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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">'It's Disgraceful': Woman Attacked During Pro-Trump Demonstration In DTLA</small>
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</p><p>Nibo <a href="https://www.theroot.com/im-just-getting-cornered-by-30-40-people-a-trump-mob-1846012397" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told</a> <em>The Root</em> that when a white woman yelled at her to take off her mask, she shouted back to put <em>on</em> a mask, and that's when the mob surrounded her. </p><p>"All of a sudden I'm just getting cornered by 30, 40 people," she recalled. "That's what started all of them to jump in and shoving me around. Then some lady comes out of nowhere and starts tugging on my hair, trying to pull my hair off of my head." </p><p>Nibo told <em>KCAL</em> that she was smacked in the face and that a man pepper-sprayed her in the eyes. Freelance photojournalist Raquel Natalicchio was covering the rally and witnessed the attack. </p><p>"I'm definitely shaken to see men beat a woman in that way, especially since there's no excuse for it," Natalicchio told <em>The Root</em>. "But also it was very disheartening to see so many people, like over 50 people watching this happen and nobody stepped in."</p><p>Nibo said that strangers eventually intervened to help her, including the burly, red-bearded man seen in some of Natalicchio's photos. </p><p>"He was whispering in my ear going 'You're OK, I got you, I've got you, don't do anything. These people are literally trying to kill you,'" Nibo told <em>KCAL</em>. "If not for him stepping in at that moment, these people would have literally tried to kill me."</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="06f8e0f7ec6f21b8175eb2a7a7a14df5" id="bb725"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1347010671087546368"><div style="margin:1em 0">This woman was walking home.
She lives on Hill St. , two blocks away from LA City Hall where a “Stop the Steal” Ra… https://t.co/jPvianBT3m</div> — Raquel Natalicchio (@Raquel Natalicchio)<a href="https://twitter.com/RaquelNPhoto/statuses/1347010671087546368">1609987344.0</a></blockquote></div>Other witnesses, however, <a href="https://twitter.com/Deeeezyy/status/1347378193771028482" target="_blank">said</a> the man was no hero, and had verbally abused Nibo and at least one other woman. The eyewitnesses, including Chad Loder, a self-described "anti-fascist" and "anti-racist," <a href="https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1347391595268591617" target="_blank">posted</a> multiple <a href="https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1347417346873327618" target="_blank">videos</a> on Twitter supporting their claim.<p><em>NBC Los Angeles</em> <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/trump-supporters-rally-in-downtown-la-as-congress-debates-election/2499997/" target="_blank">reports</a> six people were arrested at the rally. None of the arrests involved the attack on Nibo, which Los Angeles police said they were "looking into." </p><p>On Friday, the Los Angeles Police Department released a <a href="https://www.lapdonline.org/home/news_view/67174" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a> promising a "thorough investigation."</p><p>Nibo told <em>KCAL</em> that the attack left her afraid to walk down her own street. </p><p>"I don't understand what's going on in the world," she said. "I'm saddened by it. I'm hearbroken by it." </p><p>Trump's racist rhetoric and refusal to promptly disavow white supremacists have been widely blamed for soaring hate crimes during his tenure. According to the most recent <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2019-hate-crime-statistics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FBI statistics</a>, there were more than 7,000 attacks and 51 hate-motivated murders reported in 2019—more than double the previous year's total. </p><p>Although the Department of Homeland Security <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/04/white-supremacists-terror-threat-dhs-409236" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">asserts</a> that white supremacists pose the greatest domestic terrorism threat in the U.S., Trump has largely <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/10/opinion/other-plague-trump-has-downplayed-white-supremacist-violence/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">downplayed</a> or ignored the danger they pose. Less than a month into his administration, for example, he <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-extremists-program-exclusiv/exclusive-trump-to-focus-counter-extremism-program-solely-on-islam-sources-idUSKBN15G5VO" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pushed</a> to refocus Countering Violent Extremism—a government program tasked with combating all violent ideologies—solely on radical Islamists. </p><p>Trump has <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2020/07/15/donald-trump-courts-white-racist-vote-cbs-news-interview/5441058002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">courted</a> and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/21/hate-crimes-soar-under-trump-white-nationalist-allegedly-had-plan-kill-innocent" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inspired</a> white supremacists from the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/donald-trump-announces-presidential-bid-trashing-mexico-mexicans-n376521" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">day he announced</a> his bid for the presidency in 2015. Not only has he <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/01/trump-doesnt-condemn-it-because-he-incites-it-president-defends-right-wing-vigilante" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">refused</a> to condemn neo-Nazis and right-wing vigilante killers, he has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/25/politics/us-protests-trump-terrorists-intl/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">demonized</a> the Black Lives Matter movement and infamously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmaZR8E12bs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">called</a> white supremacists who attended the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia rally where anti-racist protester Heather Heyer was <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/28/james-fields-white-supremacist-who-murdered-heather-heyer-charlottesville-sentenced" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">murdered</a> "very fine people."</p><p><em>This article first appeared on Common Dreams. You can read it <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/08/black-woman-heartbroken-after-vicious-attack-racist-maga-mob-downtown-los-angeles" target="_blank">here. </a></em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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