At the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, his supporters assaulted the Capitol building in Washington D.C. in a desperate attempt at halting the electoral vote counts, to no avail. However, this event has deeply scarred the nation as well as unveiled the true nature of policing in this nation.
Although the assault on the US Capitol was a shocking incident, it wasn’t entirely unforeseen. Former President Trump had incited the violence through his rallies and his speeches where he called for a march on the Capitol. Some of his fanatic supporters believed that he wanted them to storm the Capitol in order to overturn the election results, and acted as such, as reported by Vox.
The aftermath of the scene appeared very grim, and some news media even proclaimed that the U.S. Capitol had been attacked by domestic terrorists and insurrectionists. As the world watches on in shock, the presidential transfer of power took place smoothly on the 20th, without Trump.
However, even with the new administration, the seeds of violence have been sown with the previous president. The attack on the Capitol is evidence of the growing violence within the country, as well as revealing some ugly truths about Americans as a society.
At the U.S. Capitol attack, it was apparent that some of the police stationed there to defend the building from rioters had basically let them into the building. A few rioters even took friendly pictures with the police, some of whom did next to nothing to stop them from storming the building, as reported by the Independent.
This ugly truth proves to the world that the nation has been divided to the point where even the law enforcement has taken sides, with a majority of them siding with conservative groups, as shown by a Forbes poll.
As stated by The Conversation, some police unions have even been endorsing presidential candidates, which broke their tradition of not doing so. On the other hand, the police were extremely efficient in halting leftist protests, such as Black Lives Matter protests, which only amplifies the bias of the police, according to the Washington Post, CNN and Poynter.
The police transition into politics is a huge problem in our society, and especially for minority communities. The police bias against minorities makes our law enforcement unreliable and quite possibly a liability and even a threat to the national security and stability of our country, as previously demonstrated during the January 6 Capitol attack.
After the attack, 16 Capitol police officers were investigated for dereliction of duty and 31 are currently investigated for having direct involvement in the riot, according to Business Insider and NPR.
The fact that our own protectors were part of the group of terrorists that attacked our nation’s capital illustrates how politically involved our police have become, which is proof of how unreliable our law enforcement has become in terms of protecting the people of this nation.
This attack on the Capitol was a result of built-up anger toward the outcome of the 2020 presidential election where Joe Biden became the victor. The previous president, Donald Trump, rejected the loss and called on his supporters to fight.
The influx of lies swayed his supporters to become more aggressive toward whoever they deemed the enemy according to VOX, and this surplus of aggression spilled over on the day the electoral votes were officially counted.
Among his anger-driven supporters were some members of the nation’s law enforcement who participated in the riots, and also assisted the other rioters in entering the Capitol. Police involvement ranged from helping with the planning to showing the rioters around the building to even taking selfies with the terrorists.
This portrayal of treachery from our own law enforcement illustrates the growing politicization of our police and their increasing unreliability when it comes to protecting the citizens of this nation.