What Happened July 17?

“It's hard to pinpoint what, for the cops, triggers an escalation, but more and more cops kept showing up, and those of us in the crowd were linking arms and surrounding the statue and trying to prevent police from infiltrating. They were kind of shifting around the perimeter of the statue, but it did sort of feel like we were surrounded."

"Then all the reinforcements came on the outside and just kept pouring in throughout the rest of the night. There were more bike cops, they were forming a perimeter but eventually those guys left and were replaced just with riot cops that had batons out. And they were keeping their distance for a while, but there was a brief clash around 7:30pm with some cops. You can see them hitting people with batons, pushing us around. They were stepping on bikes, trying to destroy them and steal them. And we had our bikes at the front of the line to help protect us. At one point I saw a cop drop his gun. It was on the ground. I did not see it physically drop. It looked like the standard police pistol. I can't say how long it was on the ground. I started recording right after I saw it there and then my video ends twenty-seven seconds later with a cop appearing to see something on the ground and jogging toward the area.”

Watch video of this incident. (Content warning: police violence and strong language)

“While in the bike line, a cop brandishing a knife attempted to slash my tires. Once they decided to break the bike line we were pepper sprayed. Cops had violently broken in from another section and we were eventually ushered to the side. They continued to charge us with bikes who were trying to form a barricade. They had snatched and thrown lots of peoples bikes—I had an officer tell me, ‘I don’t want your bike, just get the fuck out of here’ as he kicked in my bike to get me to move backwards, leaving my legs bruised. Someone next to me was pleading for them to stop which caused an officer to charge and attack her more. At one point everyone around me was choking and gagging.”

Watch video of this incident. (Content warning: strong language)

Photo below by Mateo Zapata

“By the time we formed a line of bicycles to shield people closer to the statue, cops in full riot gear had assembled all around us. For a while, nothing happened as some protesters attempted to pull down the statue. Suddenly, there was a commotion towards the entrance of the park. I saw massive amounts of pepper spray in the air and batons swinging, and as police broke through the crowd and grew closer, they were throwing anyone they came across to the ground and indiscriminately shoving anyone in their vicinity. I witnessed a man with long brown hair being tossed to the ground by police. As he sat there, looking dazed, a cop walked over to him and cracked him in the head with a baton. The sound was disgusting. Myself and another cyclist rushed over to him and pulled him towards the grass, calling for a medic. We then shielded the medic and the protester with our bikes from further violence. That's when cops began rushing down the hill from Roosevelt into the park.”

Watch video of this incident. (Content warning: police violence and strong language)

“As a person with a bike, I was standing in line with other bikers as cops started marching toward me and the folks around me. This was shortly after the person climbing the statue managed to get rope around it. The cops in full riot gear shoved my bike to the ground, consequently shoving me to the ground. I remember getting up again only to be shoved down again, hitting my head (luckily in a helmet) on the pavement. They sprayed my face, neck, and back. Medics rushed in to pull me out and flushed my eyes. My friend managed to find me while I was with a medic, with my bike and backpack. The burning on my face and back intensified, then I had a seizure, and a couple other protestors or medics carried me away from where more cops were moving in because I couldn't physically move. My friend and a medic stayed with me until I was able to stand and breathe normally again, and made sure I had enough water, a new mask, snacks, and medical after-care supplies to take home.”

Photo below by Mateo Zapata

“They took my sister's goggles off—her goggles to protect her from the pepper spray. And they sprayed it directly into her eyes. So one of the officers—there were a couple of them there and they had their badge numbers covered—they said  ‘back up, we don't want to hurt you.’ And then his colleague to the right of him, that's when he grabbed my sister's goggles. And he sprayed directly into her face and … there's just so much happening. People are yelling ‘medics,’ and they're spraying medics in the face as well. They're directly, literally going up to them and just spraying them super close to the face.”

Photo below by Mateo Zapata

“Everyone was angry and yelling. We linked arms and stood behind the bikes. One officer tore a bike away from the front and tossed it over the heads of the front line, hitting me and other protesters with the bike. I watched a police officer push a girl backwards over her bike and down the steep hill. She was yelling at him because he was not wearing a mask. Only twenty-five percent of them were. He got right up in her face and started to yell back at her that he would ‘fuck her up.’ When he pushed her, he laughed as the medics rushed over to her. His colleagues did too. Shortly after I witnessed the same cop pepper spray a medic maybe six inches from her face who was pouring water in someone else's eyes.“

Watch video of a similar incident of an officer throwing a bike at a protester. (Content warning: police violence and strong language)

Photo below by Diego Morales

“I was in the medical team that day. Since I’m DACA, I can’t really risk a lot, so I’m just behind the scenes. But the reason I had to get a little more involved than planned was because this person had a bike and this police officer had that person pinned down and kept punching him in the face. So I was just trying to talk to the police officer, and he wouldn’t stop, he just kept on going.… So I tried to throw myself in there hoping that they would just hit my back or somewhere it wouldn’t hurt as much. Then that cop’s buddy came right behind him with a white pole and that’s when he hit me in the head. So I got up and I saw that he was whacking people with a white pole that he found on the floor. Then he saw that I was bleeding, and he started walking back. Then I felt it dripping, and I got up and went towards him and was like, “Hey man, you fucked up, because at this point you know you’re no longer serving the people, you’re terrorizing people now.” Then I said, “Actually let me grab that badge number,” and he turned around so I couldn't see his star, and he grabbed the pole and threw it as far away from him as possible. After that I got pulled back by the medics.”

