BLM Co-Founder Claims Police ‘Double Standard’ in the Capitol Takeover

Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the activist group Black Lives Matter who describes herself as a “trained Marxist”, states that she is “really disturbed by how far we’ve allowed white supremacist violence to reign in this country”. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cullors describes how she believes that it is one rule for Black Lives Matter supporters and another for Trump supporters. 

Cullors comments echo those of Joe Biden, who stated in an address to the nation: 

"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. We all know that’s true and it’s unacceptable. Totally unacceptable."

This view is also supported by Kamala Harris, who tweeted:

Cullors outlines that she believes the events at Capitol Hill have illustrated to her that there is a disturbing “double standard”. She supports this by stating:

“I’ve spent the last 20 years being a protestor, a community organizer, and, in the last seven years, supporting and helming the protest movement that is called Black Lives Matter, and we’ve experienced military, National Guard, militarized police, rubber bullets and tear gas at protests which are largely peaceful and protests that are talking about racial injustice and the fight for Black lives. And so, to watch mostly white people, white men, storm the U.S. Capitol with no consequence or accountability was shocking. We have to come to terms in this country about who this country truly protects and who it does not.”

She states her belief that the police were complicit in the takeover:

“It’s all very clear that what we witnessed on Jan. 6 for the better part of the day in D.C. was not just white supremacist terrorism, but also law enforcement allowing for these white supremacist terrorists to run amok in the nation’s Capitol.”

She states her belief that the events that unfolded were a direct reaction to the Black Lives Matter riots: 

“When Black people rise up, when we challenge the status quo, when we push back, white supremacist terrorism has a temper tantrum. It has happened for years and that temper tantrum often leads to people dying. We saw that in Charlottesville.”

She brushes over the fact that two people died directly as a result of the Capitol takeover and paints the mostly unarmed protestors as being armed:

“These people [in D.C.] had actual weapons. They had bombs. They came nearly with pitchforks and there were only pats on the back and gently removing them from the sidewalk”

The reference of bombs is in relation to an unidentified individual who placed pipe bombs outside both the Republican and Democrat National Committee buildings prior to the protests.  

She reiterates the point that she believes there is difference between black and white protestors:

“Black people, especially Black organizers, have talked about the difference in treatment between Black protestors and white protestors. Yesterday, we witnessed that as a country and as a world.”

She warns against introducing harsher laws and more police, but simultaneously calls Trump supporters “terrorists”:

“I want to warn people as the shock wears off that people are going to start calling for harsher laws and calling for more police. But we have to steer away from that rhetoric because we already do have harsh laws for people who storm the Capitol for treason. We already have harsh laws for terrorists. But those laws are not actually practiced when it comes to white terrorists.”

She goes on to conflate support for the police with “white supremacy”:

“When we call for the defending of the police, we are calling for the defending of white supremacy. Those are synonymous and we saw how synonymous it is yesterday.”

She states what response to the events in the Capitol she wishes to see:

“The call isn’t for punishment and revenge right now. The call is for reflection. The call is for accountability, and the call is for us to get Donald Trump out of the White House as soon as we possibly can before this inauguration.”

She then states her support for Biden, Harris and the wider Democratic party:

“Most important for us is ensuring that President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris get into office safely. I think the win of the Democratic party being the majority in the Senate is huge and I think the next phase of our work is holding all of these people accountable that we worked to get into office. We have to have the conversation about policing, focusing on climate change, and focusing obviously on COVID.”

She concludes:

“I don’t believe what we experienced yesterday is the last of white supremacist violence. I believe that was a warning for the Democratic party in particular and all of us who have supported the party getting into office. So I think it’s important that we don’t see it as a one-off moment and that we see it as part of a long history of white supremacist violence that has impacted the entire country since the inception of the United States.”