Overheated at the Phoenix Trump Rally
An activist who streamed the tear-gassing of peaceful protesters details last Tuesday’s events.
On August 19, Yesenia Moya de Marin, a friend of mine and fellow organizer, messaged me about a rally going on in Phoenix. Puente Human Rights Movement was organizing a protest of the potential pardon of ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio outside a rally being held by Donald Trump at the Phoenix Convention Center. I feared what such a pardon would do to further embolden white supremacists. Arpaio didn’t just break the law, he violated our Constitution. What might other lawmakers do if they felt a pardon was on the table?
When Tuesday, August 22 came we packed ourselves and another friend, Liliana Trejo Vanegas, into the car with plenty of snacks and water and made the drive from Las Vegas to Phoenix. We made sure to bring essentials, thanks to the helpful list posted by the organizers: sunscreen, water bottles, flashlight, back up battery. We also brought our homemade cardboard signs and, thanks to my husband, dust masks.
I feared what such a pardon would do to further embolden white supremacists. Arpaio didn’t just break the law, he violated our Constitution. What might other lawmakers do if they felt a pardon was on the table?
We arrived at the meetup location, Civic Space Park, around 3pm. The organizers there had plenty of food and water for anyone who needed some. They were on a bullhorn going over the day’s events. We were to march from the park to 3rd and Monroe, across from the convention center. They had stationed more food and cold water there, as well as street medics, legal observers, and folks trained in deescalation tactics. They let us know they would be posting important info on the Facebook event page and that any time folks needed to leave the rally they could come back to the park as the organizers would make sure there were always folks there.
Just after 4pm we started marching. We went down Central Ave to Monroe Street and marched down Monroe to 3rd. Police directed us along this route. When we passed 2nd Street on Monroe we were directed behind metal crowd barricades that kept us on the north side of the street. Across the street from us, people would be filing into the Convention Center for the Trump rally behind another set of metal crowd barricades. It was clear the city and police planned to keep the two crowds segregated. The city had set up dump trucks and cement and water barricades to prevent vehicles from driving into the area. 3rd was blocked off just south of Van Buren and Monroe was blocked off east and west of 3rd. We settled into our rally space and prepared for a long hot day.
For the next three hours, we stood together in the dense crowd and bore the heat while chanting and holding our signs. We wanted every last person across the street to hear and see our disapproval as they entered the Convention Center. At one point, two officers walked up Monroe Street with a loudspeaker and gave general instructions to the crowd to stay peaceful. At least two more marches arrived after us, they came down 3rd, climbing over the barricades to get into the rally space. By 7pm there were easily 5,000 people packing the Herberger Theater plaza and 3rd Street, from the barricades on Monroe Street all the way back to the dump truck and barricades just before Van Buren. My friends and I set ourselves up on the northeast corner of 3rd and Monroe right outside a Catholic Church. Puente Human Rights Movement frequently updated us with posts to the event page. They let us know where cold water was, where they needed more ice, and posted more than one update warning folks not to move to the other side of the convention center on Washington. We saw street medics treat a few folks for heat exhaustion.
When I saw the line of police put on their gas masks my whole attitude changed. I went from peacefully-holding-my-sign-and-chanting-mode into safety-mode. I grabbed the dust masks out of my bag and passed them to my friends. I got out my phone, checked my backup battery and prepared to live-stream.
As the Trump rally began inside, folks started checking their phones. Some would relate what was happening at the rally, including when it was made clear that a pardon was indeed going to be given to Arpaio. After 8pm we could see people starting to exit the Convention Center, most seemed to be using the breezeway that crosses over 3rd Street with only a handful exiting on our side. Tensions were growing. As a line of police donned their riot gear and gas masks and started to move down Monroe Street to form a line facing the theater we could see a few empty water bottles being thrown towards the convention center. Whether these bottles were aimed at the police or the handful of Trump supporters exiting down the street behind them was hard to say.
When I saw the line of police put on their gas masks my whole attitude changed. I went from peacefully-holding-my-sign-and-chanting-mode into safety-mode. I grabbed the dust masks out of my bag and passed them to my friends. I got out my phone, checked my backup battery and prepared to live-stream. I made note of the crowd size and the obstacles to leaving the area. Things didn’t look good, with barricades on all sides and a police line moving down in the direction we needed to go to get back to the park it seemed like our best option was to just stay in place.
At 8:31pm I took a picture of the street looking up towards the line of police. It looked like their presence and our crowd shouting for people to stop had done the trick and no more plastic bottles were being thrown. At around 8:35pm, without any announcement or warnings, the police fired multiple gas canisters into the street in front of the theater. Some folks stood their ground, some ran, many put their hands up in the air, some started throwing bottles again. At 8:37pm I began livestreaming to Facebook, at 8:38pm police set off their first flash-bang grenades. At that point I and my friends did our best to keep the crowd around us safe. We urged folks not to run, the danger of people getting knocked down and trampled or crushed up against the barricades was at the forefront of our minds, there were a handful of elderly and disabled folks in the crowd as well as a few children.
