After an armed and indignant mob of mostly-white Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday in an effort to overturn the outcomes of the presidential election, a number of political leaders and activists within the nation have identified the stark distinction between the police’s response to the latest rebellion and the brutal use of drive towards Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestors final 12 months.
In a nationwide tackle on Thursday, President-elect Joe Biden condemned the assault and acknowledged the clear distinction in how regulation enforcement officers responded to the Capitol Hill siege.
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“No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday, they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” Biden stated. “We all know that’s true. And it’s unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.”
No one can inform me that if it had been a gaggle of Black Lives Matter protestors yesterday that they wouldn’t have been handled very otherwise than the mob that stormed the Capitol.
We all know that’s true — and it’s unacceptable.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 7, 2021
Meanwhile, Trump — who famously referred to the Black Lives Matter demonstrators as “thugs” — known as the rioters concerned within the assault on Capitol Hill “great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”
As movies and pictures of the latest riot started to emerge, Black Lives Matter activists who had been concerned in final 12 months’s anti-racism protests expressed outrage over what they noticed as a transparent manifestation of the US’ unequal justice system.
The protests for racial justice unfold throughout the United States final 12 months following the demise of George Floyd — a black man who died in Minneapolis after a police officer strangled him along with his knee final May. President Donald Trump had ordered a troublesome response to the protests, deploying National Guard troops in a number of states to suppress the demonstrators.
Here’s a take a look at how police responded to siege on the Capitol and the 2020 BLM protests
Trump supporters collect exterior the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo)
On January 6, 2021 a whole lot of supporters of US President Donald Trump marched to the historic Capitol Building to protest towards the certification of electoral votes, which might validate Biden’s victory. Despite the presence of regulation enforcement authorities, they climbed up the steps of the constructing, and even broke by police boundaries and scaled the outer partitions that encompass it.
Tear gasoline floats within the air as a line of police transfer demonstrators away from St. John’s Church throughout Lafayette Park from the White House, as they collect to protest the demise of George Floyd, Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
In June final 12 months, police and National Guard troops brutally cracked down on a gaggle of anti-racism demonstrators who had been peacefully protesting close to Lafayette Park in Washington DC. They used tear gasoline and drive to try to disperse the group as President Trump was anticipated to stroll from the White House by the park to a church close by for a photo-op.
Smoke fills the walkway exterior the Senate Chamber as supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers contained in the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
During the siege on Wednesday, the lawmakers who had convened to certify the electoral faculty outcomes had been evacuated from the premises as chaos ensued. Many of their workplaces had been damaged into and looted because the pro-Trump rioters wrecked havoc within the halls of the Capitol.
For distinction, that is how the National Guard defended the Lincoln Memorial throughout BLM protests. pic.twitter.com/bZi36yeg9Z
— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) January 6, 2021
An picture relationship again to June 2020, which options a number of members of the DC National Guard standing on the steps main as much as the Lincoln Memorial as Black Lives Matter demonstrators held a peaceable protest towards police brutality, has been extensively circulated on social media. In response to rising ranges of civil unrest, National Guard troops had been deployed in states throughout the nation to suppress the anti-racism protests.
Police hold a watch on demonstrators who tried to interrupt by a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, on the Capitol in Washington. (AP/PTI)
Meanwhile, the National Guard was deployed hours after the rioters had damaged into the Capitol constructing on Wednesday. By this weekend, round 6,200 National Guard troops will transfer into Washington DC, the place they’ll stay till President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
Federal officers disperse Black Lives Matter demonstrators on the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
During the protests final 12 months, regulation enforcement officers clashed with demonstrators — spraying them with tear gasoline and utilizing rubber bullets to disperse them. The brutality with which they tried to crackdown on the protests earned them widespread condemnation from civil rights activists worldwide. In one occasion, a police official in New York was seen pushing an aged man to the bottom.
Supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by Capitol Police officers exterior the Senate Chamber contained in the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Police hand strolling a rioter down the steps for her consolation. pic.twitter.com/IaNPs7OMRJ
— Alafair Burke (@alafairburke) January 6, 2021
While police deployed tear gasoline towards the pro-Trump protestors, some regulation enforcement officers had been additionally seen calmly reasoning with the rioters that had damaged into the Capitol constructing. Images of regulation enforcement officers patiently tending to injured protestors have additionally precipitated an uproar amongst the BLM neighborhood, who didn’t obtain the identical remedy throughout final 12 months’s protests.
A demonstrator is taken into custody by police after a curfew took impact throughout a protest over the demise of George Floyd, Monday, June 1, 2020, close to the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Hundreds of protestors had been arrested for unrest-related offences throughout the anti-racism protests of 2020. According to the Washington DC police division, 427 arrests had been made between May 30 and June 2 final 12 months throughout the racial justice protests in DC alone.
A U.S. Capitol police officer shoots pepper spray at a protestor making an attempt to enter the Capitol constructing throughout a joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 election outcomes on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/Pool through REUTERS
Just 53 folks had been arrested in Washington DC on Wednesday after the rioters stormed the Capitol Building.
