As photos and video from Wednesday's MAGA cult insurrection at the U.S. Capitol started to pour in, one thing became immediately clear for those paying attention: The initial police response, to put it mildly, was decidedly weak.
In fact, a key takeaway from the harrowing and history-making footage was that it was seemingly quite easy to just waltz into the U.S. Capitol, at least if you're white and self-adorned with the merch of a failed steak salesman whose baseless election fraud claims and other similarly false nonsensicalities inspired you to go full terrorist in the name of the Apprentice family, among other stupidities.
The disparity between how those who breached the U.S. Capitol in D.C. were treated and how those who actually protest with admirable intentions (i.e. Black Lives Matter and other anti-police brutality causes) are mistreated is inarguable. In an interview with Emmanuel Felton for BuzzFeed News on Wednesday, for example, D.C. resident and activist Toni Sanders pointed out the easily proven differences between police's handling of MAGA cult members and Black Lives Matter activists.
"I am enraged by the light treatment that these terrorists are getting," Sanders, who was among those peacefully protesting over the summer in D.C., said. "They have guns. They have attacked the police. They have attacked innocent people who are just in the area, and yet they have not been beaten and teargassed and had flash-bangs thrown at them the way we had all summer long. We didn't have any weapons. All we had were our voices saying, 'Black lives matter.'"
Criticism over law enforcement's response to the coup attempt has continued through Thursday, with many slamming the police who were initially on the scene as having been complicit in what ultimately proved to be a fatal and internationally condemned display of MAGA-inspired delusion.
Early Thursday, it was reported that several lawmakers had vowed to launch an investigation into how law enforcement responded to the Capitol breach. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, for example, told the Associated Press "it's pretty clear" that a number of those involved could lose their jobs soon due to what he characterized as a lack of planning "with what we knew was going to occur."
Ryan and House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro have also released a statement in which an investigation led by the committee was announced:
Also on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—who's pushing for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to get Trump out of the White House—called on Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to resign.
Former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama also commented on the incident, highlighting the double standard of law enforcement's response to the MAGA insurgents that stormed the Capitol.
"It all left me with so many questions—questions about the future, questions about security, extremism, propaganda, and more. But there’s one question I just can’t shake: What if these rioters had looked like the folks who go to Ebenezer Baptist Church every Sunday? What would have been different? " she wrote in a statement.
"I think we all know the answer. This summer’s Black Lives Matter protests were an overwhelmingly peaceful movement—our nation’s largest demonstrations ever, bringing together people of every race and class and encouraging millions to re-examine their own assumptions and behavior. And yet, in city after city, day after day, we saw peaceful protestors met with brute force. We saw cracked skulls and mass arrests, law enforcement pepper spraying its way through a peaceful demonstration for a presidential photo op."
