Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Metro rider recounts encounter with Patriot Front members in D.C.

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Metro rider recounts encounter with Patriot Front members in D.C. · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Events surrounding America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday produced many
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  Speaker 1: memorable images fireworks lighting up the sky over the Capitol,
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  Speaker 1: crowds dressed in red, white and blue, and military aircraft
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  Speaker 1: flying over Washington's many monuments. But one set of images
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  Speaker 1: has drawn attention for a very different reason. They show
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  Speaker 1: hundreds of masked, uniformed men marching through parts of Washington
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  Speaker 1: on the morning of the fourth of July. The men
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  Speaker 1: are members of Patriot Front. That's a white supremacist group
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  Speaker 1: formed in the aftermath of the twenty seventeen Unite the
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  Speaker 1: Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Images of members of the
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  Speaker 1: group riding metro trains alongside other passengers have since gone viral.
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  Speaker 1: On the NAVAZ spoke earlier with one of those passengers.
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  Speaker 2: Roswell Andcina, was on the DC Metro headed to an
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  Speaker 2: Independence Day celebration in Maryland on July fourth. The ride
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  Speaker 2: started out as expected. They saw people dressed in red,
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  Speaker 2: white and blue, families getting on and off, but the
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  Speaker 2: atmosphere suddenly shifted when a massive crowd of men, all
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  Speaker 2: dressed alike wearing masks and caps, filled the train. He
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  Speaker 2: soon found out those men were members of the white
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  Speaker 2: supremacist group the Patriot Front. Getty Images photographer Finn Gomez
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  Speaker 2: captured this photo of Encina during that ride. Roswell and
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  Speaker 2: Cina heads the US Capital Historical Society. That's a nonprofit
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  Speaker 2: and nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to preserving the history of
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  Speaker 2: the US Capital. And he joins me, now, welcome to
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  Speaker 2: the News.
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  Speaker 3: Hour, thanks for being here, thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 2: So take me back to July fourth. You're on this train,
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  Speaker 2: You're headed to a celebration. You notice these men coming
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  Speaker 2: on the train, and this photo of you then goes viral.
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  Speaker 2: What's going through your mind at that moment in the picture?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I was scared. I'd be lying to you if
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  Speaker 3: I told you I was trying to be strong. But
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  Speaker 3: you know, when a massive amount of men who are masked,
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  Speaker 3: covered with sunglasses, in a baseball cap and you can't
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  Speaker 3: identify any of them, your natural instinct is to really
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  Speaker 3: just like, oh my goodness, what's happening. Who are these people?
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  Speaker 3: What are their intentions? What are they going to do?
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  Speaker 3: In the metro. So I kind of, you know, kind
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  Speaker 3: of made myself.
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  Speaker 2: Smaller when you look at that photo. Now, what goes
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  Speaker 2: through your mind.
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  Speaker 3: I still have a hard time looking at myself in
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  Speaker 3: that photo. It's because you know, people take photographs of
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  Speaker 3: you when you're smiling, when you're happy, maybe when you're
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  Speaker 3: sad or excited, but you never see yourself when you're scared.
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  Speaker 3: But I'm really hoping, you know, when people see my photo,
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  Speaker 3: most importantly the photo of that African American woman who
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  Speaker 3: was also surrounded by them, that they understand that we
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  Speaker 3: have our stories too, and our stories are part of
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  Speaker 3: the nation, and that we're all part of this United States.
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  Speaker 2: There were those other photos, as you mentioned, There was
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  Speaker 2: one of a black man on a metro train ride,
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  Speaker 2: also surrounded by members of that Patriot Front. The black
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  Speaker 2: woman who you mentioned you've since been identified by her
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  Speaker 2: family as Bernita Bolding, And I need to ask you
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  Speaker 2: about this because since she was identified, there has been
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  Speaker 2: a real wave of some very ugly, some racist comments
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  Speaker 2: about her and that photo. Have you seen anything similar
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  Speaker 2: and do you worry about the response now that you're
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  Speaker 2: out speaking publicly about it.
