Nonviolent Resistance: A photo from Baton Rouge that the whole internet is talking about now
Probably, this photo will become a symbol of the protests against police violence and permissiveness in the United States, which covered the country last week. The image of a calm, peaceful woman who opposed herself to the police attracted universal attention on the Internet. The picture was taken by Reuters photographer Jonathan Bachman during a protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The photo went viral on Twitter and Facebook, accompanied by enthusiastic comments.
(Total 24 photos)
The girl in the photo turned out to be 28-year-old Yeshia Evans, the mother of a five-year-old son and a nurse from New York, who for the first time in her life went to a protest rally, where she was arrested. Her friend Natasha Haines told the Daily Mail that Yeshia went to Baton Rouge after the murder of Alton Sterling because she "wanted a better fate for her five-year-old son."
"I went outside with my arms crossed and just looked at them. I think they didn't like it because they detained me," Evans said. Although, according to her, the detention took place rather roughly, as well as the registration, in the pre-trial detention center, a kindly-minded policeman made sure that all demonstrators were treated well. According to police, Evans was held in custody overnight and released on Sunday. Now she is in her hotel in Louisiana recovering from the incident. "I want you all to know. I am grateful for the good wishes and love, but this is the work of God. I am his vessel! Glory to the Almighty! I'm glad I'm alive and unharmed. And that there were no deaths that I would have faced face to face," said the heroine of the photo.
Bachman took a whole series of pictures about how the protests took place.
The weekend in the United States was marked by protests that sometimes turned violent and ended with the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators who took to the streets because of the recent murders of African Americans committed by police. Despite promises of peace and tranquility from all sides, at least 312 people were arrested during protests in New York, Chicago, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Baton Rouge, where two African-Americans, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, died shot by police. The same week, a sniper killed five police officers during a demonstration under the slogan "Black lives matter" in Dallas, Texas. The killer went through the war in Afghanistan. It turned out to be 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson from the Dallas suburb of Mesquite.
Demonstrators under the slogan "Black lives matter" condemned the killings in Dallas, calling the attack on law enforcement officers a tragedy of the whole nation. "Black activists are calling for an end to violence, not to intensify it. The attack was the result of the actions of a lone shooter," the organizers said. — Attributing the actions of one person to an entire movement is dangerous and irresponsible. We continue to make efforts to improve the world for all of us."
The symbolism of one person's nonviolent resistance to a large, heavily armed opponent is also evident in other famous photographs, including a photograph by Marc Riboux, which depicts an opponent of the Vietnam War holding a flower in front of armed police, or in the image of a lone protester resisting a tank in Tiananmen Square. From recent photos, Bachmann's picture resembles a photo of activist Maria Theresa (Tess) Asplund standing with her fist raised in front of a crowd of neo-Nazis during a march in Sweden. "It was just an impulse to go and stand in the middle of them. I remember standing there and one of the guys was staring at me," Asplund recalls. — When Nazis march through your streets on the first of May, it is important to show that this is not normal. People in other countries can't understand how it got to the point that the Nazis are holding marches in Sweden."
On March 12, 1930, the leader of the Indian National Movement, Mahatma Gandhi, led a nonviolent protest against the British Empire. The march was directed against the British tax on salt, which is an essential commodity. Gandhi urged Indians to produce or buy salt illegally. Other nonviolent protests against this tax took place in major cities of India, and Gandhi's methods accelerated the country's declaration of independence.
Rosa Parks has become a role model for the modern civil rights movement. She was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus. For 381 days, African Americans boycotted public transportation in protest of Parks' arrest and against segregation laws. As a result, in 1956, the Supreme Court decided to abolish segregation in public transportation in Montgomery. Soon after, a photo of Rosa Parks appeared in the front seats of a bus, which became a symbol of the civil rights movement.
A 17-year-old civil rights activist confronts police while being attacked by a police dog. The picture was taken during a protest on May 3, 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. waves to his supporters during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.
Jan Rose Kasmir in front of National Guard soldiers near the Pentagon during a march against the Vietnam War on October 21, 1967.
Students in Paris throw shells at the police on Boulevard Saint-Germain during the unrest on May 6, 1968.
Members of the Black Panthers organization during a protest in Chicago in 1968.
A pacifist during a solo picket in Santa Monica, California, on June 15, 1968.
Tommy Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in the 200 meters at the 1968 Olympics raised their fists in greeting fellow African Americans, October 16, 1968, Mexico City.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono give a press conference in bed for peace, Amsterdam, March 1969.
Mary Ann Vecchio kneels in front of the body of student Jeffrey Miller during an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio, May 4, 1970.
Young Chinese demonstrators in Tiananmen Square protest against government corruption and demand democratization, Beijing, 1989.
A man in Tiananmen Square stands in front of a column of T-59 tanks, June 4, 1989.
Police Lieutenant John Pike uses pepper spray during the Occupy University of California (Occupy UC) rally in Davis on November 18, 2011. The incident caused outrage among the participants of the Occupy movement. The court awarded the policeman 38 thousand dollars of compensation from the university for the moral suffering caused as a result of the negative information wave after the incident.
Egyptian army soldiers arrest a woman during clashes in Tahrir Square in Cairo on December 17, 2011.
A riot police officer uses tear gas during a protest against the destruction of a park for the sake of a pedestrian zone on Taksim Square in Istanbul on May 28, 2013.
Protesters in Kiev stand behind burning barricades during clashes with police, February 20, 2014.
Riot police use pepper spray during pro-democracy protests near the government building in Hong Kong, September 28, 2014.
A protester in Ferguson, Missouri, stands in front of police cars with his hands raised, November 24, 2014. The jury's decision not to prosecute police officer Darren Wilson for the murder of African-American Michael Brown provoked waves of protest first in Ferguson, and then throughout the country. The pose with raised hands, the mute request not to shoot, became a symbol of this protest wave.
A man tries to calm down another demonstrator during clashes with police in Baltimore on April 27, 2015. The protests were triggered by the death of Freddie Gray, who died from a severe spinal injury while under investigation.
Keywords: Demonstrations | Violence | Police | Confrontation | Racism | Resistance | Usa | Murders | Black