You Never See Clark Kent and Superman in the Same Room: A Comparison of the Police Response to the BLM Protests and Capitol Raid

“We will never give up, we will never concede” (Trump). These are the words spoken by our recently impeached President, Donald Trump, on January 6, 2021, before he sent his mask-less, armed followers on a quest to raid the Capitol building. In comparison, on May 29, 2020, Trump called the peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors marching in Minneapolis “thugs” (Culver). He called for the National Guard to be brought in. He asked that the protestors be shot at with rubber bullets. Innocent protesters marched for their lives and were met with terror; white supremacists marched on democracy and were escorted out of the capitol building. This stark contrast proves the intensity in which white supremacy is fostered from the top of the system and enforced and reinstalled by our police force.

The response to the May, June, and July Black Lives Matter protests make the need for police reform evident. Black Lives Matter supporters marched for their lives. We marched for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, and so many other innocent Black people who have been unjustly killed by the police (“Breonna Taylor”). We marched because “the history of racism in this country oftentimes does not speak directly and openly about race, but we know race and racism when we see it and hear it” (Kendi). We marched so that BIPOC (black, Indigenous and people of color) can be afforded the same freedoms and protections that white people have experienced due to centuries of privilege. 

We marched peacefully, and luckily, the marches that I went to remained peaceful; the same cannot be said about many others, in which violence was incited almost always by cops or undercover right-wing anti-protestors. (USA TODAY) On June 1, 2020, a mostly black band of peaceful protestors crowded around the Capitol building. They were met with over 5,000 members of the National Guard, the D.C. Police, and the U.S. Park Police. As the protestors peacefully gathered, “an army helicopter swooped low over [their] heads” while “tear gas, batons, and horses were used to clear a block so that Donald Trump could stage a photo op outside a church across the road” (Borger). These protestors did not attempt to breach security. At a protest in Huntsville, “reporters encountered a woman who said she was hit five times by [officers with] rubber bullets,” as some protesters were “pulling unidentified objects from backpacks” (Han et al.). (I entreat you to remember that it was July in Alabama and people were wearing their masks and protection against facial recognition and rubber bullets. I.e. it was very hot.) Black Lives Matter protestors made no attempt to attack officers, yet they were met with violence.

Meanwhile, the MAGA protestors were urged by Donald Trump “to protest what he falsely claims was a rigged election before marching to the Capitol and pushing past security barriers there” (Peñaloza). The MAGA rioters’ goal was to override democracy by Trump’s command. With “many wearing red MAGA hats but no face masks,” the angry mob made up of almost entirely white people, chanted “Whose Capitol? Our Capitol!,” while breaking in to override the vote yet “the president's son Donald Trump Jr. greeted the crowd of raging white supremacists with: "Hello, Patriots! (Peñaloza).” Van Jones, accredited news commentator, author, and lawyer, characterized the MAGA rioters as “lawless” and condemned them as “traitors and insurrectionists” (Jones). They were the antithesis of the Black Lives Matter peaceful protestors in belief as well as behavior. 

Yet, once again, MAGA rioters were met with "one more example of the hypocrisy in our country's law enforcement response to protest (Chaves)." After lurking the halls of the Capitol building for hours, climbing scaffolding, taking selfies with officers, having access to private documents, terrifying house members, and possibly spreading COVID-19, only 300 National Guardsmen were called in, and only 52 total people were arrested (Chaves). Among those 52 arrested rioters, Henry “Enrique" Tarrio, leader of the far-right white supremacist group Proud Boys, was arrested and barred from the DC area for a “misdemeanor destruction of property charges and two felony counts of possession of high capacity firearm magazines” (Peñaloza). Where was the police officers’ “extreme restraint” towards Black people that they showed to the “violent white terrorists who [laid] siege to the U.S. Capitol (Kendi)?”

How is Henry Tarrio–known white supremacist, known neo-Nazi, known xenophobe–able to break into the Capitol Building, and be charged with a misdemeanor, while Breonna Taylor was murdered due to the police breaking into the wrong apartment? And yet, only one of her three killers has been charged- not with murder, but with wanton endangerment of the neighbors for his unclear shot (Jr et al.). How is it that African Americans “can be beaten, arrested, and worse for jaywalking, for just being an African-American in a store, and yet you can have a band of white traitors go and tear up the capitol building, and walk, no, be escorted out” (Jones)? It is because, as many Capitol guards demonstrated to our entire country on January 6, white supremacy thrives. After all, the roots of the system uphold it. White supremacists will never terrorize MAGA supporters, as they do Black Lives Matter Supporters, because why would anybody terrorize themselves? "When Black people protest for [their] lives, [they] are all too often met by National Guard troops or police equipped with assault rifles, shields, tear gas and battle helmets," a Black Lives Matter Global Network representative said in a statement. It’s clear that “if the protesters were Black, [they] would have been tear-gassed, battered, and perhaps shot” (Chaves).

