National Guardsman appears to join in protesters' 'I'm black and I'm proud' chant in DC
Raw video: Member of D.C. National Guard appears to chant along with protesters at demonstration in the nation's capitol.
A uniformed member of the Washington, D.C. National Guard was captured on video chanting “I’m black, and I’m proud” along with the protesters he was sent to monitor in the nation’s capital last week.
The video recorded by a bystander and circulated on Friday has since garnered hundreds of thousands of views on social media, Fox 5 DC reported.
Khaled Abdelghany, the National Guardsman seen in the footage, responded to the video on Twitter, writing: “I will always say it. I am a black man first before anything! #BlackLivesMatter”
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“Thank you all for the support. Peace & Love,” he wrote in another tweet. “Things are emotionally heavy. But I am strong. Hope all is well on your end brother. Be safe.”
Abdelghany was wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest and holding a riot shield while mouthing the phrase next to his fellow guardsmen.
Fox 5 photojournalist Ama Arthur-Asmah, who attended another protest in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, said she flagged down Abdelghany in the newly minted "Black Lives Matter Plaza" just steps from the White House to snap photos with him.
“I met a local celebrity at #BlackLivesMatter Plaza!” she wrote. “Video of Specialist Khaled Abdelghany, w/ the DC Army National Guard, went viral earlier this week after he was filmed chanting “Black Lives Matter,” along w/ protesters. He says he’s proud to be here with his people.”
She attached three photos of Abdelghany, including one where he poses with two black women, one of whom is wearing a T-shirt that reads: “I can’t breathe.”
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That phrase, first uttered by Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after while in police custody, galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and was repeated by George Floyd before he died in police custody on May 25.
Peaceful protests demanding an end to police brutality and racial justice – as well as nighttime rioting and looting – have captivated the nation for nearly two weeks straight. President Trump announced Sunday that he would begin to withdraw National Guard troops from D.C. as protests have transitioned into mostly peaceful demonstrations and turnout has begun to subside.
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