00:00:02
Edward Crawford: The plan was actually, I was
just going out there to be nosy. I wanted to
00:00:06
see what the protest was looking like because
I had called my brother and he said, “They're
00:00:12
protesting.” And, you know, I didn't know what a
protest was. Well, I knew what it was, but I had
00:00:17
never seen one in person. I'd read about them
in school, so I wanted to see one in person.
00:00:23
Phoebe Judge: This is Edward Crawford. On
August 11th, 2014, just a few days after
00:00:28
18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed
by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri,
00:00:33
Edward Crawford went to his first protest.
Edward Crawford: There was a lot of people, angry.
00:00:41
I'd seen signs, hear people chanting, using
profanity. I mean, they were mad, you know? The
00:00:48
emotion was at an all-time high. It was
overwhelming. There were people crying.
00:00:54
I don't know if those relatives or friends
of Mike Brown, but it was different. It was
00:01:00
something I never experienced in my life.
Phoebe Judge: That's how he described his
00:01:05
first day of demonstrations. When
he went back out the next night, August 12, it was a different story.
Edward Crawford: The people out there, like,
00:01:12
they were protesting. They were angry at the
police, and the police were angry at the people
00:01:17
that were protesting, you know? So, it's like
both sides were antagonizing each other. And,
00:01:24
you know, the police, they were out
there to do their jobs. But the people, I guess they were out there to be heard.
Phoebe Judge: The police at some point,
00:01:33
they started lining up with riot gear. What did
that look like to you? Is that when things started
00:01:39
to seem scary, or that things were changing?
Edward Crawford: That looked like something you
00:01:44
see on a movie. They were very tactical,
you can tell that they had been through
00:01:50
very prestigious training, you know? Like the
formation, even when they move, they move all
00:01:57
on one — it seemed like they were on one beat,
if that's what you call it, I don't know. But
00:02:05
it was organized and they were chanting,
like, "Go home. This is not a lawful protest anymore. Please return home." And then,
there were people saying, like, “This is home.”
00:02:20
Phoebe Judge: This whole scene was
well-documented in the media at the time. The conflict between protesters
and law enforcement reached fever-pitch.
00:02:28
And when the protesters refused to disperse, the
police started firing at the crowd with rubber
00:02:34
bullets, wooden pellets, and tear gas canisters.
Edward Crawford: So, when they shot the tear gas,
00:02:39
it landed fairly close. And the sound of,
I don't know, I'm pretty sure you haven't
00:02:44
heard a tear gas shot. It's a loud — it sounds
like a grenade is going off when it's shot.
00:02:51
And when it's first shot, it's, like, real
smoky in the sky. And then you can follow
00:02:59
the smoke trail and you'll see where it
lands. And it landed fairly close to me.
00:03:03
Phoebe Judge: What did it look like when it
landed? How big is it? Like a spray paint can?
00:03:08
Edward Crawford: No, it's actually
smaller. It's like a 12-ounce soda can. Phoebe Judge: And it was smoking?
Edward Crawford: Yeah. At the time,
00:03:14
it looked like a fire.
Phoebe Judge: What did it feel like when you picked it up?
00:03:19
Edward Crawford: It was room temperature. It
wasn't hot. It really didn't have a distinctive
00:03:25
feeling, like, to where if you touch it,
you will know that, OK, this is not good.
00:03:28
Phoebe Judge: What did you do with it?
Edward Crawford: I threw it out of the way.
00:03:31
Phoebe Judge: You threw it just out of the way, or
did you throw it... which way did you throw it?
00:03:34
Edward Crawford: I really didn't aim for a
direction, because I didn't have time to even
00:03:37
think to where I was going to throw it.
Phoebe Judge: But did you throw it the way that it had come?
Edward Crawford: Possibly did.
00:03:43
Phoebe Judge: And so, the way that it had come was
where the police were? Edward Crawford: I mean,
00:03:49
I guess you could say that.
Robert Cohen: My name is Robert Cohen. I'm a
staff photographer at the St. Louis
00:03:59
Post-Dispatch. I've been in St. Louis for 16
years. I've been a photojournalist for about 30
00:04:06
years. And I kind of saw it unfolding.
