06/18/2020
Sunday, May 31st, 2020 was a new day. The NAACP of Bloomington-Normal & Not In Our Town organized an event in front of the McLean County Law & Justice Center in Downtown Bloomington. Over 1,000 people attended filling out the entire plaza in front of the Courthouse, including some people in the nearby parking complex. The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by four former police officers has shocked the national consciousness. People of all races, young & old, were present.
The event was led by NAACP president Linda Foster, who started by having a pastor of no color say a prayer. She followed this by trotting out several powerful political officials (mostly men of a colonial complexion) including Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner, State Representative Dan Brady (R-Bloomington), Illinois State University President Larry Dietz (who just last fall faced criticism to his response to race discrimination claims on the ISU campus), Bloomington Police Chief Don Donath, Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner, Illinois State University Police Chief Aaron Woodruff, David Hirst of the non-profit Immigration Project, Rev. Treighton “Trey” Haddon of 2nd Presbyterian Church, Becky Hines of the Mclean County League of Women Voters, and Not In Our Town’s leader Mike Matejka. The people of color who spoke were Ward 6 Bloomington Alderperson Jen Carrillo, Linda Foster, Bloomington-Normal NAACP First Vice President Carla Campbell-Jackson, Bloomington-Normal NAACP Second Vice President Willie Holton Halbert, Justin Turner, Bradley Ross Jackson, Ezra Collum, Ky Ajayi of BLM BloNo and several others.
The overall message was clear: we must unify with all the institutions of power so that together we can fight for justice for Black Lives. The only problem is many of these institutions cannot function in the same way without systemic racism. So, we were being asked to conciliate with our oppressors and take guidance from the same leaders who have led us down this path.
The first speaker was Mayor Renner: “Thank you all for being here to fight for justice. It is a shame that after the assassination of MLK Jr. and the 1960s civil rights legislation that we still have to say ‘We are all human beings. We all matter. And… we do need to make progress. I so applaud all of you–look at all the people who are here; we have to continue to fight for justice.”
Next, Representative Dan Brady: “I simply want to say thank you to all who put this rally together here today. I want to say thank you to all of you for leading by example for our state & our country. Letting your voice be heard peacefully for change.” He then quoted some scripture and said charity would lead us to justice. He never once mentioned Black Lives or any issue of substance.
Third was Becky Hines of the League of Women voters who made powerful statements in support of Black Liberation and anti-racist actions. She encouraged people to vote & an inclusive electoral process.
Fourth was NAACP President Linda Foster: “There are ways we can work and be effective together.” What ways? Phone calls to Minneapolis political figures to pressure them regarding George Floyd’s murder, voting, write letters to the editor, complete your census, check out B-N NAACP website, and give us money by becoming a member of the B-N NAACP. “To avoid the question ‘Am I next?’–to avoid that from being a ‘Yes’ get involved, be engaged.” Join the NAACP today.
Fifth was David Hirst: “I bring support; I bring commitment to justice from the Immigration Project.”
Next was Illinois State University President Larry Dietz. He stated ISU would fight against bigotry. It was at this point, protesters began to grow frustrated at the speakers. Just last year, ISU students protested what they called a racist environment on the university campus, only to be dismissed by Dietz.
The NAACP followed this display with the chant “Proper Policing Matters” showing the NAACP’s full support to a reform-based method of holding police accountable. The chiefs of police for Normal, Bloomington, and ISU were then invited to speak, but were immediately booed by a sizable portion of the crowd. Screams of “Fuck 12,” “Fuck the Police,” “We hate them,” “They’ve been harassing our ass for decades,” “Fuck them; they be telling lies,” “Get them mothafuckas off the stage,” “Why you even invite them mothafuckas?” “I can’t breath,” “Fuck the Chief of Police,” “Take yo ass home bitch!” “Go home!” “You racist bitch!” “Fuck the Bloomington PD!” “No justice, no peace!” spread throughout the crowd. The rage against the police injustices was so great that the NAACP organizers began to lose control of the event.
