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The National Guard protected the main symbolic places of the capital, such as the Lincoln Memorial, in June.
And if they had been black protesters, would the same thing have happened?
The assault on the United States Capitol that was carried out on Wednesday by a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump caused astonishment not only because it was an unusual event, but also because of the ease with which the crowd managed to overcome the security forces and enter the The congress.
This Thursday, the president-elect Joe Biden contrasted the response offered by the forces of order on Wednesday with the one offered last June when in the capital there were several protests organized by the movement Black Lives Matter (BLM) following the death at the hands of a white African-American police officer George Floyd.
In a televised statement, Biden said his granddaughter had sent him a photograph of a large group of fully equipped military personnel and lined up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the American capital.
Image source, Getty Images
Some 5,000 National Guard agents were deployed to Washington during the Black Lives Matter protests.
They had been deployed as a precautionary measure to deal with a demonstration organized by BLM at a time of great tension across the country with protests that had resulted in isolated episodes of vandalism.
” No one can tell me that if it had been a group of BLM who protested yesterday, no They would have been treated very (differently) than the mob of thugs who stormed the Capitol. We all know that this is true and it is unacceptable. Completely unacceptable, “Biden noted.
Image source, Getty Images
This Wednesday, the protection of Congress was mainly in charge of the Capitol Police.
Image source, Reuters
Some analysts argue that law enforcement agencies treated Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol with “silk gloves” while harshly cracking down on racial justice protests in 2020.
During the BLM protests in June, protesters gathered in Lafayette Park, one block from the White House but – according to the British newspaper The Guardian– did not attempt to overcome security barriers.
Anyway, they were suppressed by a force made up of the Washington Police, more than 5,000 members of the National Guard, as well as agents from other federal agencies like the Park Police.
Image source, Getty Images
The security deployment in June in the face of the BLM protests had the participation of different security forces.
Image source, Getty Images
The Park Police were mobilized to respond to the BLM protests.
Image source, Getty Images
In June, the authorities also deployed armored vehicles and helicopters to control the demonstrations.
In the case of the rally organized by Trump supporters this week, the security of the parliamentary seat stayed almost exclusively in the hands of the Capitol Police, a body of 2,000 agents that was quickly overwhelmed despite the prediction of incidents.
At the request of the Mayor of Washington, Muriel bowser340 National Guardsmen had also been activated for the occasion, but the National Guard was not deployed in front of the Capitol, as was the case – and in much larger numbers – during the Black Lives Matter protests last June.
Only after the invasion of the Capitol were the National Guard and other security forces activated to vacate the building.
Image source, Getty Images
The deployment of law enforcement officers on Wednesday was insufficient to contain the crowd.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.
