A mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol on Wednesday in an attempted coup incited by Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
As rioters looted, smashed windows, and sprayed police officers with chemicals, people watching the chaos unfold on social media were denouncing the stark difference in response to the attack and last year’s Black Lives Matter protests.
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Demonstrations held in protest against police brutality and the killings of unarmed Black people — like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor — were last summer met with an overwhelming police and military presence, which often led to law enforcement officers using tear gas and physical violence against protesters.
Many shared photographs contrasting law enforcement’s handling of the two situations.
And celebrities also took to social media to express their outrage over what was happening in Washington.
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Some, like Dwyane Wade, expressed disbelief that rioters were able to enter the Capitol unharmed while Black people are killed while sleeping in their own beds or going for a run.
She wrote in a followup tweet: “Protesters were getting called animals, looters, thugs for rioting and protesting over JUSTICE & EQUALITY by the same people that are out today doing the same shit over ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!”
Others, including Chris Evans, Karamo Brown, and Kevin Hart encouraged people to imagine how the situation would have been different if the perpetrators weren’t white.
“2 completely different America’s that we are living in,” Hart wrote on Instagram, alongside photos of the attack on the Capitol.
“If these people were black they would have all been shot dead,” he went on. “This shit is past the word sad….at this point it’s pure disrespect to all people of color.”
While Gabrielle Union responded to the lack of defence at the Capitol with a straightforward: “WE know why.”
Kerry Washington quoted a tweet characterising January 6 — which began with the Democrats taking control of the Senate following wins in Georgia — as “a microcosm of US history.”
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