White Men Break New Barriers

Polite White Protest Group Seeks Solace and Remorse for Upsetting Democracy

Privileged Tourist-Protesters Snap Selfies During Historic Vote

This just in: Today angry whites storm the barricades at the Capitol Building. Despite a smattering of armed police forces protecting it, they are reported to make it “violently” through four barriers. Somehow one of the Most Sacred Symbols of American democracy was easily overrun on January 6, 2021. Police, known for firing tear gas at peaceful protesters, were confused and astonished when confronted by white supremacist-looking crowd where similar outfits to them.

For last few years we’ve seen extreme violent shows of force used against black: the arrest of a black CNN reporter, the black man driving by himself pulled over for some reason, the black man running in a neighborhood, the black twelve-year old kid playing with no one in site with a toy gun, the black father pulled over with his kids in the car shot then in the back, the black woman and her boyfriend getting her apartment stormed and barraged with hail of bullets.

And of course, the black man with a fake twenty-dollar bill getting his neck and life crushed out of him while three officers hold him down on the street after he tripped on the curb while in handcuffs. The small infraction versus the massive use of force. The constant line repeated over and over that every cop learns when swearing in to uphold the law: it looked like he had a weapon.

We seen gun sales spike to over 36 million weapons in 2020 during the pandemic. Boxes of bullets loaded up on people’s shelves and gun shops sell out. Fear overtakes the populace.

But we witness reactions contrary to the fear gripping the country. We saw something akin to passive police resistance.

We saw Kyle Rittenhouse after he shot one person in the head then shot two more on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin. As he walked down the street, the military style armored tanks simply passed him by and headed into the ‘riot’ — the black riot. Even though the police must have heard shots, they didn’t even bother to stop the white guy dressed in militia gear with the big machine gun looking weapon walking right in front of them to even question him. Now he’s claiming self-defense — what else, he was among black people.

Coronavirus-Floyd Fear Sparks Record Gun Sales

We saw gun sales spike to over 36 million weapons sold in 2020 during the pandemic. Boxes of bullets loaded up on people’s shelves and gun shops sell out. Fear overtakes the populace.

But we witness reactions contrary to the fear gripping the country. We saw something akin to passive police resistance.

We saw Kyle Rittenhouse after he shot one person in the head then shot two more on the streets of Kenosha Wisconsin. As he walked down the street, the military style armored tanks simply passed him by and headed into the ‘riot’ — the black riot. Even though the police must have heard shots, they didn’t even bother to stop the white guy dressed in militia gear with the big machine gun looking weapon walking right in front of them to even question him. Now he’s claiming self-defense — what else, he was among black people.

Police Directing White Tourists Who Were Asking Where They Could Get a Beer

Now we witness that same reaction (or non-reaction): big crowds of white right-wingers surround the Capitol, breaching the barricades. Not a single shot, it first appeared, was fired by the police at these rioters. (Later reports said someone was shot.) The police pushing back, but not much force in comparison. Not much pepper-spraying, little tear gas.

When the doors were breached in the rotunda and the seditious rebels started taking selfies like tourists in a victory pose, then you know the same police force who pepper sprayed peaceful protesters and rammed them with police cars during Black Lives Matter were not present. The tear gas that should have been liberally used along with rubber bullets and bean bags shot during BLM should have been used on the Capitol steps after a first threat warning in order to protect our democracy.

Polite Capitol Police Model Behavior of How to Deal with Protesters

Instead, the “tourist police” showed up, many seen standing on the balconies, leaning over railings, watching the crowds below. No shoulder-to-shoulder shields, full riot gear, forming a wall of helmets and pushing back the crowds. The federal government only allowed a weak signal of protection to be made by the black mayor. She called the Pentagon and got a tepid response: sure, we might send 300 more Guardsmen over.

The black DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, knowing there would be violent protests, had requested thousands of the National Guard. She got just 340 to face the violent crowd. The news media calling the play-by-play live shots of the protests were confused as to where they could be found. Trump got 5,000 Guards to show up, plus military police, to push aside a peaceful protest for his upside-down bible walk. Despite the threat of “American carnage”, to use the Trump phrase that started the opening of his term, a white demonstration by armed militia seeking to overturn democracy and believing in false claims of fraud just doesn’t require the same show of force.

Even with the constitutional duty to confirm the election, the white rioters get passed by when they threaten violence. They dispatch endless threatening Tweets to litter the inboxes of local election officials, just for doing their job and even after multiple recounts. Last June’s report from the well-respected bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that 90 % of terrorist attacks in America are by white-wing militias, they still don’t get the same serious response as a black man driving with his girlfriend in a Saint Paul street or groups of blacks and whites peacefully marching to condemn the killing of Brianna or Philando Castile. Instead they get the Michigan capital welcome we saw on May 1, 2020 during the BLM protests: oh, you’re armed militias, come on in.

Will their anonymity be stripped away for the threats made on Twitter, made in emails and spray painted on the doors of elected officials, be prosecuted? Can we know the names of the “protesters” storming our Capitol and sitting in the speaker’s chair? Even the democrats didn’t seem to take the threats seriously, just laughing week after week at Bill Maher’s question on HBO during the 2020 primaries: What will do if Trump doesn’t leave office on January 20 if you are elected?

NYTimes Picture Suggests that Nancy Wants Desk Wiped Down or She Might Get Upset and Ask for Apology

Once the barriers were breached and the bulletproof glass broken, the police will have to arrest a few of the protesters. Will charges of sedition by made? Will charges of attempted coup be made? Will any notion of an attempt over to overthrow democracy be made in the police reports? Or will the charges be bargained down to vandalism, trespassing, causing a public disturbance, that type of thing?

The militarization of the police has been going on for decades, as reported in the Huffington Post by Molly Redden last June after the George Floyd incident that sparked outrage and the largest protest movement in US history. Though the question remains: militarized against who?

Tear gas and push back when peaceful protesters show up with hands raised versus a whiff of gas and reduced forces in the same capitol city when threats are made and Proud Boys are armed. The scales are not balanced. The perception of violence still lies on the surface of the skin.

Mr. Warnock, please say a prayer when you arrive at the Capitol. I’m an agnostic middle-aged white man, but I think I need a little faith right now.