A Black Lives Matter protester who carried a counter-protester to safety has spoken out about the events that happened during Saturday’s protests in London.
Patrick Hutchinson drew the attention of the nation when an image of him carrying an injured white protester on his shoulders during the violent clashes near Trafalgar Square went viral.
Describing his actions, Hutchinson said, “His life was under threat, so I just went under, scooped him up, put him on my shoulders and started marching towards the police with him.”
The personal trainer and grandfather said in an interview, “You don’t think about it [being scary] at the time, you just do what you’ve got to do.”
He described the stark contrast between his actions and the lack of action taken by the Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd.
“If the other three police officers that were standing around when George Floyd was murdered had thought about intervening, and stopping their colleague from doing what he was doing, like what we did, George Floyd would be alive today still.”
“I just want equality, equality for all of us. At the moment, the scales are unfairly balanced and I just want things to be fair for my children and my grandchildren,” he added.
Hutchinson told reporters that he does not know anything about the man he saved, only that he was “partially unconscious” at the time.
He described the incident as “pretty hectic, it was almost like a stampede, there was lots of people.”
“There were people trying to protect him, but unsuccessfully. And then the guys went in there, they sort of put a little cordon around him to stop him receiving any more physical harm,” Hutchinson continued.
He talked down the praises from the media and calling him a hero, and said that those who helped him get the man out of the situation and to safety deserve credit too.