Black Lives Matter supporter who protected injured white man speaks out
15 June 2020, 13:16 | Updated: 15 June 2020, 15:36
A picture of Patrick Hutchinson carrying an injured white man to safety went viral amid worldwide Black Lives Matter protests.
As disgusting scenes unfolded across London during the weekend, one man emerged as a hero. Grandfather Patrick Hutchinson was pictured carrying a man out of harm's way as violence erupted during far-right riots across the city.
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Following numerous Black Lives Matter protests across the world sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Mr Hutchinson, who works as a personal trainer, spoke to Channel 4 following his highly publicised actions and claimed: "I just want equality for all of us".
Hutchinson was present in the area along with his friends Pierre Noah, Jamaine Facey, Lee Russell and Chris Otokito as part of Ark Security in order to keep young Black Lives Matter protesters safe.
Speaking about carrying the man to safety, Mr Hutchinson said, "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. He was under physical harm. His life was under threat."
He went on to say, "And whilst they did that I thought, 'well if he stays here he’s not going to make it', so I just went under, scooped him up and put him on my shoulders and sort of started marching towards the police with him whilst all the guys were sort of surrounding me and protecting me and the guy I had on my shoulder".
Mr Hutchinson continued, ‘If we didn’t [help] I wouldn’t like to think what would have happened to the poor guy. We wanted to save his life and save the Black Lives Matter campaign as well."
He also addressed the murder of George Floyd in America which sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the world.
"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 still be alive today," he stated.
"I just want 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."
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