After the protests for the murder of George Floyd started spreading around the country, it obviously wouldn't be long before Austin stood up against this too. And stand up they did.
Unfortunately, there were pretty serious consequences and the protests were quickly labeled as "riots" by APD. It's unclear to me if there was justification for that or not, but the term led to a use of force by APD. Many people, including some from the media, were hit with "rubber" bullets, pepper spray, tear gas, and worse. I believe one young man even lost his eye. Others were rendered unconscious from the impact of "less-than-lethal" munitions.
Having heard what was going on, my buddy Claire and I decided to take our bikes downtown just to ride around and see what was actually happening.
We definitely saw some pretty awful exchanges between police and protestors, large lines of police barricading streets and properties, and some literal dumpster fires.
