https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299407.php Set 1 DTLA / Fairfax May 29 to 30th, 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299427.php Set 2 Fairfax May 30th , 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299447.php Set 3 Fairfax May 30th , 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299467.php Set 4 Fairfax May 30th , 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299487.php Set 5 Fairfax May 30th , 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299507.php Set 6 Fairfax May 30th , 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299527.php Set 7 Santa Monica May 31st, 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299547.php Set 8 Santa Monica May 31st, DTLA June 1st, 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299567.php Set 9 DTLA June 1st to 6th.
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299587.php Set 10 DTLA June 1st to 6th.
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299607.php Set 11 DTLA June 1st to 6th.
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299627.php Set 12 DTLA June 1st to 6th.2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299650.php Set13 Hollywood june 7th 2020
https://la.indymedia.org/news/2020/06/299670.php Set 14 Miscellaneous locations in L.A .
George Floyd, a resident of Minneapolis had his life snuffed out by a gang of four policemen of that same city on May 25th , 2020.
Officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas K. Lane restrained Floyd with Chauvin placing his knee on Floyds' neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
Chauvin kept his knee on George Floyds' neck for 2 minutes and 53 seconds after he became nonresponsive.
Floyd died at 8:25 pm on May 25th, of this year, pleading for his breath and his life on camera while four cops joked with a nonchalance that can only be seen as clinically psychotic.
A common sensation has gone through the U.S citizenry that universally acknowledges that Mr. Floyd did not receive equal protection under the law which is the very basis of American jurisprudence.
Los Angeles and many, many towns in the U.S have had almost constant protests and some unrest for over two weeks now.
The protests in Minneapolis started on May 26th with a street memorial that used the phrases “ Black Lives Matter” and “ I Can't Breath “ along with older chants from the Rodney King Riots of “ No Justice , No Peace “ . These became the rallying cries throughout the United States and at this point, the world.
Many signs in the los Angeles protests raged against “ White Silence “or urged the defunding of police budgets.
Acronyms such as ACAB ( all cops are bastards ), FTP ( Fuck The Police ) and BLM ( Black Lives matter ) have been tagged all over Los Angeles.
These phrases have become the war trumpet that was raised after years of eyewitness video that gave America a new horrifying front row view of how Black and Brown people have been repeatedly abused by law enforcement and the institutions that they Co-thrive with.
These were the gut screams of the disgusted and the fed up.
These were the shouts of those who treasure the narrative of American decency but wake up repeatedly to scenes of black bodies being abused and destroyed on our screens.
These two weeks of protests that are still spreading overseas have gone through phases of commemoration to marching to looting and arson and back to peaceful marching again.
Each day had a decidedly different feel here in Los Angeles.
I started taking pictures on the 29th of May in DTLA.
It went from a small freeway shutdown to some flashbang showdowns around Broadway and 7th where actual fireworks were thrown into the street and rubber bullets found a target of at least 1 man.
The second and third nights were in the Fairfax district and downtown Santa Monica where plunder and property destruction were prevalent. In Fairfax there were some very fervent standoffs between the sign carrying activists and the LAPD.
That was May 31st.
The Fire Department was in full attendance into the night after the afternoons police car burnings.
The sheriffs department made their appearance that night as business's burned on Melrose.
Some of the heart breakers in Fairfax and Santa Monica were the very small shops that had not been able to do any business for months due to the Covid pandemic, and now were far deeper in the red with smashed windows with trashed and burned out contents.
By the June 1st The National Guard appeared throughout the cities protest areas and surroundings.
The marches following this in DTLA were raucous but lawful and one sensed that the ranks had been cleansed out by those that did not want the essential message of George Floyd's death to be compromised by pillage. These marches usually ended at City Hall, however hundreds were arrested in DTLA for curfew violations. At this date the city is saying that it will not pursue charges.
During the Hollywood protest on June 7th the police presence's were practically nonexistent on Hollywood Boulevard while the national guard had left earlier.
The overall protest that day in Hollywood was estimated at 20,000 people.
No significant retail plundering has been reported for that day.
Covid 19 had a presence at these marches and protests throughout these 2 weeks. Most people wore masks. Hand sanitizer and masks were given out frequently but social distancing was relaxed.
There were countless moments of close quarter shouting and chanting with half off masks or a few with none at all.
The crowds all exuded that sense of youthful immortality that allows young people to face bullets or bungee jump into a canyon.
I feel that I witnessed an amazing sense of American spirit and unity during these marches. The racial and ethnic composition of the protesters seemed to mirror the actual contemporary younger American public.
Their enthusiastic outrage was universal and contagious !
I should have been fearful of Covid but this wave of altruistic, multicultural, righteous energy pushed the worry to the back burner. I had a mask and here was history.
I also did not see the kind of self segregating clusters one might see at a modern day school.
People mingled freely.
Most of the crowds were youthful and seemed fairly fit. Very few of the homeless or the very elderly were in attendance at the rallies I witnessed.
The photos I have taken are of what I saw. I'm not leaving out any aspect based on fear of retribution, good taste or political correctness.
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This work I am doing tends toward portraiture and up close moments that try to bring you inside the crowd of souls who need to say something they feel is important to their fellow citizens.
Some of the photos are of the attending madness and circus atmosphere that sometimes accompanies rallies, protests and actions.
I could not travel to all of the city and county. Most of the shots are in Down Town LA , the Fairfax District, Hollywood and Santa Monica.
Robert Stuart Lowden
Los Angeles, CA
June 9th, 2020