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  Speaker 3: Sadly yes, I can't help but see the comment swords me.
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  Speaker 3: The comment sword's her, and it's very discouraging. Some of
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  Speaker 3: them are like, well, they didn't touch him. You know,
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  Speaker 3: they left him alone. You know he wasn't bullied physically.
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  Speaker 3: It's hard to understand what a person of color goes
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  Speaker 3: through in this country, especially when you're by yourself in
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  Speaker 3: a contained space and that position you're put in and
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  Speaker 3: not knowing what's going to happen next.
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  Speaker 2: And that's how we felt your own personal story is
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  Speaker 2: relevant here as well, because you were brought here as
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  Speaker 2: an infant. I know your father was in the US military.
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  Speaker 2: You're a US citizen, but you went back and forth
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  Speaker 2: between the Philippines a lot growing up. As we're talking
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  Speaker 2: about America's two fiftieth and this whole conversation about what
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  Speaker 2: it means to be an American, how do you see
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  Speaker 2: your story fitting into that.
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  Speaker 3: I think back to when my parents brought me here
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  Speaker 3: when I was an infant. My dad was in the
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  Speaker 3: US Navy's as I meant, as you mentioned, and they've
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  Speaker 3: always instilled in me the importance of civic engagement. My
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  Speaker 3: father when I turned eighteen, we were just coincidentally we're
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  Speaker 3: in the Philippines then, and like we need to go
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  Speaker 3: out and vote. It was nineteen eighty eight. It was
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  Speaker 3: a presidential election, and I'm like, oh sure, So we
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  Speaker 3: drove up to the US embassy and we voted, and
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  Speaker 3: since then, I remember that day very clearly in my
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  Speaker 3: head how exciting it was. You know, it's the most
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  Speaker 3: minimum thing you could do is go out and vote.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, everything beyond that is public dialogue, and that's
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  Speaker 3: what we try to do, at least of the capital
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  Speaker 3: historical society. And I think that's what we need to
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  Speaker 3: do more as a nation is really have more, you know,
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  Speaker 3: read more, listen more, talk more, and hopefully it brings
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  Speaker 3: us somewhere in the middle.
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  Speaker 2: Much of your career has been about civic engagement. It's
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  Speaker 2: in your work now, you're at the Library of Congress.
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  Speaker 2: Before that, you know better than anyone the First Amendment
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  Speaker 2: protects your right to say what's on your mind. And
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  Speaker 2: they're right to gather peacefully as they did on that
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  Speaker 2: day and say what's on theirs. How do you think
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  Speaker 2: about that?
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  Speaker 3: It's very complex. I'm hoping you know, when they people
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  Speaker 3: look at our photos or think back on the fourth
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  Speaker 3: of July and Washington, that it starts a dialogue. It
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  Speaker 3: starts a conversation, which is part of democracy. I really
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  Speaker 3: think that really will help us understand each other. We've
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  Speaker 3: always had to say agreements. However, we've always found a
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  Speaker 3: way to move forward, you know. I you know, there's
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  Speaker 3: been a lot of talk, clearly because it's been the
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  Speaker 3: fourth of July of the Declaration of Independence and that
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  Speaker 3: all men are created equal. And you know, when you
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  Speaker 3: think of that, you know, that declaration that Thomas Jefferson
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  Speaker 3: wrote two hundred and fifty years ago, nowadays it feels
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  Speaker 3: more like a you know, a mission statement that I
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  Speaker 3: feel like each generation has done their part to try
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  Speaker 3: to achieve it, you know, from you know, women's suffrage
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  Speaker 3: to the Thirteenth Amendment, to landmark legislation like the voting
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  Speaker 3: right sack and the civil Rightsack, to our LGBTQ rights. Nowadays,
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  Speaker 3: I think we've all each generation has paid their part
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  Speaker 3: to make that a reality.
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  Speaker 2: Rosswell and see. And it's such a pleasure to speak
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  Speaker 2: with you. Thank you so much for being here.
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  Speaker 3: I appreciate it so much.
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