DJ versus Andrea Jenkins

I witnessed the conflict between DJ and city council number Andrea Jenkins at pride yesterday. Where people really want to know is what happened, and the bare bones of the situation is DJ was Conley expressing his conflicts with agape, mother's love, and another group and insisting that Andrea Jenkins push for defunding the police. Jenkins was fluctuating between being calm and concerned and being belligerent and swearing and escalating. It was ultimately Jenkins that escalated the situation to the point where it ended up being over an hour and a half long protest. I was out there for an hour and a half, I don't know how long they were out there all together.

Jenkins definitely could have handled things differently. Definitely should have handled things differently. When she leaves the house she's a public figure and an elected official, and she should always act accordingly. If she's ever okay with getting in people's faces and yelling and cussing and being belligerent she needs to stay at home. She definitely shouldn't have come out to an anti police protest being in support of the police and these groups that our ultimately government-funded insurgencies.

There was a lot said in the conversation and I can't even say it was a heated back and forth, because DJ was calm for the most part. Jenkins was trying to play the impression Olympics between black people and black trans women like all black people aren't subjected to police brutality. Her response to DJ's concerns about police brutality and insurgents brutality was "what about black on black crime?" in bringing up how black men attack black trans women. Like the police don't also brutalize black trans women. And these insurgency groups are black run so whenever they're criticized they get to play identity politics, so it's still circling back around the black on black crime - if that's really the game we're playing. She was out there saying all the wrong things and she should know by now to walk away before she even get to that point.

I protested for an hour and a half and I'm very thankful that my ride joined me. We're basically friends now. That was the first day I met that person. I've been going through a lot mentally and emotionally within just a few days, and it felt great to be out there and community and yell and sing and dance and protest. I'm very mentally and emotionally drained though. They've been a lot of major ups and downs in the past few days and I'm very tired.