When Jennifer Freehling heard shouts coming from behind her during the Donald Trump for President Rally today in the North Exhibition Hall at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, she turned to witness a scuffle involving two Black Lives Matter protestors and several other spectators.
What had been a peaceful morning, quickly turned to chaos.
“Behind me I heard a guy talking really loudly, and so I turned around and I saw the guy holding up a phone,” Freehling said. “He’s videoing himself and he’s talking really loudly, and he was with a woman and they start yelling ‘Black lives matter,’ and he turned the video around and a couple people started swarming on them.”
According to Freehling, who was shaken up after the incident, the couple was escorted out of the building by security, but when a third protestor began speaking over the 2016 presidential hopeful, the crowd rose again to the defense.
“A guy to the front right of us, who is the guy in the video I sent in, took off his jacket, and he had that Black Lives Matter t-shirt on that you can see in the video, and just had his fist up and started chanting ‘Black lives matter,’” Freehling said. “That’s when people started taking him down. It wasn’t security, it was just people around him in the audience that started screaming at him and they threw him on the ground, and the same woman that tried to attack the first two people started just like kicking the [expletive] out of him.”
Freehling managed to capture on the video the following action as the protestor was being escorted out of the hall.
Screenshot from video by Jennifer Freehling.
Where the footage begins, civilians and security officers appear to be shuffling the (now silent) African American protestor out toward the rear exit of the hall. The man stumbles and breathes heavily. Some spectators appear to be helping the man along. Others clear a path. Some yell at him.
Chants of “All lives matter,” and “Go home,” follow him. Several spectators were also capturing the incident on their smart phones.
“Go somewhere where you’re wanted, dumbass,” a voice shouts.
The protestor removes his pullover to reveal his Black Lives Matter t-shirt and asks, “Everybody in here wants me to leave?”
“Be respectful,” a female voice calls.
“I care about my son’s future,” the protestor says to the onlookers. “My son.”
“All lives matter — get the hell out of here,” a man in a baseball cap said.
As the protestor and the pair of security guards holding him by each arm approach a large column in their path to the doors, the men engage in a brief, but rough tug-of-war. The individual grasping the protestor’s left arm jerks violently. The protestor wobbles in apparent pain with the guard to his right saying, “Walk,” into his ear.
Trump’s voice can be heard over the din through the speakers of the 8,000-seat arena.
“There’s no point in fighting it at this point,” the security guard told the protestor. “No point in fighting.”
Screenshot of video by World News.
Security guards have at this point made a semi-circle around the protestor, and the 1-minute 46-second video cuts off.
“To my knowledge, they escorted the Black Lives Matter guy out, but nothing happened to the people that were physically attacking this guy who was not physically attacking anyone,” Freehling said. “And I could be wrong about that, like I said, it was a huge scuffle.”
BJCC communications director, Elaine Witt explained that the security guards on site were officers with the Birmingham Police Department.
“We confirm no arrests were made, but three protesters were asked to leave the venue after causing a disturbance,” said Sgt. Bryan S. Shelton of the Birmingham Police Department in an email. “All three departed and there were no additional issues.”
Shelton also stated that no reports have been issued against rally spectators who may have physical assaulted the protestor.
Freehling explained that one of her black friends felt endangered when the peaceful protest so quickly escalated.
“He was very concerned that they were going to attack him because we were standing right by those people,” she said. “We were all really rattled.”
When reached for comment Avee-Ashanti Shabazz, co-founder of Birmingham’s Black Lives Matter Birmingham, was unaware of the incident.
Attempts to contact the Trump campaign were made, but at the time of this article’s publication no response has been received.
