I am heartbroken...a man we talked to who was at the protest in Tacoma, Washington who really cared about the horrible things that are happening in this country and who really came across as a beautiful soul is DEAD. (My friends were talking more to him.
We were all at the protest in Tacoma Washington for the candlelight vigil for the 1575 people there. We were protesting the conditions, how they are holding people in cages, places where some haven't had showers for weeks, where they sit in their own filth (its so crowded that even basic amenities are denied)
This man said he was staying all night, saying he was staying because he "didn't like concentration camps")
He had a sign that said "Never Again"
He was all alone, and just before we left we met some people who were setting up a lit stencil saying "Close The Concentration Camps" onto the concentration camps wall.
The woman setting it up said that "the more people who are around when we do it the better because the police do things they don't normally do when others are alone."
I kid you not.
Her words are ringing in my head right now.
I remember when she said that I felt so relieved that when we left there hadn't been any police action, and that none of us were arrested for being there at the protest.
Now I am just heartbroken that they took his life.
And I don't know that I believe the police story either. I hadn't seen any kind of weapons or fire starting things anywhere around the guy. I saw he had a chair and a paper bag with food in it. That's it.
God. I just wish he hadn't died. All alone. 4 cops shot him. FOUR. It just breaks my heart.
The guy had a heart of Gold...even had protected people against the Nazis...(he was a part of a bunch of guys that did that to help others) I have read all the news stories on this and have seen everything that was said.
I KNOW how the media sensationalizes. They said "He may have been trying to hurt inmates....NO...he came to show them he was with them! That they should NOT be caged, and that they should not be doing this to little ones.
I know how the media is because in Portland when I was in the protests against the nazi's the media said that we "were trouble" we who arm in arm walked down the streets (Including a bunch of dancing grannies in the street that had a coordinated dance routine) we were all united despite a helicopter with a police woman bearing down on us yelling "TURN BACK" with a megaphone when 6 people who weren't with us threw stones at the police.(I knew because I asked the police later what happened- THAT was the real story...) we chanted "Don't blame the police, don't blame the story we walk down the street in a blaze of glory" and "Black Lives Matter" as we walked down the street. It was unifying, we all knew what we were doing was right... and it was beautiful. We just kept walking down the street that the organizers had legally set up to walk down that day and reached our destination...the media turned it into "they are all trouble." (for the ratings I'm sure.)
I wouldn't believe the media, or the hype. Go to the source and you find the truth. Too often what is portrayed is not the source or the truth.
But no one will ever know on this one, because Willem is dead.
That man did NOT deserve to die. 😢
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