Protests have spread across the United States following the death of George Floyd on May 25, a Black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer.
Though most of the day time demonstrations have remained peaceful, evening has brought destruction and looting in several cities for multiple nights.
In Los Angeles, a local TV news station captured one intense moment that only grew more chaotic with each passing second.
Fox 11 Los Angeles was broadcasting live as a couple of looters approached a liquor store in the Van Nuys neighborhood of LA, only to encounter the store's owners toting rifles and standing firm. A standoff ensued until the police showed up.
But when LAPD police cruisers arrived, things only grew more chaotic. First, confusion set in as the vehicles passed by with sirens still wailing.
And when the police did finally arrive on the scene, they immediately ran and pinned the store owners, who are Black, against the wall. Throughout the incident Fox 11 reporter Christina Gonzalez, and several other bystanders, yelled at the police in an attempt to correct the mistake.
During the ensuing chaos, the looters ran off in the other direction.
This is absolutely insane pic.twitter.com/iiRg66QYZd
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) June 2, 2020
One of the bystanders, who goes by Monet, was one of those calling for police to arrest the correct people.
In an interview later that evening with Fox 11, she recalled how things began when she stepped in to help the store owner, a long time friend.
"They were going after the gold store. But being that me and my son and I were out in the front with the owner of the liquor store, they just wanted to jump out the car and they wanted to harass me because I was talking a lot of stuff."
"And I just turned around, 'We're not doing that.' We're not tearing up nothing over here."
Monet also explained her surprise upon being pinned to the wall.
"I was handcuffed, thrown up against the wall with my husband, my brother-in-law."
"The officer that was behind me, I was explaining to him, no, we're trying to help."
The video quickly went viral on Twitter.
It's like an episode of Reno911
— K!LLA CAM 🕊🌺 (@killa_cam214) June 2, 2020
Police training disaster. Look at how unorganized and clueless.
— Rokovich (@ReasonInterest) June 2, 2020
Well it is very chaotic here right now, what else would be expected? Its absolute mayhem and with that, comes confusion.
— Nicole (@thesgvnicole) June 2, 2020
LAPD... Immediately jumps to arrest the store owners because they have guns. Then LAPD wants full, on the spot descriptions of the looters who have fled the scene
...LAPD is on the side of the looters..that's obvious.
— BurGirl59 (@BurGirl59) June 2, 2020
pic.twitter.com/MJjGE0vv8v
— ┊radιo corpѕ 🃏 (@radiocorps) June 2, 2020
Many took aim at Gonzalez, the reporter.
They felt her explanations to the police weren't clear enough.
What's insane is that reporter is such a bad communicator that she can't easily explain a simple situation. And that's not a language barrier, she was just panicking and yelling nonsense.
“No not them, they're protecting the looters!"
What, lady?
— L. John Whorfin 🦅 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🇺🇸 (@DimensionC) June 2, 2020
That reporter was incoherent, which did not help.
— IcicleThief (@Hawaiiborn2) June 2, 2020
For a professional reporter she was pretty incoherent in her description
— BobDiethrich (@DiethrichBob) June 2, 2020
Images like this are appearing across social media since the protests began nearly a week ago. Many worry that these destructive moments have overshadowed the far more common peaceful demonstrations.
Monet, the bystander who stepped in to help, summed the issue up in that same interview following the incident.
"I understand the protest. I understand what this is about. I'm fighting for the same protest. But what we're not going to do is we don't want other people from different cities [to] tear up where we live, because we have to rebuild this."
@joehas/X