When a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, surprisingly few police stood in the way. Protests had been expected for days, but police appeared unprepared for an actual insurrection and not even prepared to keep all the doors locked. Video showed police calmly talking with attackers after they moved into the building.
This came after a year of protests and confrontations with police after police shootings and other kinds of killings across the country. Many of those protests were put down more harshly, including those in Washington, D.C. Officials often responded with tear gas, Tasers or stun grenades.
“What we see here is that certain bodies are accorded a certain kind of treatment and other bodies are not,” said Eddie Glaude, the chair of Princeton University’s Department of African American studies, in an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition.
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