Earlier this month, a man selflessly opened his home to protestors after claiming the police assaulted and pepper-sprayed over 200 protesters during a curfew in the country’s capital.
Minutes after the 6 a.m. curfew ended, protestors in the safety of this man’s home gave an enthusiastic applause and cheered for the owner, Rahul Dubey.
The 44-year-old Indian-American who has been living in DC for the last 17 years and immediately took action as he saw the protesters being brutally manhandled as the police beat them up while they were trying to flee the scene.
One of the peaceful protestors, 22-year-old Meka claimed to Buzzfeed that the police officers had blocked off both sides of Swanna Street in northwest DC.
It was at that point that police “just started charging” at the group, “pushing and hitting” them while pepper spraying them and preventing them from leaving. It was right at this time when Dubey could no longer stomach what he was witnessing first hand from the safety of his own porch, that he opened the doors to his 1,500-square-foot home for anybody that needed shelter for the night.
The people he saved now describes him as a “hero” and “absolute legend” for his selfless act.
Dubey told Esquire that:
“I flung open the door, and I grabbed the railing and started pushing people into my house. It was like a human tsunami of people that the cops were pushing into my street, and the overflow was coming into my house.”
“All I kept on yelling was ‘Get in! Get in!’ I kept saying, ‘Get downstairs! Get upstairs!”
Another witness that saw everything unfold told News4 that:
“They charged all the way up into this man’s door and maced everybody coming into this house … Thank goodness for us in the house we’re safe, we’re ok. But there’s no way for us to get out of this house and not get arrested.”
Videos and photos from the scene shows MPD officers violently blocking and beating protesters, as well as arresting them for violating the curfew. All this violence followed after President Donald Trump’s warning to protesters across the country that many understood as a declaration of war.
He would no longer tolerate unrest, which was described as being proved by “professional anarchists, violent mobs, or, arsonists, looters, criminals, rider rioters, Antifa and others.” The president then said he would “end the riots and lawlessness” using military force, if necessary.
Trump has also said that he would send in massive amounts of armed personnel to the country’s capital, while strictly enforcing the 7:00 p.m. curfew that has been declared by the city.
This threatening speech happened right before the police gassed a huge crowd of peaceful protestors that were near the White House just so that the president could have a photo op of the very controversial photo where he is holding a bible outside the church.
Peter Newsham, DC Police Chief said that the officers were in the area to enforce the curfew, but denies any allegations that they gassed the protesters with pepper spray, claiming that it was part of the “misinformation” social media was spreading.
Newsham also said that “officers saw behavior consistent with behavior that preceded the very violent activity two night before when we actually had a Metropolitan Police Department that was set on fire.”
He also shared with NBC4 Washington that their department would “take a very, very close look to ensure that the police were respectful and responsible, professional and constitutional, in conducting those arrests.”
Although hearing these comments from the Police Chief, Dubey described the scene as completely chaotic and close enough to resemble “a hostage situation.”
He spoke to Esquire commenting:
“They were shooting pepper spray in through the window.
“That was mayhem for about an hour and fifteen minutes, and then as soon as I stepped onto the front porch, [the police] said, ‘Get back in the house, or we’ll put you down,’ and I said, ‘Look, I got a bunch of people in here.’
“They said, ‘Get the fuck back inside.’ I waited about an hour, and I went back out and said, ‘I request to talk to somebody,’ and they said, ‘We told you to get back. Get back or we’ll fucking arrest you,’ so I went back in the house.”
The people who were able to escape the violence were trying to relieve themselves of the pepper spray effects that the police had sprayed on them.
According to Dubey, his new guests ran the bathtub water just to splash some on their faces for relief.
Meka also added:
“It was chaotic … People were screaming, crying, and coughing.”
Later on, police even tried to dupe these protesters by wearing plainclothes to the front door, urging them to go through the back alley where they would be able to escape safely. “I mean, bullshit stuff,” Dubey said.
They also delayed a pizza delivery guy for over an hour and sent another police officer to respond to a fake 911 call that was supposedly about a medical emergency. It was as if Dubey’s home was under siege.
At some point, however, “some magic took place,” Dubey said.
Not surprisingly, for the 75 people in Dubey’s home with the ages of 20 to 50 years old, pizza was definitely part of the magic that happened.
“I had to do a covert pizza operation,” Dubey said with a laugh.
Thanks to some good samaritans on the internet, Dubey was finally able to get enough pizza for all 75 people from Duccini’s, his favorite local pizza place. And as for another piece of the magic puzzle, the pizza delivery guy had a role to play.
Dubey said,
“I’m delirious, but it’s beautiful. It’s absurd that I had to get some stranger to hand me pizza over my back fence through police brigade, but it also shows the human spirit, too, and that’s what this is all about.”
However, beyond Dubey’s safe home, officers still had other protesters cornered in a “little square” where they were arresting everyone.
Meka, Dubey, and the others that were safe quickly got on social media to share their ordeal. Chief Newsham lashed angrily saying that the information they were spreading was “completely innacurate.”
Eight hours after they escaped, Dubey’s 75 guests were able to head home, and thankfully didn’t get arrested as they left their safe space.
The event was nerve-wracking, Dubey added. Nevertheless, the group was “an amazing group of people that were gathered here peacefully.”
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