Journalists inside the Capitol captured protesters by breaking windows and trying to replace a American flag outside the building with a Trump flag. They recorded Trump supporters roaming the building’s hallways. And how the Capitol Police handled it – or not – did not go unnoticed on social media, where reporters, historians and activists spoke out against what they considered hypocrisy: an overwhelming crowd of whites acting violently was treated delicately compared to protesters in Washington and across the country during protests against Floyd’s death by a Minneapolis police officer.
Deputy Cori Bush (D-Missouri), a veteran of the Black Lives Matters protests in Ferguson, Missouri, appeared on MSNBC on Wednesday night and criticized the unequal treatment.
“It was almost as if there was a connection [for the police] not to use force, ”said Bush. “There are pictures and videos of police officers leaving. … If they were people who looked like me. If it were the same number of people, but if they were black and brown. We would not have been able to climb these steps. We would not have been able to enter through the door, blow windows and put our feet on the tables of parliamentarians. We wouldn’t have made it that far. We would have been shot. We would have received tear gas. …. We need to call it what it is. It is white supremacy. “
Politicians, former officials, activists and others on social media vented their fury, tweeting “#ThisisAmerica” by posting photos and videos that highlighted the different ways black and brown protesters were treated by the police compared to Capitol rebels.
The police treatment of protesters “says a lot about who is an enemy combatant and who is not – and how the Capitol police were not prepared for that,” said Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, the largest online justice organization. racial situation in the country.
“It is an example of all the ways in which these people, who at every step promoted some of the ugliest, most hateful and violent interactions – who still received the benefit of the doubt when they appeared in Washington,” he added.
Robinson said extremists who invaded the Capitol should not be considered protesters. “It was domestic terrorism,” he said.
On Wednesday, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who is accused of financing the Capitol Police as chairman of the House’s Appropriations Legislative subcommittee, promised to investigate the police response to the protesters who took over the Capitol building . Ryan said officials made “strategic mistakes” and promised that “many people will be out of a job very, very soon”.
Videos of the chaos inside the Capitol showed extremists sitting in the House and Senate chambers, walking around the building – and a specific case that was widely shared online showed a man sitting with his feet on Pelosi’s desk, leaving a note that said: “Come on, don’t back down. “
This man, later identified by a New York Times reporter as Richard “Bigo” Barnett of Gravette, Arkansas, was out of the Capitol later, counting his time in Pelosi’s office. At the time of his departure from the Capitol, he was not in police custody. Reports have not confirmed whether he was among the protesters who were arrested Wednesday night.
Another clip on Twitter showed a rowdy man taking a selfie with a police officer inside the Capitol.
“It’s a dark day in America when a police officer from the United States Capitol decides to take a selfie with a TERRORIST! And they wonder why WE do not feel safe! ”NAACP posted on Twitter with the video.
Trump, meanwhile, waited about an hour after his supporters started creating chaos outside the Capitol to send a tweet, asking them to “be at peace”. After hours of chaos scenes playing live on television, he finally tweeted a video falsely claiming that the presidential election was stolen from him and urging his supporters to go home.
“We can’t play these people’s games,” Trump said in a video that Twitter later deleted from his account, which was blocked until 7 am Thursday. “We have to have peace. Then go home. We love you. You are very special. “
In a tweet, he said, “Remember, WE are the Party of Law and Order” – a message he repeatedly said during the campaign while portraying Democrats as violent protesters.
In contrast, the day after his photo op last summer, Trump celebrated the “many arrests” and boasted that “Washington, DC, was the safest place in the world last night!”
As of Wednesday night, 13 people have been arrested in connection with the unrest, Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee said at a news conference. Contee said several police officers were injured. A woman was also shot in the Capitol and later declared dead.
More than 14,000 arrests were made during protests against George Floyd across the country last year, according to Public Citizen, a progressive advocacy group that monitors corporate influence on policies.
Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.) Criticized Trump’s supporters – who were widely critical of the Black Lives Matter protests – for attacking police officers.
“The people who invade Capitol are the ones who scream about law and order when there are protests on the Black Lives Matter,” she posted on Twitter. “The people who are attacking the Capitol police are now the same people who say they are on the side of the police.”
Democrats and activists on Wednesday afternoon were quick to point out that the Capitol Police response to protesters it was markedly different even from your daily duress measures. When asked on CNN whether Black Lives Matter protesters would have been treated in the same way as protesters if they had broken into the Capitol building, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser did not respond.
#AmeriKKKa was a trend on Twitter late on Wednesday, with thousands of posts pointing out the difference in the police response to the Black Lives Matter protests and the extremists who attacked Capitol.