Video of Black women protecting one another from police goes viral

Amid renewed national attention to police brutality, a new video of two Black women protecting one another from law enforcement is going viral.

In the clip, a Black woman sits on the street protesting police brutality as another Black woman stands in to guard her against the police who are closing in. 

“How you doing, sis? You OK? What’s up? Can I sit with you?” Phoenix Robles asks the woman sitting in the middle of the road. The woman was later identified as Dorcas Monari.

Robles tells law enforcement, “We’re having a psychological wellbeing disaster” and pleads with the officers to not make any hasty decisions. But when Robles askes Monari why she’s sitting in the middle of the street, the latter simply answers, “For George Floyd.” (Earlier this week, Derek Chauvin, the white cop who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, was convicted in Floyd’s murder.) 

Robles told Yahoo Life she recorded the footage of her and Monari’s encounter on April 18. “In the moment, [I] wanted to focus on her,” she said. “I knew I was either going to get them [to go] away, or one of us was going to die today.”

The video of the encounter—and show of solidarity—was shared widely; the Guardian, in fact, said the snapshot of Robles and Monari on the ground together was one of the best photos of the day. 

After officers and EMT workers vacated the scene, the two women tearfully embraced—a moment captured by various photographers. 

 “God bless this warrior protecting our sister who was unarmed and peacefully protesting. We need more of THIS,” wrote Jessica Care Moore, according to Yahoo Life.

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