At the Mall on a Saturday

If you've seen any of the photos of the big Orwellian screen looming over yesterday's Black Lives Matter protest at the Mall of America (such as this and this), but wondered if it was real... I can tell you that it was. Here's my photo:


Taken while sitting on the floor for just a while. It was a calmly chaotic scene because the acoustics in the mall are terrible, and the organizers had no amplification except the people's microphone.

It seemed to me that the mall authorities made it a lot more complicated than it had to be. They say the protest caused the mall to be shut down, but that makes no sense. People could have proceeded with their shopping almost everywhere if the authorities hadn't made stores close their doors while police closed off hallways.

This was my favorite hand-made sign: