Washington reflects on Capitol rampage

WASHINGTON - The United States’ stark racial inequality was on display after a mob of predominantly white supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol with ease on Wednesday then left, according to Washington residents, activists and politicians, including President-elect Joe Biden.

At least five people lost their lives, including a woman who was fatally shot by police, and a police officer who died later in hospital.

The rioters broke through barricades, smashed windows, snatched souvenirs and entered Congressional offices and chambers, some taking photographs with police.

Some carried trophies with them as they walked out.

The lack of security and limited police response, despite weeks of promotion of the pro-Trump protest that sparked the riot, was in sharp contrast to the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests in Washington six months ago.

“My mum said if you did this you’d be shot,” Beatrice Mando, who works for the district and attended BLM protests last year.

“She is right. There would be hundreds dead, if not more, had this group been Black.”

In a speech on Thursday, Mr Biden agreed there was a sharp contrast.

“No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently from the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” he said.

The United States saw a summer of widespread demonstrations against racial injustice that began in May after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died as a Minneapolis police office knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

In Washington, participants in those protests said their reception was very different.

“There were cops at every intersection in DC. There were cops at all the monuments, at the Capitol, in front of the White House,” said Abby Conejo, 29, who works at a small business in Washington.

The Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington had been faced with rows of masked National Guard troops at the Lincoln Memorial in June, as Mr Trump vowed to crack down on what he called lawlessness by “hoodlums” and “thugs”.

One evening, baton-swinging police fired smoke canisters, flashbang grenades and rubber bullets to drive peaceful protesters away from the White House, so that Mr Trump could walk to a nearby church and be photographed holding a Bible.

“They treated us like the enemy,” Ms Conejo said.

“Where was that anger and rage yesterday? Why were these people treated like friends?”