Some of the first pictures I shot was Ed reaching down for the canister. And as
he's reaching down, the sparks are flying
00:04:17
out of it and he actually leaves his
feet. He just kind of jumps out of the way because as he's reaching down, the
sparks are starting to fly and so, he
00:04:24
kind of jumps out of the way, and then reaches
back down again and throws it. And, you know,
00:04:30
at this point, I'm just trying to get things
in focus. And quite frankly, I'm looking at
00:04:34
my watch because we have a potential headline
in the newspaper the next morning, which was
00:04:40
going to reflect something like a calm night
in Ferguson. And here we are, pushing midnight
00:04:46
and the whole night has changed radically.
Phoebe Judge: Robert hurried to his car to start
00:04:51
to edit the photographs he'd taken of Ed. And Ed,
who had no idea he'd been photographed, hurried to
00:04:57
his friend's car to try to get out of there. The
two men hadn't met — at least not yet, anyway.
00:05:04
I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.
Edward Crawford: After this tear gas was shot,
my friend, she was like, “OK,
00:05:17
let's go. It's getting dangerous, let's go.”
Phoebe Judge: Ed ran through the crowds to his
00:05:23
friend's car, which was parked in a nearby church
parking lot. The police were right behind him.
00:05:28
Edward Crawford: And they were yelling, "Stop!"
So, I hurried up and I unlocked the car and I
00:05:33
locked the back as I got into the car. And now
I'm on the passenger side. I tried to crawl up
00:05:37
to the driver's side, but at that time, I can see
now that the car is surrounded, because I don't
00:05:41
see the light anymore. And the car was basically
rocking. They were all around the car and they
00:05:48
were hitting it, and I guess
one officer bust the window and opened the door. Then another officer
grabbed me by the shirt and by the hair,
00:05:58
and they swung me to the ground.
Phoebe Judge: Meanwhile, Robert was sitting in his
00:06:03
car with his laptop editing the photographs he'd
taken of Ed, and rushing to get them to his editor
00:06:09
before the newspaper's deadline. When you look at
the series — we've got them up on our site — it's
00:06:15
almost like a flip book. You can see Ed jumping
over the burning gas canister on the ground,
00:06:20
the space under his feet and legs illuminated
by the sparks and smoke. Then you can see the
00:06:26
moment where Ed reaches down with what looks like
no hesitation and picks up the burning canister.
00:06:33
Those pictures are powerful in their own
right, to see a person grab this ball of fire.
00:06:39
But it was one of the last pictures that
Robert took that made him realize he'd captured
00:06:44
something special. It's Ed in a full baseball
pitcher stance. His body is arched backwards,
00:06:50
his arms stretched out and made bright
by that burning can in his hand. Robert Cohen: I did not — you know, the
symbolism that holds so strong in this image,
00:07:01
with the exception of the act of defiance and
the fighting back and all the themes a lot of
00:07:07
people talk about. It's held together by the
fact that he's got an American flag shirt on.
00:07:13
I did not see that shirt. I did not see that
shirt while I was photographing. You know,
00:07:18
all I see is a man come out of nowhere and pick
up this canister and throw it back. And so,
00:07:23
I didn't actually appreciate that extra nugget
until I was at my car whipping open my laptop,
00:07:31
really trying to make deadline.
Phoebe Judge: Robert missed his deadline by just 15 minutes and went home. He decided
to post the photo on his personal Twitter
00:07:39
feed and went to bed. When he woke up, he knew
something was going on. He had about 8,000 new
00:07:46
Twitter followers. The photo had gone completely
viral overnight and taken on a life of its own.
00:07:52
Robert Cohen: Less than 48 hours after I shot this
photo, I'm at the Michael Brown Memorial and a man
00:08:01
shows up in a T-shirt with Ed's picture on it.
And so I'm photographing this man at the memorial
00:08:09
dressed in my picture. It's bizarre. And
since that point, there's been hundreds of
00:08:19
things sent to me, things sent to Ed, artists’
rendering. People will just... They decide they
00:08:25
want to paint this picture, and they have a
need to send it to us. Two people, one in LA,
00:08:31
one I don't know where, had it tattooed on their
body. One on their shoulder, one on their bicep.
00:08:38
In New Orleans, there's a big art project,
and Ed is four stories tall. It's amazing
00:08:47
how people feel a need to reproduce it.
Phoebe Judge: Not only has the photograph
00:08:53
that Robert took of Ed become an iconic image of
the Ferguson protest, it was also part of a group
00:09:00
of photographs taken after the shooting of Michael
Brown by photographers at the St. Louis Dispatch
00:09:05
that would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize.