Before BPD Chief Don Donath could even speak, he was drowned out by protesters. Linda Foster tried in vain to bring the crowd to heel, so they could listen to what the police chiefs had to say. “We got something other cities don’t have. We have the police actually willing to talk with us,1 to pay attention to us… I’m not trying to convince you, but I do expect respect.” One activist, Sonny Garcia, suggested to NAACP members to cancel the police speakers, because a profound rage within the crowd showed no signs of abating and the situation could turn dangerous. Instead, Linda Foster stood silently at the microphone, like a teacher waiting for a tantrum amongst students to settle so she could chastise them. “I know how you feel” she said to incredulous critiques from younger black protesters. “This is what they want us to be: at odds with each other. This is what they want. Stop giving them what they want. It ain’t no ‘who was here first.’ Let’s calm down… We have their [local police] undivided attention right now, and we doing this. We don’t even wanna hear what they have to say?”
Protesters were not calmed by Foster’s word, some asking whether she had been falsely arrested or harassed by police like they were. There was clearly a divide between the protesters and the strategies recommended by the NAACP.
After some semblance of order returned, a black pastor and several young black students spoke about their struggles. This was followed by poetry from Ezra Collum and Bradley Ross Jackson.
However, when the NAACP tried to hand the microphone over to Mike Matejka from Not In Our Town, some protesters took over the microphone. Mijhara Penrose shouted, “I will be speaking today; they tried to stop my voice. But guess what? We were here yesterday… These government officials: we could not get a meeting with them. We will not be put at the back of the line because ya’ll have media coverage. We started this!” She pointed at Micah Denniston, the organizer of the protest the day before, saying these protests started with her, when she spoke out for Black Lives. Mijhara said Micah received death threats from her own family for speaking out. She lambasted the media for their lack of coverage of the prior days events, and accused the NAACP of silencing younger activists’ voices.
I spoke later with Micah Denniston about her thoughts on the confrontation between protesters and NAACP. She said, “Speaking specifically for myself- It was a little confusing to be honest. I wasn’t quite sure. I had never been to a massive demonstration like that. I know there was some sort of frustrations from people of the spontaneous protests the previous two days. But I’m not quite sure as to why. I tried to kinda stay out of that as I wasn’t educated enough to really understand too much of it, from an activists stand point as I mentioned before. There was frustrations of voices being told they could speak and be heard, but then being denied the time so they took it into their own hands to be heard. I just tried to sit quiet and listen. There was also anger due to the police chosen to speak. A lot of people didn’t appreciate that. They were yelling at me for someone trying to give me recognition that I actually didn’t even ask for. I didn’t want to be recognized for a thing. I wanted the black community to be heard. That’s all.”
As Linda Foster tried in futility to regain control of the event, the crowd began to chant “Let Her Speak” encouraging Mijhara to speak her mind. The commotion continued until Alderperson Jen Carrillo distracted the audience with a moment of silence for George Floyd. “Racism is not about bad apples. Racism is not about good or bad intentions. Racism is about who has power and who doesn’t, and black and brown people in his community have been disempowered for too long,” Carillo said.
After the rally, Willie Holton Halbert of the NAACP, had this to say about the allegedly disruptive protesters. “They were trying to overcome this peaceful rally. We stand for peace and love,” she told The Pantagraph after the rally. “We respect everyone. We know they are angry and mad but we didn’t want them to hijack this peaceful rally.” She painted the disruptors as not only not-peaceful, but reaffirmed the fetishization of the ‘peaceful protest’, just as Representative Brady congratulated everyone earlier for “peacefully” speaking out in such a way as to be only minimally disruptive to the structures of power. Such is the obsession with the “peaceful protest” by liberals and conservatives. Anything ‘not-peaceful’ is automatically invalidated regardless of its efficacy.
Halbert’s comments rest on an uneasy assumption: that the NAACP and its strategies were effective at channeling the rage inherent in the crowd. What happened later, seems to undermine this assumption. Immediately following the completion of the NAACP’s program, the “disruptive” protesters marched onward with their own program, with the overwhelming majority of the crowd following. They moved from the plaza on Front St. to the Jail on Center street. Lead by Mijhara Penrose, Micah Denniston, & Jen Carrillo, the nearly 800 protesters stood in front of the jail calling out to inmates banging on their cell windows.
But, the crowd couldn’t stay in one place for long. They quickly took the streets with members of Illinois People’s Action and DSA Blo-No acting as marshals for traffic & crowd control. Just like the previous day, the march wandered through downtown Bloomington in a restless and unabated fashion, yelling in a deafening manner as if attempting to shatter the white supremacist structures at the foundations of the city. Again, like the previous day–unprompted–the Bloomington Police blocked off traffic as the march spontaneously chose its own path.
It wasn’t until the March was once again on Center Street after several miles of roaming around downtown Bloomington, and as they were returning to the McLean County Law & Justice Center, that the BLM protesters came under attack. At this point, I was near the back of the march near the intersection of Washington & Center street. I heard a loud engine revving. When I looked back, I saw a motorcycle about two blocks away behind the police vehicle that was blocking off traffic. The cyclist revved his engine again, before taking off down the road, passed the police vehicle, and plowing directly into the march. He drove around the protesters in the back only to head straight into the middle of the march.
All hell broke loose!
Those at the end of the march ran as fast as they could towards the cyclist. One woman was injured and needed an ambulance. Sheriff Sandage was a first responder on the scene while Bloomington police and activists tried to clear space for the ambulance to reach the injured woman. The motorcyclist, later identified as Marshall Blanchard, escaped the crowd somehow on his bike. Alderperson Carrillo stood face-to-face with Sandage where the victim lay wondering how the biker got through the police barricade. Micah Denniston stood in disbelief mumbling, “I didn’t want this to happen; I didn’t want this to happen.” Several of us reminded her that this is not her fault; this was the fault of the biker. The whole scene on Center St. was near pandemonium. Police desperately tried to clear the street without using force and thereby instigating a full-fledged riot. While the crowd was focused on the injured woman, a Bloomington Police Vehicle had its window broken out by a protester. The injured woman was eventually taken to an ambulance by EMTs surrounded by a chorus of cheers from her comrades.
The woman hit by the motorcycle was Caiti Hembree, 22, of Bloomington-Normal, said her brother Kyle Hembree and another witness, Kodi Williams. Caiti was coherent after the attack, but had a big tire mark across her abdomen and was bruised up and bleeding from the lip, Kyle and Kodi told WGLT. Caiti was in stable condition at Advocate BroMenn Medical Center later Sunday night, said Kyle.
Once the ambulance left the scene, the protesters quickly re-coagulated in the streets. One person parked at the corner of Olive & Center Street and displayed a “Blue Lives Matter” flag attempting to incite the protesters. When protesters ran toward him, he got in his car and fled. Another woman in a white vehicle that was stopped at an intersection got into some kind of confrontation with protesters who quickly surrounded her car. Her tire was slashed by an unknown person.2
The crowd of hundreds eventually left the street and directed their righteous anger directly at the jail itself. A group of about ten State Police stood outside the entrance in light riot gear, as protesters yelled & chanted at them. Like yesterday, the protesters were angry at the police and the only thing the police could do is take it. A few of the officers made symbolic gestures like ‘taking a knee’. This was given a big cheer by the crowd. Eventually, a superior came out and told the officers to retreat into the building, effectively deescalating any further confrontation.
At this point, many hours from the initial NAACP rally evolved into something more raw & powerful, activists like myself were becoming exhausted. Most of our phones were out of power, so many of us, including myself, left for home. After we left, Sheriff Sandage addressed what remained of the crowd. You can read about that interaction here.
Later that night, Marshall Blanchard was arrested at his home by Bloomington Police. He was initially charged with reckless conduct, failure to obey a police officer, and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. However, by Tuesday, those charges were upped to “17 felony counts related to the hit-and-run incident that injured two people, including [multiple] hate crimes, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery. The hate crime charges allege Blanchard acted ‘by reason of the actual or perceived race of a group of individuals.’” Blanchard is currently being held on $400,000 bond in McLean County Jail. He needs to pay $40,000 to be released pending his trial.