“There was a situation where I saw one cop tap another cop on the shoulder and tell him to back off. He was ready to keep swinging and shoving. He was also smirking and mocking the protesters while he shoved them. He is pictured in the photo with no visible badge number. I saw at least a dozen officers with their badge numbers covered or badges removed.”

Watch video of this incident. (Content warning: strong language)

“I'm just standing there and a white-shirted commander walks up to me, and he looks me in the face and he says the words ‘I don't want to have to beat you.’ At this point, I'm alone. I am standing. I am no way threatening anyone with my bike. I have done nothing to provoke this.  And I look him in the face and I say, ‘I don't want that, but I am peaceful.’ And another officer has suddenly popped up on his right, my left and proceeds to beat my arms, my hands on my bike. I remember watching the first hit come down on my left hand, which was holding onto my bike seat. He beat my hands and then all of a sudden I'm seeing from my right, this commander's left, another officer steps in with mace. My bike is being ripped from my hands and I'm maced directly in the face. I then fall back, screaming. And another protester actually managed to step out and grab me and he's holding me and pulling me back into sort of like the larger group,  around the statue saying, "I've got you, I've got you."

“I went to protest … because I am Potawatomi and I wanted to show up in solidarity with other Natives and our Black relatives. A cop broke my hand with a baton because I wasn’t moving in a bike barricade. And he tried to throw my bike after he broke my hand, but I held onto it and swung it back to me. He then got flustered and backed up. I literally wasn’t doing anything but holding a line with some friends on our bikes and standing in a public park.”

Photo below by Mateo Zapata

“No one was advancing towards the cops, the cops weren't moving either, we were just standing, holding ground. More and more white shirts were arriving. They were talking to each other. Then I saw two people in full military gear coming. A protester in my cluster yelled ‘SWAT is here, SWAT brought chemicals, they have chemicals,’ but no one moved. We stood there with our arms linked and we chanted ‘don't do it, don't do it,’ and it seemed like without breaking stride the SWAT agent started spraying and spraying orange mist. He swept from south to north and I saw his face crinkle up. It looked like the spray was at face level. We ducked down with our arms still linked and I shut my eyes tight. I could feel the spray splatter all over me. I could hear people on either side of me screaming, ‘Oh my god!’" People's arms got unlinked. I couldn't see anything because of the spray. I couldn't breathe. I was yelling the name of the person I was with and I grabbed her hand and we tried to get out of range.”

Watch video of this incident. (Content warning: police violence and strong language)

“By 8pm, another group of both CPD officers, white shirts, and some camouflaged individuals began beating and macing anyone within ten feet of them as they moved into the crowd. This is when the second [video] was taken, with the fifty-plus police on the sidewalk macing people at point-blank range and beating individuals who were on the ground covering their heads and bodies as officers approached the statue.”

Watch video of this incident. (Content warning: police violence and strong language)

Photo below by Mateo Zapata

“Around 8:00pm, the police forced their way through the line of cyclists to the south. They went up the hill, then advanced on the rest of us from above. They yelled 'move twenty feet back or you’ll lose your bikes!’ We tried to hold the line to protect the protesters beneath us, but when they physically pushed us, we began slowly backing up. When I was sure we'd retreated much more than twenty feet, I stopped and said ‘that's been more than twenty feet!’ The officer pushing me backward said ‘you're gonna lose the bike!’ He grabbed my bike and tried to pull it from my hands. I held on tight, and after a moment of struggle, he stopped pulling and just threw me and the bike away from him. My sister said I flew about five feet down the hill.”

Watch video of officers clearing the hill. (Content warning: police violence and strong language)

“Eventually, the cops retook the statue, leaving a wake of injured, bleeding, screaming, blinded protesters in their wake. I saw a young woman on the ground with a messed-up ankle who couldn't walk, and cops were still coming to surround the park on Roosevelt Road. We called a medic, and again I stood by with my broken bike as he taped up her foot. Then I saw [outgoing Chief of Patrol] Fred Waller, the big boss man of all the patrol officers, give the order to clear the park. At first cops were not using violence as people left the park, and I thought we were going to be safe from further brutality. I was thrown to the ground again while exiting the park and my bicycle was taken. When I left the park, I tried to ask the police why they took my bike and how I could get it back. They told me that what happened to me was my choice because I was there, and that I should pick better crowds to hang out with instead of hanging out with violent people.”

Photo below by Mateo Zapata