They were throwing racial slurs at her and pouring pepper spray, hot as habaneros, into her eyes and ears. Someone or something – perhaps the end of a metal pole carrying a “Don’t tread on me” banner – punched his shoulder, leaving a hematoma in the shape of a circle. Another person took off his wig.
While a violent crowd of President Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, a crowd of at least 20 pro-Trump protesters, many dressed in “Make America Great Again” hats, surrounded Berlinda Nibo, 25-year-old on a busy street in downtown Los Angeles, she said, a few feet from a band of police.
“It looked like these people were trying to kill me,” said Nibo, 25. “To use me to make some kind of statement or something.”
Nibo said she accidentally found herself in the middle of Wednesday’s pro-Trump demonstration in downtown Los Angeles, where she was approached and assaulted. Parts of the confusion were captured in photos and videos that were posted on social media, and the Los Angeles Police Department is considering the battery as a hate crime.
The demonstration near the Los Angeles City Hall began as “commemorative,” said independent photojournalist Kate McTiernan, who was covering the event, but quickly became aggressive. Several strife broke out between Trump supporters and counter-protesters, including some that left participants bloody. Six people would be arrested, according to the LAPD – three on suspicion of transporting items not allowed in a public demonstration, two on suspicion of not having dispersed and one on suspicion of resisting or obstructing a police officer.
Nibo He said he left his apartment in downtown Los Angeles with a friend on Wednesday morning for a late breakfast at nearby Eggslut when they stumbled upon the pro-Trump rally outside City Hall. She stopped, she said, because she was curious: “Why is there a Trump rally? The election is over. “
Realizing that she was the only black person around, Nibo and her friend decided to leave. They crossed the street and started to pass through the crowd, which the police estimated at about 200 people, when they realized that her friend’s phone number was missing. Nibo’s friend jumped on a skateboard and started rolling through the crowd, looking for the lost phone. Nibo was right behind, calling his own cell phone.
People started to walk away from the crowd and follow. Then the provocations started, she said.
“Do you know who Joe Biden is?”
At first, she tried to “play stupid,” she said. No, she didn’t know Biden – who is this?
“Did you vote for Donald Trump?” another asked, according to Raquel Natalicchio, a Los Angeles photojournalist who said she started to follow Nibo protectively when he saw her walking past the protesters alone.
Protesters who support President Trump provoke counter-protesters across the street, in front of the Los Angeles City Hall.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
The mockery continued as more people joined the crowd that was chasing her, so Nibo replied, “I literally said, ‘Let’s go on,’ and then I moved on and walked away.”
Racial calumnies started to come, she recalled, then shouts of “Whites’ lives are important.” Nibo said he ignored the group and kept walking.
“I’m just thinking, like, wow, I’m literally being targeted now because I’m the only black girl around here and, for them, I’m easy prey because I’m a girl,” said Nibo.
The intensity of the protest surprised Nibo, who had participated during the summer of a Black Lives Matter protest in Hollywood, which she emphasized was powerful in its tranquility. Despite the stifling heat, most of the protesters at the demonstration wore masks, she said – a stark contrast to the group that closed on Wednesday.
She told them to put on masks. Four of his friends are infected with the coronavirus and have fought for their lives, Nibo said. His mother works as a nurse taking care of COVID-19 patients. Nibo, who is unemployed from his job as a restaurant manager in Manhattan Beach, said he takes the virus seriously.
“I was like, why are you getting so close to me? There is social detachment going on. Please, you need to give me my space, ”she recalled. “They didn’t care. They approached. “
Someone pushed her from behind. Another man snatched the phone out of his hand, scratching his face in the process.
Then a woman reached out and grabbed her long wavy mahogany wig – a brand-new wig that Nibo wore for the first time on Wednesday in celebration of the new year – and pulled it out.
Nibo said she punched the woman in the face.
A video posted later showed the woman in the photo, holding a Trump flag in one hand and Nibo’s wig in the other: “I did it,” she bragged. “I made the first scalping of the new civil war.” The crowd around her roared loudly.
The jabs for Nibo came quickly. A blow to your shoulder. The pepper spray dripped down his face.
“Do you know the scenes in cartoons when the villagers came to you with pitchforks and fire and everything? Literally, I thought that was it, ”she said. “I’ll be on the front page: a young African American woman was beaten to death on the streets of downtown Los Angeles”
Soon, a burly man came up behind him and grabbed Nibo, pinning his arms to his side so she couldn’t move. In the photos taken by Natalicchio, a person sprays Nibo in the face while the man holds it.
“I’m thinking that I’m dead right here, these people are trying to kill me,” she said. “For my life, I can’t understand why. These people don’t know me. I don’t know you. Why are you so mad? “
In the viral storm that followed after Natalicchio posted his photos, social media users criticized the man, who is shown in other videos as part of the protest, for subduing Nibo while she was attacked.
But Nibo said in an interview on Thursday that the man, Roy Ball, began to whisper in his ear: “Okay, okay, okay. Calm down “and” I won’t hurt you “.
A LAPD press release issued on Thursday said that Ball “appears to have been a good Samaritan, protecting and helping the woman.”
In a tweet, Toyota USA confirmed that Ball was a former employee who “was no longer employed by any Toyota dealership.” It was not clear whether he had been fired since Wednesday’s events.
“The actions in these photos are inconsistent with Toyota’s guiding principle of Respect for People. We do not tolerate this conduct, ” the company tweeted.
Berlinda Nibo’s friends and other passers-by escort her from a crowd of pro-Trump protesters in Los Angeles.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Nibo’s friend, realizing he was lost in the crowd, ran to his aid and soon joined some spectators. They broke through the crowd and took Nibo out of the mess.
“All I could think about all the time was that this man in front of me, attacking me, is old enough to be my father,” she said. “How do you feel knowing that you are here attacking someone else’s child?”
Social media video shows Nibo and his rescuers crossing the street towards a line of police, followed by several scattered protesters. Natalicchio said that a passerby, who happened to be a doctor, soon started giving Nibo a solution to wipe his eyes from the pepper spray while the two onlookers chatted heatedly with the commander at the scene.
According to Nibo and two witnesses, at least one police officer told Nibo that she could file the paperwork to arrest a citizen.
A social media video shows her asking a police officer to find her attackers before they leave. The officers did not even see the video that Nibo recorded on his phone for at least 20 minutes, said McTiernan, who was also covering the protest.
“It looked like they were avoiding trying to do anything,” said McTiernan.
Josh Rubenstein, an LAPD spokesman, said on Friday that the police had launched “a personal investigation associated with her complaints”. The department has also completed a hate crime and aggression report against Nibo and is investigating your case, according to a statement.
“While happy that the facts regarding the Good Samaritan have come to light, the alleged acts of the true suspects are abhorrent,” tweeted Captain Brent McGuyre, commander of the central area.
Another altercation soon broke out on Wednesday, diverting public attention from Nibo. Her friend grabbed her, saying, “We need to go.”
The two fled down the street.