‘There are two Americas.’ Some see double standard in how police treated Capitol mob

After a mostly-white mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, some have questioned if race played a role in how police treated the rioters.

Black Lives Matter protests took place throughout the country in the summer of 2020 following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, among others, all of whom were Black. The protests included clashes between protesters and police, thefts, fires and other unrest.

During a June 1 protest in Washington, D.C., 289 people were arrested, Forbes reported. Police used tear gas and fired rubber bullets to disperse the mostly-peaceful protesters outside the White House gates during that protest, CNN reported. The protest came a few days after the killing of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

But Wednesday, as a mob of hundreds stormed past barriers and police to inside the Capitol, there were 69 people arrested, according to The Hill.

The rioters were seen in photos and video causing destruction to the exterior of the Capitol building, then vandalizing some areas inside once they breached the building. At least one video shows a Capitol Police officer posing for a photo with a rioter.

But U.S. Capitol Chief of Police Steven Sund said officers acted “valiantly” in their response to what he deemed “criminal riotous behavior.”

“These individuals actively attacked United States Capitol Police Officers and other uniformed law enforcement officers with metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants, and took up other weapons against our officers,” Sund stated.

The New York Times reported that one officer said “we’ve just got to let them do their thing now” in response to a question about removing members of the mob.

But if the rioters were Black, newly-elected U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri says, they “would have been shot.”

“Had it been people who look like me, had it been the same amount of people, but had they been black and brown, we wouldn’t have made it up those steps,” Bush, who is Black, said Wednesday in an appearance on MSNBC. “We wouldn’t have made it to be able to get into the door and bust windows and go put our feet up on the desks of Congress members.”

The national Black Lives Matter organization pointed out “hypocrisy in our country’s law enforcement response to protest.”

“When Black people protest for our lives, we are met by National Guard troops or police equipped with assault rifles, tear gas and battle helmets,” Black Lives Matter said. “When white people attempt a coup, they are met by an underwhelming number of law enforcement personnel who act powerless to intervene.

“Make no mistake, if the protesters were Black, we would have been tear gassed, battered and perhaps shot.”

Rep. Tim Ryan, of Ohio, called out the “lack of professional planning and dealing with what we knew was going to occur,” while suggesting leadership changes within Capitol police may be in order, according to the Associated Press.

Actor and comedian Kevin Hart and film director Matthew Cherry were among the celebrities who pointed out how police treated Wednesday’s rioters.

“Two completely different Americas that we are living in,” Hart posted with a photo of one of the rioters in Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office. “If these were Black people, they would have all been shot dead.”

“The way they would have dropped a whole bomb in the capitol if this was us,” tweeted Cherry.

Others shared images contrasting Black Lives Matter protests to Wednesday’s mob at the Capitol.

In one of the posts that has been retweeted more than 180,000 times as of Thursday morning, a woman tweeted, “There are two Americas” alongside two photos.

This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 11:29 AM with the headline "‘There are two Americas.’ Some see double standard in how police treated Capitol mob."