Black woman describes terrifying attack by Trump mob in L.A.: ‘I’m thinking I’m dead’
They were hurling racial slurs at her and pouring pepper spray, hot like habaneros, into her eyes and ear. Someone or something — perhaps the butt of a metal flagpole carrying a “Don’t tread on me” banner — pummeled her shoulder, leaving a circle-shaped bruise. Another person snatched her wig off.
As supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent mob in Washington on Wednesday, a crowd of at least 20 pro-Trump demonstrators, many clad in “Make America Great Again” hats, surrounded 25-year-old Berlinda Nibo on a busy downtown Los Angeles street, she said, feet away from a gaggle of police officers.
“It seemed like these people were trying to kill me,” said Nibo, 25. “To use me to make some kind of statement or something.”
Nibo said she unwittingly found herself in the midst of Wednesday’s pro-Trump demonstration in downtown Los Angeles, where she was accosted and assaulted. Parts of the melee were captured in photos and video that were posted to social media, and the Los Angeles Police Department is looking into the battery as a hate crime.