Many Black Americans say they ‘would have been met with guns’ if they invaded U.S. Capitol
Sacramento child care provider Sonya McLorin-Jackson turned on the TV Wednesday, planning to tune into children’s programming for her charges, but she stopped in her tracks as she saw the image switch from a joint session of Congress to a mob breaching the U.S. Capitol.
McLorin-Jackson said she didn’t quite grasp what was unfolding in Washington, D.C., until newscasters explained that rioters were overrunning a bastion of the nation’s democracy.
“My first thought was that, had that been Black Lives Matter protesters, they would have been met with guns and all kinds of different violence normally perpetuated against us as people of color protesting whatever we protest,” said the 51-year-old mother of four.
It was a sentiment expressed by many other African Americans and Black organizations on social media Wednesday, with a civil rights stalwart, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, noting in one Tweet: “They’ve killed us for less.”
Some posted photos of the row upon row of law enforcement officers who greeted Black Lives Matter protesters in the nation’s capital just months ago.
Still, political communications strategist Craig DeLuz, who like McLorin-Jackson is African American, said he doesn’t share the views that the Capitol Police would have opened fire on Black Lives Matter protesters in a similar situation. When he saw footage of the riot at the Capitol, his thoughts turned to the many Americans across the nation who feel their voices aren’t being heard by politicians.
“Many saw the destruction in cities across the country in the last few months,” he said. “Part of me is recognizing that there’s an anger out there that is justified but at the same time, ashamed of how that anger is manifesting itself.”
But law professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin, who teaches a course on race and law at the Martin Luther King Jr. Law School at the University of California, Davis said the manifestation of mob anger often works in favor of white men in a way that it never does for Black Americans.
“When white men do this sort of thing, in the minds of some people ... it seems like, ‘Well, this is citizens standing up for themselves. It’s just like the Boston Tea Party. This is what we’re supposed to do,’” Chin Said. “But you really don’t see that kind of successful direct action on the part of African Americans or other racial minorities in the United States.”
Chin said he was surprised the Capitol Police were not better prepared to meet the rioters, given that the media had reported plans were afoot for a large-scale protest and since law enforcement agencies typically have inter-agency agreements for mutual assistance.
“Regardless of your race, you want order in the streets, and you want to make sure that everybody is safe and no crowds get out of hand and do things like they did today in the Capitol,” he said, “but what’s the explanation for why there was better preparation for Black Lives Matter protests and the failure, I think it’s fair to say, of police risk management today?”
Chin described the Capitol security breach as “a catastrophe.”
“The mob shouldn’t be able to rule, and today they ruled,” he said. “They successfully prevented the electoral college count in the joint session. Congress turned tail and ran. Obviously, these peaceful citizens shouldn’t have fought the protesters, but they succeeded in using force to stop a legislative process, a constitutional process, and so this is a disaster.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
