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District Dispatch: Disappointment and Demonstrations [1]

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Date: 2025-09-05

It’s been a couple of pain-in-the-ass weeks here in DC with all the fascism and what-not. And, being the nation’s capital city, a lot of the big points have been covered in other stories on this site. However, for those of you that may be interested in some of the details that do not attract national attention or, better yet, for those of you that are thinking about coming down to take part in the demonstrations, here is one view by one person living here that hopefully shares some useful info.

First thing first:

Demonstrations —

And first thing of the first thing is the call to action/ upcoming event part of the program

That’s tomorrow, if you’re in the area.

Although there have been demonstrations just about every day here in DC, this seems to be the biggest one coming up this weekend. This is a collaborative effort of several social justice and labor organizations from the city, the region and beyond.

NOTE: If you are planning to go, please be aware that Malcolm X park will likely go by the name Meridian Hill Park on your phone. It is quite a nice park and located close to places for food and drink.

As for the protest vibe in general, everything has been peaceful, (reasonably well) organized, and organically growing. In my head, they break out into three main categories:

The big ones — marshals, medics, and maybe a stage at the rally point or destination. The focus of these is pressuring elected officials and trying to get national coverage.

The neighborhood scale ones — Refuse Fascism has held a couple bigger marches, but has also held some smaller marches through neighborhoods with the intention of garnering more support among the citizens of DC.

The Curbsides and Banner Drops — mostly focused on morning or afternoon commute times, many of these are weekly recurring events. There is a google doc of recurring events in the DMV if you are in the area. It is an incomplete list, but it is a work in progress (not mine). These are working to keep morale up among participants and commuters alike and are bringing together people on a neighborhood level.

And, holy-moly, we need some morale boosters these days. And we need to provide them to each other, because well…

Disappointments —

Worse than useless.

I know it has been covered here already, and I know that some folks recoil at calling out Dems, so I won’t go into what Mayor Bowser Quisling has said recently, but I will say that it makes it hard to fight for you city when your so-called leader is teaming up with Trump to give that city away. She would have done better to say nothing at all, instead of coming out with her sycophantic pressers and memos.

She erased BLM Plaza to be rewarded with… a $1,000,000,000 cut to city thanks to the GOP. She helped Trump get the stadium deal he wanted to be rewarded with … a military occupation. She bowed down and kissed the ring of the occupying tyrant to be rewarded with… a threat to revoke home rule and replace the District AG (who, thankfully has the moral courage to sue be suing Trump over the occupation). Is this that mental Judo chess game I have heard is the most clever way to deal with Trump?

And, yes… Trump is now using Bowser’s actions and words to justify further militarization our nation’s cities.

But, I can’t say it better than than local activist Afeni Adams does in this video.

www.youtube.com/…

x YouTube Video

Or DC Council member Robert White:

And yet, instead of standing with our residents against this occupation, some members of our local government have chosen to cooperate. Yesterday, the Mayor signed an executive order requiring D.C. agencies — including MPD — to coordinate with federal forces “to the maximum extent allowable by law,” with no end date . This is not a strategy. It is a surrender. I understand why some people want to give the Mayor a pass. We all know the limits of Home Rule and the impossible choices D.C. leaders face. But there is only so much “playing nice” before you stop protecting the city and start offering it up on a platter. History is clear: appeasing an authoritarian has never protected those under occupation. It has only ever emboldened the oppressor. We have reached that point.

Full Text of Robert White’s Statement

Also a bit of a disappointment: there has been just about zero presence of the national Dems in the past three weeks. I get it, it’s August recess, but ffs, can’t one of you drag your ass back the Hill to give a presser or make a rally speech to let us we aren’t out here completely on our own?

BIG EXCEPTION SHOUT-OUT to Rep Al Green for taking the stage Tuesday at the action hosted by FLARE and then escorting us through Capitol grounds, which really made logistics much easier.

That’s all I got for today. Will post another diary soon with more images and links for detailed/ up to date info. But I will leave you with a LINK TO THE DC REDDIT THREAD. It’s a good source for seeing what is happening in the neighborhoods and hearing what is on people’s minds.

Remember — if you are coming in from out of town and are not familiar with the city, pay attention to signs when coming to roundabouts. DC has a whole mess of them and some are not that easy to navigate for first timers (and me). There are also lots of speed cameras.

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