Protests during COVID-19: How One Image Went Viral

     A recent photo of a man protesting at Michigan’s Capitol Hill has been going viral. It depicts the unmasked man screaming at two police officers both wearing protective masks during a protest. It has been revealed that Brian Cash, the protester, claims to not have been screaming in anybody’s face, but rather a police officer behind those in the picture who he saw assault a woman the day before. The photo has been circulating throughout the media, with many finding it compelling due to its aggressive tone. As tensions grow between US citizens and those enforcing the social distancing measure that state governments have placed, pictures like these have been compelling many people to question whether their safety or personal freedom should be prioritized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

     The photo shows Cash as one of many protesters at the venue hidden in the background but still part of the picture. They stand lined up face-to-face with cops in uniform, two of whom we see wearing masks. Although Cash was yelling at someone behind the cops, the face-to-face alignment of the protesters and cops makes it seem as if he is yelling at them too. Furthermore, he yells wearing no mask, probably to show his opposition to mandatory face-covering while both officers have surgical masks in accordance with regulations. There is a contrast between the unmasked yelling and masked silence, almost as if the mask demands of its wearers to keep quiet and simply obey the rules. This display makes the current battle between safety and freedom not only explicit but also transfers a sense of frustration from the protester to the audience. Many people around the country are tired of these social distancing measures and just want to experience normality again. They are all aware that the virus is still an immediate threat, but they understand the frustration of living a restricted life with most of their time dedicated to staying at home and praying that this all ends soon. 

     The compelling nature of this image mirrors that of other iconic photographs, including some that go as far back as the 1970s. As described in No Caption Needed an emotion can be the “the fact of one’s experience just as [the person] is the central figure to the composition (Hariman and Lucaites, 175). This quote was in reference to the infamous “Accidental Napalm” image in which a girl runs away, screaming in pain after a napalm attack in Vietnam. Similarly, the man in the protesting picture is screaming out of frustration; even though it was because of a separate matter, the audience can observe the context as presented in the image [cops, crowded protesters, etc] and interpret these symbols as a connection to the COVID-19 pandemic as a whole. This pandemic has induced a fragmented population of US citizens in which people are torn over their moral values and don’t know how well they can trust the local authoritative figures. Similarly, Hariman and Lucaites also identified these same themes during the response to the napalm photo. As a result, this image brings attention to the fractured state of the country, a seemingly recurring theme in American politics during times of uncertainty and fear. As tensions grow, political figures, including President Donald Trump, still have an obligation to do what is best for the American people. Photographs such as the one at Capitol Hill demonstrate that what is “best” may be subjective, so it is up to these leaders to decide how we account for such differences.

Sources:

“Trauma and Public Memory.” No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy, by Robert Hariman and John Louis. Lucaites, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2011, pp. 171–207.

Kaufman, Gina. “Michigan Man in Now-Famous Capitol Protest Photo: 'I Didn't Scream in Anybody's Face'.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 6 May 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/05/michigan-capitol-building-protest-picture/5172876002/.