From the Front Lines: A Protester's Accounts of Marching for Justice in the Streets of Cincinnati

Written by Sonny Barrows

Before recently, I had never attended  a protest. I honestly did not know what to expect, but I watched anxiously every single night as the police instigated violence during protests and knew that this was something I could not stand by and watch.  The voices of Black protestors deserved to be heard, and there is strength in numbers. I reached out to my best friend about joining me, and with her wholehearted support and agreement, I began researching:  ‘How to avoid getting tear gassed, what to wear, how to treat yourself and others in case of them using the tear gas, and how to stay as anonymous as possible to steer clear of being identified by police.’ I never expected to actually use any of the information I found in my search, but I was very wrong.
 
My friend Cait and I prepared wet masks to help keep the tear gas out of our lungs and made extra for other protestors, along with dry masks to pass out to those who didn’t have any to help protect them from Covid-19, a tear gas neutralizer solution of baking soda and water, protein bars, pads, tampons, and medical tape for treating wounds from both rubber bullets and real ones (along with any other minor injuries that might occur). We dressed in all black, wore masks and head coverings, packed up our backpacks and protest signs and headed downtown. 
 
We were able to park relatively close to where the protest was at the time of our arrival (at the Cincinnati courthouse on Court and Main), which we were thankful for at the time, but in our haste to get to where everyone was, we forgot to make note of where exactly we parked. We joined the large group of people in front of the court house, listened to a speaker, chanted things like “No justice, no peace! No racist police!” and “I can’t breathe!” at the lead of the Black organizers, and began our march to the police station on Ezzard Charles Dr. The atmosphere was incredible, with everyone coming together for the same goal--to end police brutality. There were more chants which kept the crowd’s spirits high (angry, not violent, voicing frustrations and wrongdoings) as we marched. 
 
Upon our arrival, we were greeted by barricades in front of the police building, along with officers in full riot gear despite the crowd not once becoming aggressive all the way from the courthouse to the station. We formed a group and lined the barricades, allowing Black protestors to stand at the front where their voices could be heard by the cops. As we stood, a Black woman pointed out in anger and astonishment that almost the entire front line of riot cops were Black women. She voiced her outrage to the people around her and to the cops themselves, saying that it was incredibly cowardly and disgusting that they sent the Black women out to try and keep the crowd from becoming violent. As her voice was heard, a canister of smoke was tossed towards us and we immediately retreated quite a bit until we knew that it wasn’t tear gas. More riot cops poured out of the building, along with snipers on the roof and a helicopter closely circling us from above. We approached the barricades, chanting again, and a white “protestor” (who looked suspiciously like a plainclothes cop) threw an empty water bottle towards the riot cops. The Black protestors at the front immediately turned and screamed at him to knock it off, and that instigating them to violence was not wanted at all, and if he continued he would be forced to leave. He backed off and we resumed our chanting. All of a sudden, a full water bottle
was thrown (not hitting anyone and I would bet money that it was the same instigator as before, although I didn’t see it myself),  police officers immediately retaliated with violent force. Tear gas canisters and flash grenades were thrown and the crowd ran. Cait and I, despite being in the front of the crowd closest to the tear gas, managed to run quickly away and avoided it at first. As we turned around and saw that the cops were not chasing anyone, we quickly headed back to help treat those affected by the gas. Cait had her wet mask over her dry one, and kept the gas out of her mouth and lungs, but as I sprayed the neutralizing solution onto the faces of those suffering the effects of the gas, my lungs began to burn and Cait rapidly lost her vision due to the gas still lingering in the air. It’s a powder, not an actual gas, so it spreads extremely quickly even though you can’t see it after a moment. I sprayed Cait and coughed a bit as I continued to treat others. The solution works quickly, and within two to three minutes Cait and the others were ready to head back to the front. Some people suffered much worse than us. A thirteen-year-old girl was hurt badly, though we don’t know exactly what happened. Her mom was called and she was taken to the hospital. The crowd continued to peacefully chant, no other instigators threw anything, and suddenly we were surrounded on three sides by police who charged and started throwing more tear gas and flash grenades. There was a call of “WHITE PEOPLE TO THE FRONT!!” and we ran and linked arms. However, it became clear that our cries of “WE ARE PEACEFUL AND UNARMED!” fell on deaf ears, because they came towards us even faster than before. Everyone turned and ran besides the medics, who wore red crosses clearly on their bodies. They ran towards the injured protestors with milk, water, and the baking soda solution to help them and even they weren’t safe as the cops turned their aggression onto them as well. The helicopter came extremely low and we realized that we were in danger of them gassing us from above, and we all ran. As I ran, my lungs began to burn so bad I could barely breathe and I had to stop in a hidden corner and drink some water and try to calm myself down from what I then assumed was a panic attack. 
 
A few minutes later, the feeling suffocation ended, and we continued walking towards where we thought we had parked. We had taken our masks off mostly so that I could breathe and because we thought we were far enough from the cops, when a passerby warned us that the police were actually driving down the surrounding streets videoing anyone on the sidewalk, presumably to get their identities so we quickly covered our faces and heads back up. A few police cars passed us on our walk back, but no one stopped us as we wandered around trying to figure out where we parked. We warned as many people as we could to cover their faces and turn their Face ID/fingerprints off on their phones so that the police could not force them to unlock them. After a good twenty minutes, we finally found the car and headed back home. I continued to have severe pain in my esophagus and lungs all night and coughed and coughed from the lingering effects of the tear gas that were exacerbated by my running. The heavy breathing I was doing caused the gas to go deeper into my lungs and I realized I had not had a panic attack, it was completely caused by the gas.
 
So many others stayed that night, and if we hadn’t had our kids waiting at home, we would have stayed as well. It was hugely eye-opening to see how privileged we were to be able to leave, while others chose to or had no choice but to stay and risk injury, being arrested, and frankly even death to continue to fight against police brutality. The next day, Sunday, we learned that hundreds of peaceful protesters had been arrested the night before, and were held in a
courtyard for 10+ hours with no food, no water, no blankets, and no bathrooms. Diabetic protestors were not given access to insulin, and one person actually ended up passing out and her heart stopped before the guards listened and got her medical help.
 
Overall, this experience only continued to prove that the actions by police that are supposedly trained in “de-escalating” tense situations are extremely inappropriate and do nothing but instigate a fight. No true protestor wanted violence, we wanted the voices of those who are being oppressed and murdered to be heard. Being subject to police violence first hand has caused me to not be shocked by anything I have seen cops do during these riots. The hate, the violence, the dispersal tactics that are not even allowed in actual war, it is all completely unnecessary. Water bottles do not kill-but tear gas and “non-lethal” rubber bullets do. If the police are not demilitarized, more innocent Black lives will be lost. More peaceful protests will turn lethal.