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An angry man went to a Black Lives Matter protest. A young woman gave him a lesson

2020-06-09T18:06:37.289Z


In a video shared on social media, a man is seen shouting profanity at a group of protesters supporting Black Lives Matter in Whitefish, about 96 km from the Canadian border.


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(CNN) - A peaceful protest in a small Montana resort town turned ugly on Wednesday night when a visibly angry man confronted protesters, yelling at them as he was just inches from their faces.

In a video shared on social media, a man is seen shouting profanity at a group of protesters supporting Black Lives Matter in Whitefish, about 96 km from the Canadian border.

The man, identified by police as Jay Snowden, 51, was clearly agitated and became increasingly angry as the group begins chanting "Peaceful!" to drown out their screams.

In a powerful image shared by Samantha Francine, who is one of the protesters, Snowden, a tall white man, is seen looking at a much smaller Francine as she looks him in the eye, holding up a sign that says " Say their names. "

Francine, who is biracial, told CNN that at that heated moment with Snowden standing inches from her face, she felt no fear.

Watch the video (warning: there is inappropriate language):

View this post on Instagram

From today's PEACEFUL protest in Whitefish, Montana. [full vid posted as IGTV] This is why we are here. The cops let him drive home five minutes later. Wonder what would have happened if he was a POC ?? Fuck this bullshit. If you vote for Trump in 2020, this is what you're supporting. #blacklivesmatter #whitefishmontana #montana

A post shared by Charles // NW (@charlesnorthwest) on Jun 3, 2020 at 7:54 pm PDT

The 27-year-old protester said the words of her white father, who died 16 years ago, went through her head: “No matter who the threat is, no matter what the threat, you look them in the eye so they know you are human".

"At that moment, I felt those words that my father spoke to me from a very young age and I saw fear in his eyes and I knew he was not going to hurt me," said Francine. "She was upset and uncomfortable, so I stood firm and she was captured in such a beautiful way."

Snowden was eventually removed from the scene by the police. Later, after police consulted with the Whitefish City Prosecutor, he was charged with inappropriate conduct, Whitefish Police said in a statement posted on social media. He is expected to appear in court on June 17.

"The city of Whitefish is dedicated to protecting the rights of First Amendment people to protest peacefully and to ask everyone involved to respect the rights of others and to protest peacefully," police said.

CNN contacted Snowden, but he did not respond to CNN's request for comment. It is not clear if he has an attorney.

When asked how she feels about the way people viewed the incident, Francine said, "I've been through so much, experienced so much in the last 27 years, and at that point everything I've been through makes sense."

She said that every person who had yelled at her like that, every person who had hurt her feelings, disappointed her or embarrassed her, brought her to that moment. "I was surrounded by so many amazing people at the time and there was such incredible energy, I just knew what to do," she said.

Francine said she has no malice in her heart towards Snowden and in fact delivered a gift basket to his wife on Saturday to let her know that he knows that his wife does not resent her husband.

Ninety-seven percent of Whitefish's population of 8,000 residents identifies as white, according to a 2019 census.

Black Lives Matter

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-06-09

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