Debate: Youth Riot after Counter-Inaugural Ball

Debate: Youth Riot after Counter-Inaugural Ball

Debate: Youth Riot after Counter-Inaugural Ball

Debate: Youth Riot after Counter-Inaugural Ball

At 6PM on January 20th, the church Casa del Pueblo on Columbia road filled up with tired bodies after a long day of actions. For most of them the hope that they would be able to dance to their favorite bands seemed to be enough to keep them on their feet. For those who got pepper sprayed by the police earlier in the day, the heat supplied by thrashing bodies aggravated their skin too much; they had to sit this one out. Finally some were just plain exhausted and napped in big cuddle piles in the literature/merch room. All were ready however, for the last song by the last band (Anti-Flag), which would begin the march towards the Hilton hotel. The bands played intense sets, especially the DC based political punk band 1905 who spoke a little as well about the importance of anti-authoritarian acts in everyday life. As this went on, rumors began to spread of motorcades that were waiting for the crowd a block away. Finally when the show ended at around 11:15PM about 100-150 people poured out of the church and onto the street. There was a struggle at first in keeping the group together but as movement began down Columbia road the crowd was tight knit and gaining more energy. The crowd began marching through the Adams-Morgan neighborhood at 11:22PM. They carried torches and banners, blocking both flows of traffic as they shouted, "Who's Streets? Our Streets!" in unison. Some spray painted messages as they walked. Many that marched were angry with some fellow protestors for vandalizing a beat up neighborhood car. "Who ever owns that car does not deserve to pay for that, it's obviously not a 'Porsche' y'know? Who knows it they can even afford it? We have to keep our anger centralized on the source.†said one protestor. The majority of the crowd kept a steady hold on that thought as things got more and more heated. At around 11:40PM the march passed sparks of fireworks, which signaled a banner dropping from the 18th street Starbucks rooftop reading "From Iraq to DC, with war comes resistance!" the windows were then completely taken out with bricks from the crowd. Other targets were three different banks, and three chain food stores including KFC and Taco Bell in the Morgan-Adams neighborhood. As the march took a turn onto 18th street, filled with mostly independent restaurants the crowd took to focusing on the police cars trailing behind them, as well as the helicopters spotlights from above. Dumpsters and newspaper boxes were thrown into the street to block the police. Finally at 11:52PM numerous patrol cars met the front of the crowd, leading them to take a right into an alley. The first police car to arrive was greeted by unidentified object from the crowd, which cracked the windshield. More police arrived on the scene and pinned in the protestors so not many were able to escape the alleyway to avoid arrest. There were mixed reactions from the partiers that watched in awe from bars right across the street. Many were vocally supportive of the protesters and even jeered the police officers that were arriving. Some were upset by the damage they saw done by those marching. There were 50-60 arrests, a college student from AU that was arrested that night explained "I was in there with mostly kids younger than me, a lot of them were being released due to their ages, there was also a good deal of people doing jail solidarity. People who wanted to get out the next morning were told to pay 50 dollars and they would be released then. The overall spirits were high, no one got too down about anything."