Social media doesn't support St. Louis police chief Dotson's version of events

The third night of protests in St. Louis resulted in 19 arrests. Metro chief of police Sam Dotson posted on Twitter that they made the apprehensions at the QuikTrip because of what he dubbed “illegal behavior.”

That Dotson has taken to social media comes as no surprise. After all, these platforms have served as a primary source of information for what’s been happening in St. Louis (in the case of Vonderrit D. Myer’s shooting as well as Ferguson’s Michael Brown, both 18 years old). Despite Dotson’s assertions, photos and videos posted on Twitter and Vine do little to substantiate these claims. Quite the contrary, they show cops using batons and riot gear to subdue protesters.

While it is impossible to know all details of what transpired at the QuikTrip parking lot, and it is possible that some protesters’ violence towards officers went unrecorded, Fusion’s team of reporters and videographers were in the thick of things and did not see violence toward police. The team captured these images.

Dotson’s claims come a day after the St. Louis Metro Police Department posted photos of damage done to its vehicles.

Evidence of protesters throwing rocks at a cop cars was published on Vine.

On Thursday night, Chief Dotson told local media affiliate KSDK that a member of the crowd had thrown a knife at the police, striking one of the officers.

“Fortunately, his vest protected him from it, and we recovered that, but it just shows how quickly this situation can change,” Dotson said.

SLMPD’s official Twitter account reshared an image by a KSDK showing the knife in question.

But for every tweet or Vine showing protester misbehavior, there are far more highlighting the police’s response. The following video, for example, was uploaded on Thursday night:

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