Edward Crawford: You know, a lot of people see the
00:09:12
image and they don't know it's me, but me knowing
it's me, and I just sit back and think like, “Wow,
00:09:18
they really appreciate this picture.” And
to some extent I feel like, “OK, well,
00:09:24
they appreciate me because they
feel what I did was right.” So, I'm cool with it.
Phoebe Judge:
00:09:36
On the one-year anniversary of Michael
Brown's death, this past August, people in Ferguson gathered once again
for what started off, by all accounts,
00:09:45
as a peaceful demonstration. On the night of the
second day of protest however, things escalated
00:09:51
between the police and protesters once again. And
Robert Cohen was back out there with his camera.
00:09:57
Robert Cohen: The police came out
very aggressively that night, and they were moving protesters out of the street
much more aggressively than they were before.
00:10:08
Phoebe Judge: Robert says he was standing with a
group of protesters who had, for the most part,
00:10:13
complied with the officers' requests and gotten
out of the street and onto the sidewalk.
00:10:17
Edward Crawford: But there was one protester
that was still yelling at the officers pretty
00:10:24
loudly. And the county officer just decided to
arrest him, and instead of spraying him with
00:10:34
pepper spray alone, he sprayed a pretty
wide stream. And my body, my upper body,
00:10:41
was just drenched. My arms, my shirt, my hair.
Phoebe Judge: He had photographed a lot of people
00:10:46
being tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed
in Ferguson. But this was the first time he'd experienced it himself.
Robert Cohen: Everywhere it was touching
00:10:54
me, it was burning. I mean, it's oil-based, which
I did not know at the time. And so, water only
00:11:01
makes it worse. And I was carrying a separate lens
in a little fanny pack and the lens jumped out of
00:11:10
the fanny pack as I probably just kind of dove out
of the way. And I went to reach for the lens to
00:11:14
pick it up off the ground, and somebody else's
hand grabs it before I grab it. And he says,
00:11:20
“Are you OK? Are you OK?” I was like — I didn't
even see Ed, and I knew it was Ed. And look
00:11:26
who's bending down to help me out? It was crazy.
Phoebe Judge: Ed was also at the protest, but this
00:11:32
time he was watching from a distance when he saw
the police spray the crowd and then he saw Robert.
00:11:38
Almost exactly one year to the
day, Robert and Ed met again. Ed, what did Robert look... Did he
look like he was in bad shape?
00:11:47
Edward Crawford: Yeah, he looked like
he had left a confetti party and it was silly string all over him, but I knew
what it was. It was orange pepper spray.
00:11:58
And when it initially was shot, I'd seen that it
had got him right in the face, but I didn't know
00:12:03
if he had got it in his eyes. So of course,
you know, he's carrying thousands of dollars
00:12:07
of equipment, and at that time, he seemed very
vulnerable to the typical snatch and grab which
00:12:12
was going on a lot down there that night. And I'd
hate to see that happen to Robert. So, you know, I
00:12:17
kind of tried to guide him out of the way, out of
the crowd, and just make sure he was all right.
00:12:23
Robert Cohen: And he did.
Phoebe Judge: You both have come into each other's lives at rather important times.
Edward Crawford: Yeah, I feel that it's true.
00:12:34
Because anytime I see him, he's always going to
get — he's always going to get a, “Hey Robert,
00:12:39
how you doing? How's it going?” He's always going
to be acknowledged on my end. And, you know,
00:12:45
that's just the utmost respect I have for him.
Phoebe Judge: But the complicated thing is that
00:12:50
Robert's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo is
also undeniable proof that Ed was the guy
00:12:56
who threw that tear gas canister.
Edward Crawford: I'm often asked: am I mad at him for taking that picture, you
know, seeing that I'm facing charges? And no,
00:13:10
I'm not mad. He did an amazing job. And every time
I see him, I make sure I show gratitude. Because
00:13:18
whether he knows or not, he's changed my life.
Phoebe Judge: Ed has been charged with assault
00:13:23
and with repeatedly failing to comply with police.
He had his first court appearance in September.
00:13:40
Criminal is produced by Lauren Spohrer and
me. Audio engineering help from Rob Byers and
00:13:47
Russ Henry. Julienne Alexander makes original
illustrations for each episode of Criminal.
00:14:11
Criminal is recorded in the studios
of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from
PRX, a collective of the best shows around.
00:15:38
Jingle: Radiotopia, from PRX.