Journal of the Corona Year
6/06
Shopping at the Target located in the Atlantic Terminal Mall is starting to become routine again. For a number of weeks, when the PAUSE started, I stayed away. The journey to a large transit hub itself felt risky, let alone mixing with crowds of shoppers. Now I’m back to making a weekly trip there.
During the past week I had planned on finding a protest near Atlantic Terminal I could attend. It’s very difficult to find any concrete information about upcoming protests. But since I found local protests, I decided I would keep things local. On Saturday I could simply go in, get what I needed, and leave.
The doors connecting the Terminal to the Mall were locked. There was a Target employee stationed outside the doors. She was wearing a polo shirt with a Target logo on it. She told me I would have to enter the Target from outside. Mysterious.
So I walked out the doors facing the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. There, slowly passing by the Barclays Center, were a pair of police vans with their lights flashing. Behind them was a row of police in protective gear slowly walking, spanning the width of the street. Behind them was a lot of people.
Flatbush Avenue had become a slowly-moving river of people. It was slow, but deliberate. Almost mesmerizing. Like seeing a cruise ship slowly sail by.
Traffic on Atlantic Avenue was cut off. At one point a firetruck needed to cross Flatbush Avenue. The marchers parted to let it pass with cheers and applause.
In spite of my fears of joining a large crowd of people, seeing this filled with a subtle joy and great relief. I knew I would have to join them. Traffic wasn’t going anywhere, so I crossed the street, took the Telecoco out of my canvas shopping bag and entered the march.
As I walked along Flatbush Avenue towards the towering new Brooklyn skyline, I was struck with a thought: This is what cities are for. Better thoughts. Better ways. The United States should not be embarrassed by these protests. This is the most positive thing this country has done in the past 12 years.
All the protesters I saw were wearing masks and maintaining a social distance. The same could not be said about the police.
Whole Foods, Modell’s and the Apple Store had their windows boarded up. The smaller stores did not.
I looked behind me. I hadn’t realized I was so close to the tail-end of the march. There was another line of riot police and their vans following-up the rear. I picked-up my pace a little.
There were a variety of chants. A motorcyclist reved-up his engine with his fist in the air. This got applause and a cheer. A driver of a USPS truck blew his horn with his fist in the air. This also got applause and a cheer.
As the march turned down Fulton Street, which is narrower, the march slowed almost to a stop. I decided this would be a good time to leave it. After-all, I came up there to do my weekly shopping. I was also a bit afraid of what the police were planning if the march stopped moving — perhaps corralling people in a narrow street was part of their plan. As protests go I had merely dipped my toe in the water.
I walked back to the Target by walking east on Fulton Street. It’s amazing how normal everything could seem with a global event happening a street away.
I noticed the Atlantic Terminal Mall had its windows boarded up too. I found the side entrance I was directed towards in the first place. There was line waiting to go in. I thought about leaving but I was also curious what was going on.
They had barriers set-up for the line. After about 20 minutes I got to the side entrance. A small team of security guards were keeping track of how many people were in the store at a time. Although it was only 2:30, the store was apparently closing soon.
There was also a crowd of police standing outside the side entrance. Seeing police gathered in large numbers does not make me feel safe. I feel the same way I do when looking at a swarm of bees. The police were standing together shooting the breeze, none of them were wearing masks.
So I got to see how Target was letting people into the store. I have no idea if was this due to fear of COVID-19 or fear of the protests.
After that the rest of my day went quite normally.
