It feels like ages ago that Heidi and I went to cover the inauguration of Donald Trump in January of this year. We divided responsibilities: While Heidi covered the inauguration surrounded by white women Trump supporters outside the Capitol Building, I covered the at-times violent protests on the streets of Washington D.C.
Like the hundreds of other journalists and regular citizens who descended on the capital that day, I took lots and lots of video—videos of people running away from flash bangs, video of people getting pepper sprayed, video of police in riot gear advancing down city blocks, video of people picking up bricks and throwing glass. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t scary at the time, and even more so in the months following the protests, when journalists like Aaron Cantú were charged with felony rioting.
Yesterday, BuzzFeed published the first video I’ve seen from that day from the police perspective; two of the video recordings they obtained were taken from body cams. But more than showing the timeline of events during that mass arrest at 12th and L, it’s interesting to watch how enormous that difference in perspective—the view from behind and within rows of uniforms in riot gear versus what felt like chaos on the streets—can be.
Compare the footage from BuzzFeed here and mine below.
