Canaries in the coal mine

January 8, 2021

       On Wednesday, January 6th, our country arguably reached its nadir.  For the first time since 1814, the U.S. Capitol was attacked.  Unlike the first attack, waged by foreign combatants in a declared war, this assault was led by a mob of white supremacist terrorists incited by a sitting President.  They came with the express purpose of preventing Congress from its Constitutionally mandated certification of the Electoral College vote, paving the way for the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden as President in less than two weeks.  This was no “protest” and it was more than a “riot.”  It was a violent insurrection by a mob of known white supremacists, including members of The Proud Boys, the National Socialist Club, and the Three Percenters, (Source:  “These Are The Rioters Who Stormed The Nation’s Capitol,” by Sabrina Tavernise and Matthew Rosenberg, The New York Times, 1/7/21).  They brandished Confederate flags, ripped art from the walls and vandalized Congressional offices.  Several of those arrested had Molotov cocktails and zip tie handcuffs.  Active pipe bombs were found near the headquarters of the DNC and the RNC.

     The virulent violence was hardly surprising.  Since he lost on Election Day, Trump has ceaselessly peddled the lie that the election was “stolen” from him and urged his followers to do something.  In the wake of his election loss, Trump  fired those in the Defense Department who objected to using the military against civilians and openly discussed imposing martial law to “rerun” the election.  Trump invited his followers to come to D.C. on January 6 to protest the certification of the Electoral College vote and then incited them at Wednesday morning’s rally. Trump told them to march to the Capitol, saying that “you will never take back our country with weakness.”  His accomplice, Guiliani suggested “trial by combat,” since their record in courts of law is so abysmal, (Source: “Trump Told Crowd, ‘You Will Never Take Back Our Country With Weakness,’” by Maggie Haberman, The New York Times, 1/6/21).

      Once the mob descended on the Capitol,  Capitol Police were easily overrun. Some officers were downright solicitous.  There were pictures of Capitol Police opening up the barricades to let the mob in; of rioters taking selfies with certain officers. The Defense Department ensured that the Capitol Police were outmatched by rejecting D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request to activate the National Guard and withholding permission from Governor Larry Hogan of the neighboring state of Maryland to send in his National Guard contingent for an hour and a half.  At the end, the melee left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer who was bludgeoned to death.  So much for Blue Lives mattering.

       Although terrorists arguably violated a plethora of federal criminal statutes, from damaging federal property to seditious conspiracy, only 52 were arrested on Wednesday and most were allowed to simply walk off of the premises, (Source:  “Here’s How the Capitol Mob Violated Federal Criminal Law,” by Bryce Klehm, Alan Z. Rosenshtein, Jacob Schulz, Lawfareblog.com, 1/7/21).  In contrast, during the overwhelmingly peaceful Black Lives Matter protests this past summer, 427 people were arrested between May 30 and June 2, with 289 arrested on June 1st alone, (Source: “Figures Show Stark Difference Between Arrests at  D.C.Black Lives Matter Protests and Arrests At Capitol Hill”, by Robert Hart, Forbes.com, 1/8/21).  Of course, none of this comes as a surprise to anybody Black.  We’ve long known that our demand for equality is viewed as a danger to be countered with force, while violent white resistance to racial equality is coddled and appeased.  In the words of Reverend Jacqui Lewis, we are just “so damned tired of living in a country that treats Black grief as a threat and white rage as a sacrament.”

     Black people have been telling you that racism is a national security threat.  We’ve been saying that we’re the canaries in the coal mine; that whatever you allow oppressive forces to do to us will eventually be done to you.  After Wednesday, we have to ask, “Do you believe us now?”

#RemoveTrumpNOW