At the Shadow Inauguration, former D.C. congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy addresses the crowd soberly. Freedom Plaza sits along Pennsylvania Avenue between 13th and 14th streets, a block from the Ellipse. It is here that the one of the largest groups of protesters gathers. Lest it become a grassy knoll, the police are here in force, atop horses and clad in riot gear. Police don't allow the crowd through the Freedom Plaza entry point until several hours after the other 15 checkpoints opened.
Various contingents arrive throughout the morning into what is becoming a makeshift staging area.
But as the day progresses, Freedom Plaza begins to fill with a different cast of angry citizenry, less interested in focused, issue-oriented protest than in simply expressing a form of previously unfamiliar and unthinkable disbelief. We came down here because we can't really believe this man is going to become president. A few families with children and some middle-aged Democrats are engaging in their first public acts of political dissent. Some of the more radical heckle the police. We know who they voted for.