Photo of Citizens Guarding the Police Brings Needed Hope

Concerned citizens wanted to create a barrier between police and protestors to keep the peace, and protect the officers in Baltimore.

That’s when news cameraman Van Applegate ‏took this photo, which quickly swept across Twitter. Applegate said at the time that he hoped his iPhone image would become “the thing that people remembered most” about the Baltimore riots of 2015.

He didn’t know it would resurface almost 15 months later to soothe thousands of people on social media looking for a more hopeful narrative to current events on their newsfeed.

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The photo was taken on West North Street where Van and his reporter arrived on the scene and interviewed Pastor Lionel Shields, one of the men who was shielding the police. Shields told the WJLA crew that the moment was impromptu and unplanned.

After the photo went viral on his Twitter account, Applegate, who works at the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., was invited on the show to talk about several of the positive images from events in Baltimore.

(WATCH the video below from WJLA)

 

SHARE the Photo to Brighten Your Newsfeed… (Thanks to @VBagate)