A man wearing a Fuck the Police t-shirt said fuck the curfew, defiantly refusing to leave the streets after a city-wide curfew remained in effect in Baltimore Saturday night, prompting an aggressive cop to run up to him and unleash a cloud of pepper spray in his face.
But the man remained standing, his arms by his side, his face dripping with oleoresin capsicum as more cops rushed up to arrest him, including one cop who grabbed his dreadlocks and yanked him backwards down on the street.
Other cops unleashed pepper spray towards other citizens rushing in to record the arrest, who have been enduring the 10 p.m. curfew for the fifth straight night.
Not even Tank Man got pepper sprayed.
The cop who pepper sprayed him was a commanding officer because he was wearing white. The person who recorded it was with the Associated Press, which was apparently allowed to remain out past curfew as long as they remained embedded with the cops.
The media cameras were probably the only reason a cop used water to wash the pepper spray out of the man’s eyes as he laid on the ground handcuffed.
Meanwhile, in a white, trendy neighborhood in North Baltimore called Hampden, several protesters also defied the curfew by refusing to vacate the streets at 10 p.m., according to the Baltimore Sun.
But they were met with much less hostility.
A group of about 50 mostly white protesters stood on a corner in Hampden on Saturday just as the citywide 10 p.m. curfew went into effect because, they said, they knew they’d be treated differently than black protesters in poorer parts of the city.
They were right.
Come back later for more details.