According to Mapping Police Violence, black people are 3 times more likely to be killed by cops than white people. In 47 out of 50 of the largest US cities, black people have a higher rate of dying at the hands of a cop. Simultaneously, black people made up 28% of those killed by cops while only making up 13% of the population. Yet, 98.3% of murders committed by cops are met with no conviction for their crime, meaning out of the 1,127 police killings in 2020, around nineteen of the cops have been held accountable for their actions (Rothschild). 

Accountability is what our country needs most right now. “There's a long history of white domestic terror laying siege on American democracy,” but we can recognize that and atone for it, “because that's the only way we can rid this country of it” (Kendi). We as a country have to reflect on our history, on our actions, and atone for them. Hold Breonna Taylor’s killers accountable. Hold Donald Trump accountable for inciting and forcing violence on multiple occasions and continuously misleading and misinforming the American People. Invoke the 25th Amendment. Make sure that he can never hold office again. Hold every last person accountable for their racist beliefs, and work with them, teach them to build a better society. We will never grow as a country if we cannot admit our wrongs and receive guidance in order to make them right.

Works Cited

Borger, Julian. “Maga v BLM: How Police Handled the Capitol Mob and George Floyd Activists – in Pictures.” The Guardian, 7 Jan. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/capitol-mob-police-trump-george-floyd-protests-photos.

“Breonna Taylor: Timeline of Black Deaths Caused by Police.” BBC News, 6 Jan. 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52905408.

Brodsky, Rachel. “BLM Protests vs Pro-Trump Rioters: Pictures Show the Stark Difference in Police Response.” The Independent, 7 Jan. 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/blm-protests-trump-riots-police-response-b1783611.html.

Chaves, NIcole. “Rioters Breached US Capitol Security on Wednesday. This Was the Police Response When It Was Black Protesters on DC Streets Last Year.” CNN, 10 Jan. 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/police-response-black-lives-matter-protest-us-capitol/index.html.

Culver, Jordan. Trump Says Violent Minneapolis Protests Dishonor George Floyd’s Memory, Twitter Labels ‘Shooting’ Tweet as ‘Glorifying Violence.’ 29 May 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/28/george-floyd-donald-trump-twitter-jacob-frey-thugs/5281374002/.

Han, Giana, et al. “Alabama Unrest: Huntsville Police Again Gas and Scatter Protesters.” Al, 3 June 2020, https://www.al.com/news/2020/06/stand-and-shout-protests-continue-across-alabama.html.

Jones, Van. “You Just Sent the Best Message or the Worst to a Whole Generation.” CNN, 7 Jan. 2021, https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/01/07/van-jones-capitol-riot-protest-reaction-message-newday-vpx.cnn.

Jr, Richard A. Oppel, et al. “What to Know About Breonna Taylor’s Death.” The New York Times, 6 Jan. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html.

Kendi, Ibram X. Police Response at the Capitol Brings Claims of 'White Privilege’. Interview by Amna Nawas, 7 Jan. 2021, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/police-response-at-the-capitol-we-saw-white-privilege-on-display.

Peñaloza, Marisa. “Trump Supporters Storm U.S. Capitol, Clash With Police.” NPR.Org, 6 Jan. 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/06/953616207/diehard-trump-supporters-gather-in-the-nations-capital-to-protest-election-resul.

Rothschild, Connor. “Mapping Police Violence.” Mapping Police Violence, 5 Jan. 2021, https://mappingpoliceviolence.org.

Sanchez, Ray, and Nicole Chaves. “Trump Calls Protesters ‘thugs’ despite Peaceful Demonstrations in Tulsa and Much of the US.” CNN, 20 June 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/20/us/nationwide-protests-saturday/index.html.

Trump, Donald. “Transcript of Trump’s Speech at Rally Before US Capitol Riot.” US News & World Report, 6 Jan. 2020, https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-01-13/transcript-of-trumps-speech-at-rally-before-us-capitol-riot.

USA TODAY. Peaceful George Floyd Protests Marred by Bursts of Violence | USA TODAY. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVONIiJMPQ0.

“What 100 Years of History Tells Us About Racism in Policing.” American Civil Liberties Union, 11 Dec. 2020, https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/what-100-years-of-history-tells-us-about-racism-in-policing/.