Editor's Note: After the earth-shaking election ofDonald Trump, a group of editors and publishers of alternative weeklies likethe Shepherd Express decided weneeded to try to cover this new administration from an alternative weeklyperspective, honestly, accurately, progressively and intelligently. A group ofus then contracted with Baynard Woods,editor at large at the BaltimoreCity Paper, an alternative newsweekly, to write a weekly column for ourpapers as our Washington correspondent. Baynard is very well regarded and haswritten for The Guardian, The New York Times, Washington Post, Vox, Salon and many other publications. His initialcolumn describes what it was like on the streets of Washington, D.C., onFriday, Inauguration Day. We look forward to reading his reporting. --The Editor
Dozens of police officerswith shields and batons and big canisters of pepper spray stand in lines to blockoff the corner at 12th and Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., grippingtheir batons and pepper spray, faces obscured behind shields, as nearly 100activists who had already been arrested are cordoned off behind them, waitingto be processed.
Protesters line the other side of the street.More and more arrive, chanting, yelling, “Let them go!”
A trial of pink smoke cutsthrough the air. There is the sound of a sting-ball grenade and severalofficers open up with long orange streams of chemical warfare pepper spray.Many people reported that rubber bullets were also fired.
“Because, today … we are transferring power fromWashington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American people.”
Earlier, a woman who saidshe lived in the neighborhood was standing at the battle lines screaming atboth sides, her body wrapped in an American flag, her face burned by pepperspray, now caked with Milk of Magnesia.
“Why are you doing this?” she wailed.
“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capitalhas reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.Washington flourished—but the people did not share in its wealth.”
Officers run at people, holding their billyclubs in both hands at throat level. (Dalton Bennett, a Washington Post reporter, was thrownto the ground.)
Now they tackle a woman on the street, and usetall Clydesdale horses to menace anyone getting too close to the tackledprotester.
“The establishment protected itself, but not thecitizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; theirtriumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’scapital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across ourland.”
‘Pepper Spray and Other Armaments’
Before the melee began, the streets of D.C. wereweirdly empty, a ghost town, nothing like what we had seen in previous years,especially Obama’s record-setting first inauguration.
“We’re not seeing big crowds,” said LacyMacAuley, a D.C. resident and an organizer for , a collection of groups that came together for the inaugurationprotests. “We haven’t seen any area where we the protesters don’t outnumberTrump supporters.”
The ever-growing melee in Northwest D.C. around12th and 13th streets began small enough. I was wandering around at DisruptJ20’smakeshift headquarters. I saw a small group of five young people wearing allblack start to walk away with purpose. I followed them. They pulled on their masks,but suddenly appeared lost. “Where are they?” they asked.
I started to scan the street and saw it, themass of black shirts they were looking for. We all ran toward them. By the timeI reached them, they too were running, chased by police on cycles—motor andbike—swerving almost as if to mow them down. A protester threw a trash can intothe street. It rolled into a motorbike, forcing it to stop. A sign from infront of a store went flying through the air.
Other officers came in from the other side. Thegroup was cornered. That’s when they went crazy with the pepper spray and thebatons—for the first time of the day. (Earlier, activists had chainedthemselves together to block a checkpoint into theinauguration and the police had not arrested anyone.)
“What truly matters is not which party controlsour government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. January20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of thisnation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten nolonger.”
Suddenly, a man appears walking through thecrowd, followed by followers and the mood changes, briefly.
“I am the president of America,” the man says.He is wearing a boot on his head and he has a long gray beard and Rasputineyes. “I am also an amateur hostage negotiator.”
His name is Vermin Supreme and he actually didrun for president, as he has since 2004 (he promised a free pony for everyAmerican).
A little later, the airagain filled with pepper spray and what seemed like a gas. He gets right infront of the police line and squawks out the National Anthem, Jimi Hendrixstyle, through a bullhorn.
Another officer sprays gasinto the crowd and sting-ball grenades sound around the corner, where the heatof the action has moved. Lines of riot police face the protesters, some of whomthrew bricks and concrete.
“Officers did not deploytear gas and did deploy pepper spray and other armaments,” D.C.’s InterimPolice Chief Peter Newsham told Democracyin Crisis. “A full accounting of the control devices deployed will be madeavailable when we have it.”
“The time for empty talk is over. Now arrivesthe hour of action.”
The same multinational corporations Trump railedagainst in the campaign had their windows smashed—Starbucks, Bank of America.
“So to all Americans, in every city near andfar, small and large, from mountain to mountain, and from ocean to ocean, hearthese words: You will never be ignored again.”
The day ends with a burning limousine in thestreets, a new symbol of our unity.
“Your courage and goodness and love will foreverguide us along the way.”
The guerilla chaos that filled the air like thepepper spray on Friday is washed away the next day as half a million peoplepour into the city for the Women’sMarch on Washington, filled with righteousanger, solidarity and community.
At one point, after the march has officiallyended, a barricade blocking off Pennsylvania Avenue leading toward the WhiteHouse is knocked down. Marchers make their way to the fence on the other end,where Secret Service agents stand. An African American woman walks up rightbeside them. “Whose house? Our house!” she chants, her fist raised in the air.
Additional reporting by BrandonSoderberg.
BaynardWoods (@baynardwoods) is editor at large at the BaltimoreCity Paper, and his column, Democracyin Crisis, will appear regularly in the Shepherd to provide original coverage of the Trumpadministration and the Republican-controlled Congress. Woods’ work has alsoappeared in The Guardian, TheNew York Times, Washington Post, Vox, Salon, McSweeney’s, VirginiaQuarterly Review and many otherpublications.
