A US man, who threw a footlong sandwich at a federal officer, has been found not guilty and is today popularly known as a “sandwich guy.”A video of Sean Charles Dunn, “sandwich guy,” throwing a sandwich at the officer’s car has gone viral, showing him pointing and shouting at officers as they crossed the junction. “F*** you, fascists,” he yelled, then chanted “shame” before turning and walking away. “I don’t want you in my city,” he screamed at them. Minutes later, he returned, continued shouting and threw his sandwich — salami, the Washington Post reported.
Who is Sean Dunn?
According to CNN, Dunn served as an international-affairs specialist in the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division. He was terminated following the sandwich incident. Attorney-General Pam Bondi announced his dismissal on social media as a warning to federal employees. In her statement Bondi said, “This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ. You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”
How did he became the face of DC resistance?
In the week since the sandwich was slung, Dunn’s likeness has appeared around the city and on social media. Memes and protest art have flooded Washington accounts. At demonstrations, protesters held Subway sandwiches aloft as a symbol of defiance, and shirts bearing his image are now on sale.He’s also become the face of DC’s resistance to the law enforcement surge implemented by President Donald Trump’s administration, WTOP reported.In homage to graffiti artist Banksy’s “Flower Thrower,” images of Dunn throwing the sandwich started popping up on buildings around the District and T-shirts worn by Washingtonians.Speaking to some DC residents in front of “the sandwich thrower” image on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan, WTOP tried to find out why so many have thrown their support behind Dunn.“I think it’s more of like a folk hero thing,’’ Connor told WTOP. “He’s just sort of a symbol for the emotion that everybody is feeling, watching people get abducted off the streets and mistreated and manhandled.”“Whoever came up with that transposition, I mean, that’s a brilliant piece of street art,” said Jeffrey Ian Ross, a criminologist at the University of Baltimore specialising in graffiti and street art, Washington Post reported. “And it will be one of several. When somebody writes the history of this period, that will definitely be one of the iconic images that comes out of it.”Ross described the episode as a “perfect storm” for virality, noting the irony of Dunn’s federal employment and the high-profile felony charge. He added that the slapstick nature of a thwacking sandwich and a flat-footed police chase made the incident particularly memorable.Rochester-based artist Adam Goldfarb, who lived in the DC area for 15 years, has designed shirts featuring a cartoon hoagie over the word “resist”, complete with an eye patch. “Nobody wants to waste a sandwich. But looking at this administration, the cruelty, the corruption, the disregard for basic democratic values and societal norms, it feels like, so often, there’s nothing we can do. So I totally understand this, ‘We just need to do something,’ and you’ve got a sandwich in your hand,” he said. He has not yet sold any of the shirts.
