1/6/21

Who: As if 2020 was not crazy enough, 2021 started out with one of the most shocking and disturbing acts of unrest that the United States of America has ever seen as hundreds of right wing Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S capitol with no remorse. Known white nationalists and members of the republican party rioted and “crashed through barricades, climbed through windows and walked through doors, wandering around the hallways with a sense of gleeful desecration, because, for a few breathtaking hours, they believed that they had displaced the very elites they said they hated.”

When: After the 2020 presidential election in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump, Trump made it very clear that he believed  the election was rigged and the democratic party did not successfully get enough votes. January 6th was the day that congress would re-count the electoral votes that would ultimately deem Joe Biden the rightful next president of the United States., and the day when the supporters of Donald Trump would do something that had not been done in over 200 years.

Where: The Capitol of the United States of America in Washington D.C is where these riots and acts of anger took place. Before this day in 2021, the last time the U.S capitol was breached was in 1814 when the British set the building on fire. This being arguably the most important building in the whole entire country, it is not only alarming but legitimately shocking that the president of the United States thought that these acts were remotely close to being okay. Windows were broken, offices were ambushed, windows were scaled, and the whole entire country was watching. 

Why: With the addition of a good majority of the ballots for the presidential election this year being mailed in, there was a lot of speculation about the ballots being correctly counted and it was important to make sure that the vote was fair. Back in November, Joe Biden had more electoral votes than the previous president Donald Trump, and therefore, is going to be the next President of the United States. Donald Trump, being the self centered and egotistical man he is, thought that there was no possible way he could have lost this election and claimed that the democratic party cheated in the counting process. He then encouraged his supporters to storm the capitol by saying things like “You will never take back our country with weakness”, “We’re going to have to fight much harder”,“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted last month. “Be there, will be wild!”.  It is important to realize WHY this happened. Why kids all over the world are witnessing the state of our current country and thinking that this is how it should be. Donald Trump has made this country what it is, and I think that was on full display on January 6th 2021, a day that will be remembered for the rest of our lives.

Police Response: 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/police-response-black-lives-matter-protest-us-capitol/index.html 

In the past year, we have seen protests breakout, which oftentimes results in the police showing up and doing what THEY feel is the best way to handle the situation. In June of 2020, when BLM protests were breaking out in many different cities and states all over the country, there were many cases of harsh violence and zero remorse being shown by several police officers. Soldiers with shields, tear gas, and heavy duty weapons and equipment were seen at those BLM protests last year. January 6th was different. There were officers, but not as one would expect. The capitol is the most historic and significant building in the whole county, and the BLM protests had more security than the building had. Officers were not violent, they did not threaten as many protestors, and they simply were seen to not care as much as they did last June. To think that there was a zero tolerance policy at protests last June for the BLM movement, but officers taking selfies with rioters that were involved in the most disgusting act in the United States in years leaves many people with serious doubt and question about the current state in this country.