Until recently, Baltimore has been under a curfew as activists protest the death of Freddie Gray. Some have decided not to follow that curfew as a means of peaceful civil disobedience, but not all protestors are getting the same treatment.
In this first video, a black protestor in a mostly black neighborhood is pepper sprayed directly in the face, pushed to the ground, and dragged away for remaining on the street reportedly 10 minutes after the 10 p.m. curfew began.
(There’s another angle that captures the relatively calm moment before the man was sprayed as well as a few frustrated protestors who threw bottles near police after the man was forced to the ground.)
Meanwhile, in this second video an officer gives a group of white protestors in a predominately white neighborhood a kindly worded request to leave the area. “The last thing I want to do is put people in handcuffs,” he explains. The white protestors were reportedly given their first warning before the curfew began, their second at 10:05 p.m., and their final warning at 10:10 p.m. No one was arrested or detained.
The videos were part of a larger movement that looked to prove Baltimore’s curfew was not being enforced equally and was specifically targeting black communities. Activists and allies used the #TwoBaltimores and #BreakTheCurfew hashtags to document the discrepancy. This is yet another stark reminder that white people and people of color often have very different experiences with law enforcement.
Activist Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) shared these thoughts: