After Riot, Legal Reasons For Disparate Policing Prove Elusive
By
Sameer Rao | January 24, 2021, 8:02 PM EST
Less than a week into the new year, Americans were confronted with the specter of insurrection as a mob echoing then-President Donald Trump's unfounded accusations of a rigged election stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Images of people smashing windows, brandishing Confederate battle flags and zip ties, intimidating and assaulting Capitol Police officers and congresspeople and committing other wanton acts of destruction flooded social media feeds and news channels for days.
Within the ensuing outrage arose a simple question: Why did law enforcement seem to handle this right-wing, predominantly white mob with far less aggressive tactics than those used against people protesting police violence toward Black Americans after George Floyd's killing this summer, or other largely peaceful protests that didn't involve ransacking a government building or fatally attacking officers?