How drunk sports fans helped spark Saturday night's post-protest violence

On Saturday night, following the violence that broke out near Camden Yards, a photo of me supposedly protecting a woman from violent protesters surfaced on BuzzFeed and then trickled down to the conservative armpit of the internet where it was mischaracterized. In the photo, I look strangely heroic, and the picture was quickly co-opted by those who like to present an all-too-common and easy narrative: white people being terrorized by black people.

The truth, or as much as I have been able to cobble together from my own memory and notes, videos online, video I shot, and videos from City Paper’s Managing Editor Baynard Woods, is far less interesting, though much more important than “white dude saves white lady.”

I’m not exactly sure how the violence broke out around 6 p.m. in front of Pickles Pub on Washington Boulevard and traveled up the street to The Bullpen, Sliders Bar & Grill, and Frank & Nic’s West End Grille then down Howard Street. I know a small group of protesters and a small group of baseball fans started whipping bottles at one another and brawling. When the protesters turned the corner onto Washington Boulevard from Camden Street chanting “black lives matter,” some baseball fans applauded and a few angrily chanted back, “We don’t care”—someone who worked at The Bullpen confirmed this for me. He also said that some patrons chanted “run them over,” and one yelled “go get them.” Other protestors, including City Paper contributor D. Watkins and gang members interviewed on WBAL, recall bar patrons calling them “niggers,” among other racist epithets.

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