It's entirely too early in the morning for me to be up and abusing a computer but the coffee tastes pretty good, might as well enjoy this foggy morning. I've had a bit of free time recently, been revisiting older photos, mostly from last year.
This series of photos is what I'm calling Downtown Protest Chic. The night before I took these I'd been sitting on my front porch listening to sounds of the party downtown, flashbangs and police helicopters circling incessantly.
The next morning the Facebook crowd was in an uproar over 'the damage to downtown!' They can be an excitable bunch so I decided to go see for myself.
An essential component of downtown protest chic is boarded up windows. The logic of covering buildings made of stone, steel, or concrete with flammable plywood escapes me but nobody ever claimed fashion made sense. It's definitely the first part of the look you notice, even before you make it into downtown.
Some places were were playing johnny-come-lately with the fad. This place was the site of a sit in demonstration back in 1961, back when it was the largest department store in the city.
Another essential ingredient of downtown protest chic is National Guard. Are you even doing it right if the National Guard doesn't get called in?
12 isn't very popular with the downtown crowd. Think Farva from Super Troopers but with lots of noxious toys and nobody to handcuff him to the commode.
Farva comes from a large tribe it seems and apparently their family reunion was in Louisville that weekend. News just broke (article here) that an LMPD officer is expected to plead guilty to federal charges for beating a protester who was surrendering the night before most of these photos were taken.
A mural on the downtown Marriott got an update for 2020. Notice there's nobody on the street even in the mural? That's because downtown is half corporate offices and half tourist trap and locals largely avoid it (for a variety of reasons).
I'd been downtown exactly two months before to get some downtown lockdown photos and it'd been a ghost town. Lot less plywood though
.Speaking of plywood, I think we may be looking at why lumber is so expensive presently. Hurricanes don't pass this way all that often, I don't think their wooden armor will see much repeat use. It does serve one good purpose though, you don't even have to watch the news to know when something bad is about to happen, just watch for the plywood to come out.
Seems downtown protest chic is corporate fashion, connections to the community seemed better armor than plywood.
No downtown protest chic is complete without a drone chaperone! No matter where you roam, it might just follow you home!
Pay no mind to the state troopers acting out their Vietnam fantasies, that's just for ambiance.
For some people just out exercising some things it all seemed a bit of an overreaction. Then again that is kind of the norm for some folks around here. I'm going to leave you with one last photo before I slip off and attempt to imitate an adult.
