Story time.

I filmed the Trump inauguration, in particular a team of us split up and covered the various groups participating in “Disrupt J20.”

Each of us followed a different “group” - someone hung with the LGBT focused protestors, another with indigenous peoples, etc. I hung out with…let’s say the tough and rowdy folks (I’m a white dude who had made a very convincing laminated press pass. My work was legitimate but we didn’t have formal credentials in time for this coverage so we sort of landed on a grey area tactic on that front). “Black bloc” is what they settled on for their own little banner of sorts. Lots of covered faces.

It was an exciting but generally not dangerous day. DC police are actually pretty good at de-escalating/handling situations that are escalating with a pretty firm but not power tripping response. I do not like giving any police credit, but I can tell you firsthand that they were not going to make the situation worse. At least not anything I saw. This is not an endorsement other than to say they clearly had experience and common sense from what we saw in the specific matter of handling massive organized protests. I only say this because I’ll always give credit where credit is due and more you’ll see later.

I filmed folks break windows of BofA, a trash can was thrown and lit on fire, it got rowdy but even so it sort of capped itself off. The group self regulated and it never got truly violent.

All of this is to say that there was one moment where I truly felt concerned for my life. NRA TV showed up. These guys were cosplaying like they were walking straight out of Kabul, it was insane. Then a bunch of MAGA-hat wearing folks came up to me while I was filming an interview encircled me. The interviewee was a black woman who clearly was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and pushed away out of the circle. Before I could step away, one of them grabbed my shoulder and screamed “fuck you fake news!” and pushed me. I immediately threw my hands up and said “do not fucking touch me I am a member of the press” and one of them shouted “you’ll get what you deserve race traitor.” At this point (callback to the top of this comment) a DC police officer started walking over and clearly looked concerned. He looked at me and I nodded and he moved a little faster. This is not bullshit, it happened.

I am relieved to say they all walked off quickly and left me alone after that. But it was the first time in my life I ever felt like my line of work was dangerous. After my first kid was born I stopped covering protests, I’m sad to say.

Images like this show why it's so important to vote

No, no, no… The orange man has assured me that it was the biggest crowd of all time. Probably more people than had ever been in one place at the same time. And he surely wouldn’t lie to me.

Now imagine how big the crowd would be for Harris!

Or don't.

Because until 2017, nobody gave a crap about the size of the crowd. Normal Presidents have had more important things to think about in their first 100 days in office.

Voting Vs "My vote doesn't matter anyways." or "They're all the same anyways."

2021 had very few people because of corona.

Here's Obama's from SPAAAAAAAACE
https://content.satimagingcorp.com/static/galleryimages/geoeye-1-obama-inauguration-2009.jpg

Surprised at how ugly the area is.

Queen Elizabeth II:

I was pretty sure it was gonna be a shit show as soon as the election results came in, but the fact the dumbass lied so obviously and pathetically only hours into his term really ironed in how fucked the next four years were gonna be.

There were more protesters at Trump's event than supporters

harris's will be more packed than obama's

I was at George W.'s inauguration with a school group, and it wasn't as packed as Obama's but it blew Trump's out of the water, and it was cold and windy AF.

Reminds me of Spicy’s first presser…. His tone and attitude had me immediately realize the next 4 years would be rough…

OP sjmarf, I tried to feel you out a bit, hard to get a read on your age based on your comment history. But I gather you live in the UK. Idk if you've always lived there, or immigrated.

I was a younger American at the time of 2009 Inauguration, but I can tell you the general feeling in the air that day: fucking excitement. It was truly electric; whether you were for or against Obama, you're just kind of forced to take a few steps back & go... Wow. America has officially elected a black President. It was unprecedented, it was almost kind of strange because you've got people always screaming about how racist America can be. But there we were. Obama was handsome. Charismatic. Hell, if I were in town, I probably would have been there, too. Just for the sheer spectacle of it all & witnessing history unfold.

Going from that to another white (/orange) man taking the office, kinda old hat, kinda business as usual. I'm telling you, there's simply no honest way to compare the two events.

I also want to take a moment & say thank you for your content creation & possibly upkeep on the Lemmy platform. I had to filter out your posts, there's so much material you've contributed. Thanks. 👍🏻

Was that photo taken at the very peak of impeached ex-president’s crowd?

Course, even if it was, we’re still comparing apples…

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to oranges

Sean Spicer needing to defend Trump's absurd claim about attendance to keep his job was delightful TV.

Obviously, all the people on the right wearing camouflage. That's why we can't see them. /s

When people get into large, really really large, crowds, I can't help but see them as a horde of bugs.