overall it was a positive action, with the majority of drivers-by enthusiastically-supporting us, including folks I knew who I wouldn't think would. A 16-year-old high school student organized it.

That's the report from Hamilton.

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