I’m glad you made this post because those were my impressions too. I had no idea tear gas was being used, I just thought someone had brought fireworks. Haha, even as it was burning my lungs I thought it was just a smoke bomb. It was a very mild event until the very end.
I also saw those lines of men pushing aggressively to get to the front. One line was led by a guy giving a political speech which at the time I thought sounded memorized. And way too grandiose for the mood of the crowd. “THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS” type stuff if delivered by an overly dramatic doof in the high school drama club.
Also, I did see several guys with army surplus style gas masks, and not long before things went south, they pulled out fresh disc cylinder things (the filter?) and popped off the plastic protector seal caps. They screwed them into the mask and I thought to myself that they were taking things way too seriously/were larping. Didn’t notice where they wandered off to but felt out of sync with the mood of the crowd.
From the get go, people on megaphones were urging people to move up to the front (even though there was nothing to see up front). Thought that that was weird because I kept thinking we were missing someone who was about to speak. If we had been closer, I guess these things would’ve made more sense because I saw none of what was going on at the fence.
I saw that signal flare too. Was red and just kind of hung in the air.
I was literally next to these people. Absolutely wild. I don't know why I didn't notice how out of place it was. I think it's because I spent time on TDW and figured some folks would show up like that haha.
I’m not saying they were all plants, no disrespect to true patriots, but there was an odd amount of cosplayers in the crowd. I saw guys dressed up like minutemen, a couple in Ben Franklin type gear, and another guy in Roman Senator attire. They could’ve been legit but after seeing the cartoon characters plastered all over the news later, it made me suspicious. The guy who took the podium was 5 feet away from us, and I remembered thinking he was way too put together. He looked like the type of dude who uses man creams and takes 5 hours to get ready. Didn’t seem like your average Trump supporter, haha. And it came as no surprise that he was spotted at a BLM protest last summer.
I’m glad you made this post because those were my impressions too. I had no idea tear gas was being used, I just thought someone had brought fireworks. Haha, even as it was burning my lungs I thought it was just a smoke bomb. It was a very mild event until the very end.
I also saw those lines of men pushing aggressively to get to the front. One line was led by a guy giving a political speech which at the time I thought sounded memorized. And way too grandiose for the mood of the crowd. “THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS” type stuff if delivered by an overly dramatic doof in the high school drama club.
Also, I did see several guys with army surplus style gas masks, and not long before things went south, they pulled out fresh disc cylinder things (the filter?) and popped off the plastic protector seal caps. They screwed them into the mask and I thought to myself that they were taking things way too seriously/were larping. Didn’t notice where they wandered off to but felt out of sync with the mood of the crowd.
From the get go, people on megaphones were urging people to move up to the front (even though there was nothing to see up front). Thought that that was weird because I kept thinking we were missing someone who was about to speak. If we had been closer, I guess these things would’ve made more sense because I saw none of what was going on at the fence.
I saw that signal flare too. Was red and just kind of hung in the air.
I was literally next to these people. Absolutely wild. I don't know why I didn't notice how out of place it was. I think it's because I spent time on TDW and figured some folks would show up like that haha.
I’m not saying they were all plants, no disrespect to true patriots, but there was an odd amount of cosplayers in the crowd. I saw guys dressed up like minutemen, a couple in Ben Franklin type gear, and another guy in Roman Senator attire. They could’ve been legit but after seeing the cartoon characters plastered all over the news later, it made me suspicious. The guy who took the podium was 5 feet away from us, and I remembered thinking he was way too put together. He looked like the type of dude who uses man creams and takes 5 hours to get ready. Didn’t seem like your average Trump supporter, haha. And it came as no surprise that he was spotted at a BLM protest last summer.