After the initial gas cans, flash bangs, and rubber bullets the police held off for 5 minutes or so as another handful of Trump rally attendees exited down Monroe Street. Our folks chanted and held firm. As the last of the attendees passed, the line of police in riot gear began banging their shields with their batons, their intent was unclear. Then again, without warning, they fired more gas canisters this time at the folks demonstrating in front of the theater rather than into the street between them.These were closely followed by flash-bang grenades and now also rubber bullets. This time, a large group of folks broke off and ran. In immediate response, at 8:44pm, the police formed a large wedge, pulled the metal barricades aside to shove their line into our rally space. Once past the barricades they started firing flash-bangs INTO our crowd on 3rd Street. A minute later a police helicopter flew in above us and started circling the area.
As the police aggression continued, more and more folks broke away and ran out of the area in various directions, climbing over obstacles as they were able. As our numbers dwindled it felt more and more important that we stick together in as large a group as possible, both to protect each other as witnesses to the police activity and to protect folks from being caught out alone with any of the Trump supporters.
Once the police had successfully wedged into the space in front of the theater, they formed another line. They were now physically blocking our way out of the rally area. Without being able to head west down Monroe Street our next option was to go a block north up 3rd Street to Van Buren and then west to get back to Civic Space Park. The problem was, this direction on 3rd was blocked off with water and cement barricades and a dump-truck. As we stood our ground, chanting and considering our best way out of the area, the police fired more gas cans and flash-bangs, this time onto 3rd Street, between us and Van Buren. At 8:52pm a gas can was fired right at us, enveloping us in smoke. We could hear the police fire rubber bullets at us through the smoke.
As the police aggression continued, more and more folks broke away and ran out of the area in various directions, climbing over obstacles as they were able. As our numbers dwindled it felt more and more important that we stick together in as large a group as possible, both to protect each other as witnesses to the police activity and to protect folks from being caught out alone with any of the Trump supporters. Some folks had shared reports that a man, James Cobo, who had earlier threatened in the Facebook event page to drive his truck through protesters, had indeed come out and at one point tried to hop a curb with his truck before abruptly stopping and reversing up the street narrowly missing folks and then speeding away.
By 8:54pm enough of the crowd had dissipated that we could faintly hear something being announced from the helicopter above but it was unintelligible over the noise. At this point we made the decision to try and urge people toget off the street and stick to the public sidewalk so that while we maintained the exercise of our rights we complied as much as possible and stayed peaceful. At 8:57pm we were able to clearly hear the announcement from the helicopter, we were being directed to leave the area. The problem? The police were blocking our way out.
We’d been faced down by police, their gas cans, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and flash-bangs for just over a half our, it was now about 9:10pm. While looking around us for viable exits we spotted more police gathering behind us, East of us on Monroe Street, this left going north on 3rd our only real option. Thankfully someone managed to tip over one of the water-filled barricades and clear a gap for us to go through. Once we got to Van Buren we turned west towards Civic Center park only to find it also totally blocked off by police in riot gear. Their line spanned the entire intersection on 2nd Street. As we had moved away from the convention center police had filled in behind us. Once again, we felt waiting was our best option. The three of us were unfamiliar with the area and unsure of what other routes back to the park we could use.
No sooner had we turned onto Van Buren than the police began firing rubber bullets, gas canisters, and eventually flash-bangs again. A handful of Trump rally attendees walked through us and up to the police, and were let through the line and past the intersection. When we started to move up behind them to get through as well, the police started turning everyone back and then started to move their line down Van Buren towards us. Yet again, with no better option, we turned back towards 3rd Street. As we walked away police fired gas canisters and rubber bullets at our backs. A man walking next to me was shot in his bottom with a rubber bullet.
Once we reached 3rd, we decided to ask the folks watching our live stream for directions. After figuring out where we were exactly, we were directed through our live stream to continue morth up 3rd. It was just about 9:30pm and as we moved down 3rd we looked around to realize it was us three women walking alone with handfuls of Trump supporters going by here and there, some of them with no qualms about verbally engaging us or following behind us.
The next street we reached was Taylor and as we looked west towards 2nd Street, in the direction of the park, there was yet another line of police blocking the way. Next to us on 3rd was an officer not dressed in riot gear and we felt safe enough to approach him for directions. He directed us to continue one more block north then we could go west on Fillmore, towards the park. He was pretty sure they were letting pedestrians through in that direction.
We reflected on what we had just gone through. Though tensions got very high as the police escalated their aggression towards our peaceful demonstration, we held firm to our space, we were overwhelmingly peaceful, we maintained a strong sense of solidarity.
We continued north to Fillmore where we turned West. At 9:38pm, one hour after we started livestreaming, we were finally able to move in the direction of Civic Space Park, the area the police knew we had all met up at before the march to the convention center. As we crossed 2nd we looked south, down towards the Convention Center, and could still see the police in their riot gear blocking the way, so we went one more block west on Fillmore to 1st Street. From there we were able to head back south towards the park. At Taylor we turned west again, and to our great relief we saw the park. As we got closer we could hear organizers from Puente Human Rights Movement announcing on a loud speaker that they still had water and snacks. It was around 9:45pm, more than an hour since the first gas cans had been fired at us.
Once we were in the park we calmed down and prepared ourselves for the long drive home. We reflected on what we had just gone through. Though tensions got very high as the police escalated their aggression towards our peaceful demonstration, we held firm to our space, we were overwhelmingly peaceful, we maintained a strong sense of solidarity. Carlos Garcia of Puente Human Rights Movement said, “The people lifted each other, picked up the fallen, aided youth and elderly and supported the wounded. Some even fought back, allowing time for others to retreat.” We may not have prevented the pardon, but we are still here and we will continue to resist.
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