Protester Running from Riot Police

Submission 8,274

About

Protester Running From Riot Police is an image macro series of a protester in a beanie running from a police officer wearing riot gear and holding a baton and shield.

Origin

The photograph was first published on December 19th, 2010 and was taken by Gleb Garanich for Reuters^[1] (shown below). The photograph was taken amidst demonstrations by protesters in Minsk, Belarus following the outcome of the presidential election.^[2]

Spread

Days later, on December 22nd, LiveJournal^[4] user ibigdan posted a Demotivational Poster post of the moment (shown below, left).

On December 23rd, LiveJournal^[3] user andrey_g posted a series of image edits of the image (examples below, center and right).

Eight years later, on October 4th, 2018, Redditor ^[5] Therightsideofhell posted the image in the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit. They wrote, "Last chance to invest in EU memes!" The post received more than 24,000 points in less than one year (shown below).

In 2019, the image became a popular template for the Me Running Away From Area 51 meme. For example, on September 13th, 2019, Redditor^[6] MrEvetbody shared a variation in which the protester is "running away from Area 51" with a copy of Windows 9. The post received more than 13,000 points in less than one month (shown below, left). Throughout the month, others shared similar image edits (shown below, center and right).