Dispatches From Denver’s George Floyd Protests - 5.30.2020

Written by Quentin Septer

Note: This piece was written in the days following Denver’s George Floyd Protests, on May 30, 2020.

On Monday, May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed in police custody. A 46-year-old Minneapolis resident suspected of carrying a counterfeit twenty dollar bill, Floyd was apprehended by then Officer Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department shortly after 8:00 PM. Chauvin, who has since been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, proceeded to wrestle George Floyd to the ground, where Chauvin drove his knee into the rear of Floyd’s neck and pinned him face down on the pavement. “I can’t breathe,” Floyd can be heard to say no less than 16 times in witness video footage. Despite pleas from bystanders to release Floyd from this incessantly brutal force, Chauvin maintained his position for nearly ten minutes. 

Growing unresponsive under the weight of Chauvin, Floyd registered no pulse by the time paramedics arrived on the scene at 8:27 PM. 

At 9:25 PM, George Floyd was pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center.

Since, demonstrations against police brutality and racial discrimination have rose up in cities throughout the United States and around the world. On Saturday, May 30, thousands gathered in front of Denver’s Colorado State Capitol Building to protest George Floyd’s murder and the injustice epitomized by the case. People of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds came out, demanding justice for George Floyd, expressing disdain for the problems of police brutality and systemic racism in America.

Protests began peacefully on May 30. Protesters marched through downtown Denver. Speeches were delivered with passion and eloquence. A spirit of camaraderie was palpable. But as the afternoon wore on, suspense began to build between protesters and police. By 4:00 PM, police deployed tear gas on a group of protesters. By 5:00 PM, a front line began to form outside the Colorado State Capitol Building, on the corner of East Colfax Avenue and Lincoln Street.

There, protesters gathered before the police, collectively taking a knee and raising their hands in solidarity. Signs were raised higher still: CONVICT KILLER COPS, NO JUSTICE NO PEACE, BLACK LIVES MATTER, WE CAN’T BREATH. 

Chants boomed throughout the crowd: “What’s his name?” “George Floyd!” “What’d he say?” “I can’t breath!” 

Denver Police officers and National Guardsmen adorned in riot gear lined the streets surrounding the Capitol Building, toting batons, beanbag shotguns, face shields, flash bangs, tear gas canisters, and firearms loaded with rubber bullets and “pepper balls”—paintballs containing pepper spray.

The demonstrations remained peaceful, but the atmosphere was tense. An occasional firework ignited by protesters kept both sides on high alert. Then, shortly after 6:00 PM, screams rippled throughout the audience as a resounding bang erupted near the front line between police and protesters. 

In an overt display of force, police deployed tear gas and flash bangs on the crowd. Tear gas sprayed from projected canisters as protesters fleed the caustic burn of the aerosolized chemicals. A sulfuric sting permeated the air, penetrating the eyes, noses, mouths, throats and lungs of protesters and press alike. Some scattered toward the Colorado State Capitol Building, which was itself surrounded by officers donning military garb. Some distributed water and washed the burn from the eyes of tear-gassed protesters using spray bottles filled with milk of magnesia. 

“Does anybody need water? Milk of magnesia?” aides hollered out to those in need. 

Others remained before police on East Colfax Avenue, goggles and face masks shielding them from the searing sensations of the tear gas.

As protesters amassed again in greater numbers at the front line, police continued their sporadic tear gassing of the crowd. Some attempted to cover the erupting canisters with traffic cones before the gaseous plumes could spread. Others tossed the canisters back toward the police, to the cheers and applause of fellow protesters. Then, police opened fire, shooting pepper balls and rubber bullets with indiscretion. Many screamed in fear, falling back toward the Capitol Building. Those caught off guard stumbled in the sudden change of direction, trampled in the maddened rush.

“Medic! We need a medic over here! He’s bleeding!” 

A man writhes in pain on a patch of lawn beneath the Colorado Veterans Monument. Wounded from a projectile to the eye, blood gushes down his face as volunteer paramedics rush to his aid. 

“Get in front of us,” one medic demands of onlookers, signaling ahead. “Get in front of us, people!” 

Nearby protesters move forward, forming a barrier around the fallen man as the medical crew applies pressure to his wound. Wrapping the man’s laceration with gauze and escorting him to safety, the crew moves with rapid efficiency, disappearing as quickly as they arrived.

