A photograph showing an African-America police officer protecting participants in a white supremacist protest served to represent the violent events in Charlottesville, Va. While the photograph appears to be real, it would seem that it is not from the tragic events in Charlottesville in August 2017.
Following the violent and tragic events at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, the above image was widely circulated on social media. Although this photograph may be genuine, Snopes reported that it was not a picture snapped at the August 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
Tim Hogan, who worked for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and is now the national press secretary for a Washington, DC, nonprofit, also shared the image on Saturday with the caption “a picture worth a thousand words.” It garnered over 30,000 likes before he deleted the original Tweet and acknowledged the image was posted in July.
Here are some examples of people sharing the image on social media.
Doesn’t this pic from yesterday show just how outdated these peoples opinions are? Racists protected by a black policeman. #charlotesville pic.twitter.com/y0SaqrgS5N
— Andrew (@VinPrice) August 13, 2017
black policeman protecting white racists this morning pic.twitter.com/39OpcsnjMW
— Renmiri (@renmiri1) August 13, 2017
Rather, evidence shows that the image had been posted online well over a month earlier, as shown in this July 9, 2017 tweet from Tucson, Arizona, police chief Chris Magnus.
Photo says it all. Police around nation called upon w/regularity to protect 1st Amend rights no matter how heinous they may find the speech. pic.twitter.com/3keTS7bdX2
— Chris Magnus (@ChiefCMagnus) July 9, 2017
Snopes also noted that the above image was posted on Facebook at that time by Kimberly Payne Hawk, who described the pictured policeman as “Charlottesville Police Officer Nash.”
A few days later, Frank Somerville of Oakland television station KTVU wrote of the latter posting that:
Kimberly’s post went viral.
But there were also a number of really nasty comments.
And Kimberly later posted this in response:
“On Monday I saw a photo from the KKK rally that moved me and I posted it. Now it has gone viral and mean, angry people are coming out of the woodwork.
I do not care about the rude comments towards me but I am becoming quite irritated at the attacks on our local police officer.
He is getting attacked for being an African American police officer who was protecting the free speech rights of the klan and I am getting accused of being a supporter of racism because my sister is a police officer.
It must be a horrible way to live to be so defensive and angry all the time.
I hope these people can find some happiness and peace at some point in their lives.”
I’m dumbfounded that anyone could criticize this officer and what he’s doing.
Thank you Officer Nash for your service.
And thank you Kimberly Payne Hawk for posting this.
However, there is uncertainty of when and where the photograph was taken. Snopes suggested that the image originated with a Ku Klux Klan rally held in downtown Charlottesville on July 8, 2017.
Klansmen arrive amid jeers and shouts of “Racists go home!” @USATODAY pic.twitter.com/8WSRDacqwB
— Sarah Toy (@sarahtoy17) July 8, 2017
What did you think of the image of the African-American officer being surrounded by racists? Did you see any proof that this is from the current events in Charlottesville? How did the image affect you when you saw it? Let us know in the comments section.
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