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A cacophony of blowing horns and shouts beat against Christopher Svochak, from Waco, who, with a megaphone, called the gathered protesters “sinners” and “faggots.” To his flank, Ricardo Yepez, from Tampa, Florida, watched his back as he shouted similar slurs towards the much larger showing of leftwing protesters.
Under the gazebo, gathered musicians sang songs of resistance to protesters mustering at Pike Park. This was all before the planned march to demonstrate against the gathered Republicans at the convention nearby.
Nicole Esters, a protester, stood face to face with Svochak as he was being swarmed by protesters and journalists. She said, “He called us several things including ‘Jezebel and sodomite.’” Esters said she replied to him: “The God you claim to serve would turn you away and say he never knew you. God is love, not hate.”
The Dallas Against the Trump Agenda Coalition had organized a protest march against the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Sept. 10. With a plan to march along a route that would take them to the edges of the security fence that was put up around the American Airlines Center. However, the Dallas Police Department cancelled their permit a week prior, without an official statement, and organizers said that may have put a damper on the numbers they expected to attend.
But that did not stop organizers from marching anyway.
Shortly before 1 p.m., the crowd shifted from huddling under the shade in Pike Park to gathering along Harry Hines Boulevard to begin their march. Following the lead vehicle, they braved midday traffic and the Texas sun.
Six self-proclaimed fascists and Christian nationalists, including Svochak and Yepez, harried the assembly well before the march started. Experienced protesters quickly flooded their chants of Bible verses and slurs with blasts of horns and shouts. They blocked their sight with their bodies and signs. At several points the pair were surrounded and had to maneuver their way out without much physical conflict.
Yet, even as the march turned northeast on Moody, Svochak and Yepez stayed ahead of the march, hounding them along the way. As the marchers turned north on McKinnon, a line of Dallas police appeared on the corner of Payne Street in riot gear and atop horses.
Jason Janik, a photojournalist, overheard the police saying, “The two in the gas masks, grab them,” before they swarmed the oncoming march. Asking Svochak and Yepez to politely move out of the way, police grabbed two leftists wearing gas masks and slammed them to the ground before their arrest. Both were from the Community Liberation Brigade, a militant anti-fascist group who were providing security against the badgering of the Svochak and Yepez.
After a brief standoff, the march continued.
Nearing Wolf Street, the marchers intended to make another turn to return to the park, but Dallas police had other plans. A line of cars, officers on horses and dozens of officers on foot blocked their attempt.
The boiling tension in the air was palpable.
Some protesters took the chance to catch their breath, while organizers attempted negotiation. A journalist prepped herself by donning her gas mask and helmet.
An officer on horse shouted to his men to get in formation and things seemed about to devolve into something not seen in these streets since the BLM protests. Then the line of cops parted and those on horseback trotted off. The march was allowed to continue and as it made its final turn towards the park. People were already breaking off to leave. They had demonstrated their reason for being here, but the lingering summer heat seemed to have won the day.
Later that day, at Dallas City Hall, democrats gathered at a rally of their own. The afternoon rain may have reduced their numbers, as they garnered less than the march just hours before. Speakers ranging from local organizers to big names like Beto O’Rourke, former U.S. Congressman for the 16th Congressional District of Texas, came to speak to the small crowd.
The speakers at the event, organized by the state Democratic National Committee invoked the names of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders. They thanked those gathered at the stationary event for “showing up to march.”
None of the Democratic leaders on stage that night was at the marching protest earlier in the day. Their event was out of the way and undisruptive of local traffic and events.
As darkness fell, the crowd had dwindled to just a few dozen. Most had already gone home when it was apparent that James Talarico was not going to attend. Even the far-right counter-protesters from earlier in the day had come and gone, seemingly bereft at the low turnout by democrats that evening.
The heat still lingered hours after dark, both the physical heat of the yet unbroken summer and the friction of a city cloven by politics.
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