Some very horrifying shit went down in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, and while we were all glued to the news wondering what would happen to our democracy few of us spared a thought for the Washington residents enduring this crap in their town.
Veronica Westhrin, a Norwegian journalist who lives in D.C., wasn’t about to stand idly by while her fellow Washingtonians suffered in silence. She hit the streets to find out what her fellow residents thought of Wednesday’s failed insurrection. What she captured is kind of beautiful:
We don’t know these people’s names. No matter — they are all of us.
If that audio is a little tough for you to hear, former Deadspin alumn Timothy Burke tweeted a cleaned-up version. Here’s a transcript:
Guy On Porch: Get the fuck out of town! Fucking treasonous pieces of shit.
Woman In Car: I know! They..they are really destroying our city!
Guy On Porch: They’re destroying the fucking city and it’s like nobody gives a shit. When it was Black Lives Matter they had tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue but they let these fucking crackers take over the goddamn capitol building!
Woman In Car: That’s true
Guy On Porch: What the fuck is that!
What the fuck is that indeed! This is the kind of discourse that fuels our country. It can sometimes feel like the voice of the average American is drowned out by the loudest and craziest among us. But the great equalizer is sitting in traffic. We’ve all been trapped in our cars by bullshit, and we should all take that moment as our chance to speak our mind.
I feel their pain. Trump supporters stormed the TCF Center in Detroit where ballots were being counted after the November 3 election, holding an impromptu rally that inspired a lukewarm response from the police. This was after a summer in which the police violently clashed with actual Detroiters during the Detroit Will Breathe protests.