We wandered into the belly of the beast yesterday by accident.
A2 Art Fair 2020 Cancelled Due To Cooties – performance artist at last year’s fair
Not the Ann Arbor Art Fair - of course it was cancelled this year, for your safety. So we headed out for an Indian restaurant on Main Street thinking lunch in the Peoples Republic of Ann Arbor would be safe. We were unaware that there was a planned protest in front of the Federal Building in the near proximity. Nor were we aware of the fact that Main Street – like Main Streets everywhere this year – was closed to traffic in order for restaurants to expand their outdoor seating into the city’s main thoroughfare. When we met with the barricades closing Main we turned left on Washington and saw a crowd gathering with signs one block down, effectively closing Washington to traffic as well; progressives really know how to screw up a town.
Against all odds we lucked upon a parking spot right around the corner so we parked and went on our way, leaving what turned out to be the gathering of the latest of an ongoing series of BLM/police brutality protests in AA. Yesterday’s event specifically targeted the use of federal agents in our-of-control cities. But you see, that’s what happens when they cancel the Ann Arbor Arts Festival: performance artists gotta perform somewhere.
Activist Ethan Lucas sets a timer on his phone and lies in the street as other protesters kneel for 8 minutes and 46 seconds at the intersection of Liberty and Division streets in Ann Arbor
As these events tend to go in college towns it was mostly populated by privileged young white folk, mostly chicks,
Photo MLIVE
and privileged old white folk, also mostly chicks.
Photo MLIVE
A recap of the protest according to MLIVE:
Protesters and politicians gathered around the federal building in Ann Arbor on Saturday to protest against police brutality and federal agents coming to Michigan.
About 200 people [Ed. A generous estimate, and half of them were politicians, Michigan’s primary election being just a few weeks away] showed up to the building at 200 E. Liberty St. to rally against unidentified [Ed. If by “unidentified” you mean uniformed federal agents wearing the insignia of their respective agencies] federal agents being sent to Michigan and to call for police reform. The rally was proceeded by a march through downtown.
A generous crowd estimate of 200 – enough to close an intersection if they social distance properly
Local police participated as well:
“A chant of ‘defund the police’ means we want to challenge the status quo. That is OK,” said Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton. “If at the end of the day, we ended up shifting funds somewhere else to help people that have been discriminated in the past, underserved in the past and marginalized in the past, I do not have a problem with that.”
You’ll be stunned to hear that Sheriff Jerry Clayton is running for re-election and is on the August 4th primary ballot.
We enjoyed our Korma, Curry and Naan from our premier window seat table inside the air conditioned Shalimar. For entertainment we watched the passing scene on the other side of the glass; there was the young couple eating at a table in the shade who respectfully replaced their face masks whenever they weren’t eating their samosas or nibbling on their naan. And the dutiful baby daddies (I hesitate to call them husbands because who knows these days) pushing little children in strollers with their face masks perched he-manly and jauntily below their noses. A full 99% of the people marching up and down the makeshift Main-Street-turned-food-court in the 88 degree temperature strapped in behind a mask. A true marvel of human evolution and effective agitprop.
“We’ve experienced large crowds downtown since the street closures began June 12,” Taylor said in a statement. “Although we’re delighted people are enjoying themselves, we’re also discouraged that some folks choose not to wear a mask when walking around downtown…
City officials said they will further emphasize Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s mask-wearing order that went into effect Monday, July 13, which requires individuals to wear masks at all times indoors and outdoors in large gatherings.
Without compliance, Ann Arbor will cancel the street closures because of the public health risk. – MLIVE
In other words they’re only happy as long as you comply with the State’s mandates, no matter what they be.
I think I’ll cancel Ann Arbor before they cancel me.
As usual it’s the children who will suffer most
Me thinks Ann Arbor doth protest too much.
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