Photos: YouTube
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, the U.S. Congress became the most infamous domestic crime scene in American history, with four people losing their lives—and that reality was incited by the traitorous actions of a man still sitting in the White House named Donald Trump.
The white supremacist perpetrators of yesterday’s violence, who stormed and invaded the U.S. Congress, at the behest of Trump, made no attempt to conceal their crimes or identities. In fact, the lawbreaking, riotous, vandals brazenly documented their criminal exploits. They took pictures of their rioting, their trespassing, their breaking and entering, their vandalism—and their assaults on law enforcement officers.
They did this because their white privilege told them there would be little accountability for their criminal actions—this is not dissimilar to those killer-cops who continue to brutalize and murder Black people with utter impunity. Obviously, these MAGA mob rioters were not wrong in this assessment.
How is it that after this epic criminal breach of the U.S. Congress there were only 68 arrests? Why are we only getting some answers today regarding how yesterday’s outrage was allowed to happen? Why were the law enforcement personnel present so unprepared?
Why were these white coup invaders largely treated with kid gloves by some of these officers? Why were they not corralled, teargassed, and arrested—like Black Lives Matter activists, and those fighting for Black lives, routinely are? Why was this angry white mob able to break through the barricades and breach the Capitol Building so easily?
If American white supremacy isn’t the reason what pray tell is? Yesterday’s domestic terrorist criminal invasion of Congress could only have been done by white Americans.
After national protests erupted in the wake of the appalling police murder of George Floyd, we heard numerous outraged statements of condemnation from Republicans, in Congress, about the supposed violent Black protesters, and others, who are fighting against racial policing.
But after yesterday’s despicable desecration of the Congress, by these white supremacist marauders, we got weak insipid rhetoric from many Republicans. In fact, some Republicans tried to compare yesterday’s violence to what happened during the police protests. There is even the delusional claim that Antifa somehow orchestrated yesterday’s coup attempt.
These duplicitous Republicans are trying to say the violence that emerged during the protests—against the ongoing epidemic of police violence and murder of Black Americans—can, somehow be compared to the violence of these armed insurrectionists, who are complaining because Trump lost the November election to Joe Biden.
There is no equal comparison here. Black Americans, and other Americans of conscience, who took to the streets last year, are fighting a legitimate ongoing problem of racist police violence and murder which is easily proven by the sheer scale of the abundance of evidence.
Trump’s MAGA rioters can produce no such proof that the election was stolen from Trump as they fraudulently claim. Even the lawyers who have be litigating Trump’s baseless claims of massive voter fraud can’t provide any evidence to document that the election was stolen. This is why their lawsuits have been repeatedly thrown out of court—including by judges who were elected by Trump.
Still, we hear this nonsensical what-about-ism comparison from Republicans, between armed racist right-wing Second Amendment nuts and those whose protests are rooted in the reality of systemic police prejudice and brutality against Black Americans, and other non-white Americans.
Republicans, like Missouri’s Josh Hawley, had no problem denigrating those fighting against racial policing. But, even after yesterday’s white supremacist terrorist violence, he was still making mendacious arguments about voting irregularities parroting Trump’s bullshit.
Let’s be really clear here: if Black people tried to do what was done yesterday, like Trump’s MAGA mob did, there would’ve been a blood bath and Capitol Hill would’ve been littered with dead Black bodies. Law enforcement would have had zero compunction in opening fire on Black people. We would likely be still trying to get an accurate body count now and mass funerals would be being planned now.
Moreover, the D.C. area jails would be bulging with Black people awaiting prosecution, and Republicans like Rep. Hawley would be denouncing the Black Lives Matter movement in forceful terms, unlike his lame calls for peaceful protests after the fact yesterday. Hawley is indicative of the unprincipled ambitions we see in far too many American politicians, especially on the Republican side of the aisle.
We all remember how Trump used law enforcement to teargas and bully peaceful protesters so he could engage in a Bible photo-op. Why were these armed violent white insurrectionists, who invaded the Congress, treated so different?
Troublingly, there have even been some unsurprising reports of law enforcement talking selfies and such with these racist rioters. This, of course, is reminiscent of what we know happened during the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin where police shared a camaraderie with armed right-wing racists—like Kyle Rittenhouse who murdered two people.
For years, I’ve written about the FBI’s warning of white supremacist law enforcement infiltration by those they call “Ghost Skins.” Did some of these covert white supremacist police officers help the MAGA mob invade the Congress?
Some may think this is inflammatory speculation. But consider this: while many talk about the influence of white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys, there is another important group that may have been involved in yesterday’s insurrection: The Oath Keepers.
Why is the Oath Keepers militia important? They are a group that have many former, and current, law enforcement officers in their organization. The Oath Keepers, and founder Stewart Rhodes, were said to have been present in Washington yesterday.
A through investigation must be made to examine why it was so easy for these Trump traitors of America to breach the U.S. Congress. Why was law enforcement so lax on Capitol Hill?
Another thing to ponder here is: why Republican lawmakers seem so surprised by what happened. Given all of the political demonization that Trump, and other Republicans have engage in, did they not realize that a day like yesterday was soon coming?
Or did they just assume the violence would never find its way inside the hallowed halls of Congress?
Some Republicans are now finally finding their voice to denounce Donald Trump. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger issued a call to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump. Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott has demanded Trump resign or be removed from the White House by force.
Ironically, many of these same Republicans protected Trump during the impeachment proceeding by voting for his acquittal in the U.S. Senate. They had a chance then to show us they indeed put “country before party.”
If Republicans had removed this danger to America then we would not be facing this dangerous seditious coup crisis now by the treasonous Donald Trump and his MAGA mob of insurrectionists.
