After a tumultuous last few days with Trump and Trump-adjacent supporters storming the Capitol building, destroying public property and causing numerous fatalities, it has just been revealed that on the same day, a Black woman in L.A. was violently attacked by Trump supporters as they were holding a rally.
According to Buzzfeed News, 25-year-old Berlinda Nibo was walking past a "Stop the Steal" Trump rally right outside of L.A. City Hall when a group of white rally-goers began harassing her, calling her the n-word, and eventually following her as she walked away. Eventually, over 30 Trump supporters had surrounded her and after one falsely claimed that she assaulted someone, they began hitting her, ripped off her wig, and pepper sprayed her in the face.
"I thought I was going to die," she told BuzzFeed News. "If I didn't stand up for myself, this group of people were going to beat me to death. I kept telling myself, 'Don't fall down because you'll get stampeded.'"
There was even a point where a man came from behind Nibo and grabbed her saying, "I got you, calm down, these people are going to try to kill you." Nibo went along with it at the time because she was blinded from the pepper spray, but she said that it was a traumatizing experience.
"It did not help me," she said. "It would've helped me more if he had made way for me to move out of there completely."
Eventually, two other bystanders ran to Nibo's aid and told the man that they knew her so he would let go. They would then walk her over to where the LAPD were standing. However, Raquel Natalicchio, one of the people who helped Nibo, said that this all occurred while LAPD officers looked on.
"The police were there the entire time and didn't move an inch," she said.
After having her eyes washed, Nibo filed a citizens arrest report and went home, still drenched in the spray.
"My family and I are seeking privacy at this moment, so I can get some healing and also safety because now I'm even more worried with everything that happened at the US Capitol," she said.
Nibo's traumatizing ordeal caps off a week rife with racism and poignant hypocrisy, something this country has toiled with for far too long.
