Why Washington D.C. was so unprepared on Wednesday

It's the racism, stupid

It was right there on cops’ faces:  they weren’t afraid of Trump’s terrorist army as they rampaged through the Capitol, and you know why?  Because they were white.

The whole time I was flipping between cable news channels watching the Siege of the Capitol, there was something about what I was seeing that was…off.  I couldn’t quite nail it down.  It wasn’t that there were glimpses here and there of Capitol Hill cops taking selfies with Trumpazoid maniacs and looters.  I had no doubts there were white cops in D.C. who were sympathetic with Proud Boys and their ilk.  That was pretty much a given. 

Then it came to me that the white D.C. cops had absolutely no fear of the Trump mob for one reason:  because they were white.  Those angry, red-faced men in their MAGA hats and their Trump flags, they could have been the guy down the street from one of the cops’ houses in the suburbs, or their redneck cousin back in West Virginia.  The wild-eyed blonde screaming “stop the steal!” could have been one of their sisters or ex-girlfriends, or the woman always posting Q-Anon conspiracies at her desk in the next cubicle. 

The Trump army that invaded the Capitol wearing tactical helmets and Kevlar vests looked just like the cops.  For the white cops, it was skin color that really sealed the deal.  White cops aren’t afraid of white people, even when they are angry and threatening, even when there are more of them than there are of the cops. 

They are terrified, on the other hand, of black people when they take to the streets in anger about anything at all.  Doesn’t matter what they’re mad about – other cops shooting black people or choking them to death, low wages, rent’s too high, you name it.  When cops see dark skin color and angry faces in groups moving in unison down city streets, they’re afraid.  But it doesn’t even take a mass demonstration by African Americans to terrify cops.  Look at what just happened with the cop in Kenosha, Wisconsin who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times.  The Kenosha County District Attorney, Michael Graveley, announced on January 5 that the officer who shot Blake would not be charged because the shooting was “justified” due to the officer being “in fear for his life.”

So white Trump supporters who forcefully break into the United States Capitol, pushing violently past Capitol Hill police guarding the building, aren’t threatening.  But an unarmed black man who was found to have had a knife “on the floor of his car” but never held it in his hand or brandished it against a policeman can be shot because that policeman was in fear for his life.  What’s the difference here, other than the complete lack of violence on Blake’s part?  His skin color.  Blake is Black.  The Trump-supporting looters who forced their way into the Capitol building, breaking multiple laws in the presence of multiple police officers, were white.

The white cops in Kenosha were instinctively afraid of Blake.  The white Capitol Hill cops in Washington were instinctively unafraid of Trump’s angry army of looters and thieves.

The absence of fear of Trump’s supporters, no matter that there were thousands of them, also explains the lack of preparation by senior law enforcement officials in charge of security at the Capitol and elsewhere in Washington D.C.  When Black Lives Matter demonstrated in June on the streets of the nation’s capital against the killing of George Floyd, Washington was an armed camp.  The National Guard was mobilized and on the street.  Guard helicopters flew low-passes over crowds on the streets to disperse them.  The Department of Homeland Security deputized its security force and outfitted them with combat helmets, Kevlar vests, and loaded weapons.  Armed U.S. Marshalls and Park Police were mobilized and sent forth against the BLM demonstrators.  If you were Black in Washington D.C. in early June, you couldn’t take a step on a public street without helmeted, heavily armed law enforcement officers of some sort, most of them in combat-style uniforms without police insignia or nametags, ordering you to move along, or get off the street, or arresting you for violating curfew.

On Wednesday, despite evidence of planning by Trump supporters on Twitter, 4chan, Parler and other online forums, despite clear indications that thousands planned to travel to Washington with the sole purpose of disrupting the certification of Electoral College votes by the Congress, little if any plans were made to guard the Capitol or prepare for demonstrations in the streets, not to mention the all-out assault on the Capitol that actually happened. CNN reported Saturday that 361 BLM protesters were arrested in Washington on June 1.  On Wednesday, January 6, the day Trump incited rioters to break into and loot the Capitol, there were a total of 61 arrests.

Why the difference between preparations for Black Lives Matter and Trump’s army of violent looters and thieves?  Skin color.  White people, even when they announce in advance their violent intentions, don’t scare cops.  Black people do.

Same as it ever was:  it’s the racism, stupid.