Following Denver’s third night of protests, a Lakewood man by the name of Russell Strong was admitted to a local hospital for treatment to his damaged eye. Strong’s injuries have left him in need of the surgical removal of his right eye, as reported by KDVR.

“I don’t know if it bounced off something, or if it was shot directly at me, but it hit me in the face,” Strong told KDVR of the projectile to damage his eye, which he surmises to be a flash bang used by Denver Police. Strong is purportedly in need of reconstructive surgery to remedy several broken facial bones resulting from the impact. A GoFundMe campaign has since been launched to help raise money for Strong’s medical bills.

Hundreds of protesters return to the front line. 

“Everyone take a knee! Please, everyone take a knee in solidarity with George Floyd,” a man at the front line pleads. 

Hundreds of protesters kneel on the pavement of Lincoln Street and the lawn of the Colorado State Capitol Building, hands stretching toward the sky. A moment of silence falls over the crowd. 

“What’s his name?” one protester shouts. 

“George Floyd!” 

“What’d he say?” 

“I can’t breathe!” 

Chants continue for a time before the masses rise once again. Others migrate from the Capitol Building back toward the front line on East Colfax Avenue. Cheers and shouts reverberate throughout the masses.

“Stop that guy!” a shaken voice cries out. “Stop him! He stabbed someone! He fucking stabbed somebody! Stop him!” 

Dozens of fingers point in the direction of a man dressed in a green and black parka. The man bolts through the crowd, sprinting in the direction of the police. Crossing East Colfax Avenue into a nearby parking lot, a group gives chase, closing in and tackling him to the ground. The chaotic scene prompts police to release several tear gas canisters and dozens of rounds of pepper ball rounds into a sea of protesters, the majority of whom withdrawing once again toward the Capitol Building, now with a heightened sense of urgency.

By 7:45 PM., protesters begin to congregate en masse on the lawn of a graffiti-speckled Colorado State Capitol Building. Protesters take a knee before the Capitol, fists raised in unity. 

“Hands up, don’t shoot!” 

Some protesters converse with police officers one-on-one, exchanging words and shaking hands before falling back into the crowd. Others communicate with hostility, lobbing trash-talk and occasionally, literal debris in the cops’ direction. A man sporting a red bandanna traverses the space between police and protesters, waving a burning stick of sage throughout the tense, dry air.

As the clock approaches the city’s 8:00 PM curfew instituted by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock earlier that evening, stillness settles over the crowd. 

“It’s like a calm before the storm,” one protester remarks. 

Chants begin to resonate in unison, with amplifying volume: “Why you got that riot gear? We don’t see no riot here! Why you got that riot gear? We don’t see no riot here!”

“Attention. Denver’s Emergency Curfew is now in effect,” a police officer announces over a loudspeaker. “Please disperse. I repeat, Denver’s Emergency Curfew is now in effect. Please disperse.” 

More tear gas is deployed as police close in from East Colfax and East 14th Avenue. Around 8 o’clock, a group of protesters begin to build a barrier between themselves and the encroaching police. Two protesters holding either side of a chain link fence panel run toward the front line. Others carrying sandbags and cinder blocks follow closely behind. The protesters erect the barricade before the Colorado Veterans Monument. Police continue to deploy tear gas. A handful of protesters occasionally manage to fling a canister back at the cops. Shortly after 8:30 PM, police unleash a barrage of tear gas, pepper balls and flash bangs into the crowd, driving protesters westward across Civic Center Park.

The majority of protesters disperse, while others take to barricading nearby streets. On the corner of 15th Street and Court Place, at approximately 8:45 PM, a group of protesters construct another barrier reinforced with dumpsters and construction signs. Met with more rounds of pepper balls and tear gas, the crowd is pushed back toward Tremont Place. There, protesters attempt to build yet another roadblock, incorporating a flaming dumpster as its centerpiece. Spurts of tear gas and pepper balls continue to scatter the remaining protesters until only a small band remains.

By 9:30 PM, the area settles into an eerie quiet. Small fires blaze on nearby roads as police continue to clear out stragglers. Firefighters traverse surrounding streets, extinguishing flames ignited in the latter stages of the protest. Debris lies strewn across the lawns of both the Colorado State Capitol Building and Civic Center Park, upon which tents have been erected by the area’s unhoused inhabitants. Oak, spruce, and walnut trees sway in a gentle breeze as police and ambulance sirens drone in the distance, contrasted against the buzzing backdrop of helicopters circling overhead. Above the scene of the day’s events, emblazoned in golden letters on the fore of the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center reads: LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.