A protester who President Trump accused of being an anarchist paying people to riot has complained his life is in danger and he claims he was giving protesters money for medical supplies.
Nathan Caraway, 32, was in the firing line of the president and his millions of followers on Monday when a video of him giving money to a young black man and saying ‘ go get anything you can find’ went viral on Twitter.
Carraway, who works in the medical marijuana industry and as a filmmaker, said he attended the Columbus, Ohio protests over the weekend to ‘spread a message of peace and love’.
‘I saw tensions were high on both sides. I went there with the intention to spread a message of peace and love,’ he told the grio.
Pictured: Nathan Carraway, 32, hands money to a young black man during the Columbus, Ohio riots over the weekend
Carraway, pictured, said he gave the young men money so they could resupply a make-shift medical table he was helping with for people who had been teargassed by Columbus police
Carraway, who took a number of wooden bullets to the leg during the protest, told the publication that he was volunteering to provide medical care to victims who were pepper sprayed by Columbus police.
He said he gave the men money to cycle to the nearest store so he could resupply the make-shift care centre as supplies were running low.
On Sunday, Columbus police circulated the video, calling Carraway a ‘person of interest’.
They posted the clip on Youtube with the caption: ‘Columbus Antifa paying people to do tasks in riots.’
A day later, Trump tweeted the video, captioning it ‘Anarchists, we see you!’ The tweet was viewed by 12 million people in less than 24 hours.
What started as a peaceful demonstration near the Ohio Statehouse in solidarity with other protests throughout the country against the killing of Minneapolis, Minnesota resident George Floyd, turned into a riot after police and protesters clashed on May 28, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio
Police officers in riot gear spray protesters with an irritant during a demonstration against the police custody death in Minneapolis of African-American man George Floyd, in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., May 28, 2020 in this still image obtained from social media video
Protesters march west on Broad Street as protests continue following the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio
Carraway said that shortly after the post he was the victim of online and real life attacks, including his mother’s personal information being leaked and being chased down the street by a man who recognized him from the video.
He said he hasn’t returned home since Trump’s tweet.
In the video, Carraway says: ‘Go get everything you need to find.’
He talks about moving picnic tables and refers to a ‘team’.
‘There’s more stuff they need to put out here’, he says.
Carraway said he has sought legal advice for being misrepresented by the Columbus Police Department.
President Donald J. Trump returns after posing with a bible outside St. John’s Episcopal Church after delivering remarks in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington
Trump and other Republicans touted the video as proof that radical leftist groups had been employed to sow discord among peaceful protesters.
A friend of Carraway’s told NBC that the accusations from Trump and the police department and that his buddy is a ‘pacifist’.
‘Nathan wasn’t paying anybody to attack police,’ said Jordan Mitchell.
He added that Carraway would have been ‘tempering the anxiety and the anger that was going on in the crowd.’
Social media users also jumped to Carraway’s defense, saying they never saw him vandalizing or agitating the crowd.
‘What I did see is him helping everybody when they started gassing us and shooting at us with wooden bullets unprovoked.’
On Saturday Trump tweeted ‘It’s ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don’t lay the blame on others!’
The next day he congratulated the National Guard brought in to control riots in Minneapolis, and wrote ‘The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly… The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.’
Protesters hold a die-in as they gather peacefully to protest the death of George Floyd at the State Capital building in downtown Columbus, Ohio, on June 1, 2020
A protester kneels down and listens as protest organizers speak during an open mic session to peacefully protest the death of George Floyd in front of the Columbus Police Department headquarters in Columbus, Ohio
A man cheers on other protesters from his motorcycle during a march to the Ohio Statehouse on June 1, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio
Despite the President’s announcement, the White House already admitted two years ago that there is no ‘mechanism for formally designating domestic terrorist organizations’, especially movements with no formal structure like Antifa – though prosecutors can characterize particular incidents as ‘domestic terrorist violence’.
Trump considered using ‘tanks’ or other armored military vehicles to help restore order in the US after violent protests broke out across the country for a sixth night, defense officials revealed yesterday.
As protests over the death of George Floyd entered their second week, Trump threatened to deploy active duty military across the country to quell the unrest.
On Monday, law enforcement officials pushed hundreds of protesters out of Washington’s Lafayette Park, ahead of the district’s 7pm curfew.
A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, revealed on Tuesday that Trump hoped to make the aggressive action in Washington an example for the rest of the country.
Two Pentagon officials also told AP that the president had ordered military aircraft to fly above the capital on Monday night as a ‘show of force’ against demonstrators.