This is America.
That was my thought yesterday as I watched white insurrectionists with Confederate flags march into the US Capitol. They assaulted officers, carried weapons, defaced property and caused all of the staff and representatives to run and hide in fear for their safety. Once officers let them finish “doing their thing” they gently escorted them out. I did not see riot gear, no one called in the military, and officers did not seem to fear for their own safety or the safety of the public. There was no outcry from Republicans, law enforcement union leaders who endorsed Trump, or District Attorneys who justified the rampant beating, charging and prosecution of protestors from this summer’s demonstrations against police violence and racial injustice… Did the people whose mantra was once “law and order” think this was okay?
I’m a civil rights attorney in NYC, and I firmly believe in our constitutional rights to free speech and protest. Dissent is patriotic. We’ve had our fair share of protest here in the City, especially standing up to police violence against people of color. We are still processing the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude and the attempted murder of Jacob Blake, all by police officers, and we made our frustrations very clear.
The nation spent the summer watching droves of officers attacking peaceful protestors in the name of law and order. As the public took to the streets to demand accountability, law enforcement dressed themselves in riot gear, pulled out the latest military-grade equipment, and prepared buses and unmarked vans in anticipation of mass arrests, despite the threat of COVID and its spread in jails and prisons. Police cruisers were rammed into crowds, police fractured and broke protestors’ bones and used their batons to cause bloody lips and bruised bodies. Mayor de Blasio could not keep up with the dozens of videos that captured the beatings and resorted to a standard response of “I have not seen that one.” NYPD Police Commissioner Shea accused protestors of scaring officers and cited the need to protect property as the reason for a barbaric response by public servants whose salaries are paid for by our tax dollars.
It was so bad that New York Attorney General Tish James held a historic two-day hearing, Human Rights Watch designated the police response in a June 4th protest in the Bronx a human rights violation, and the Office of the Inspector General issued another report affirming what people of color have been saying for a long time: people of color are forced to live in constant fear of law enforcement that white communities simply do not have to face.
What we saw in DC yesterday made one thing clear — law enforcement officers see themselves in even the most violent of white people. That is why they do not respond with the same disdain and violence as they do with people of color. How else can we explain the lukewarm response of the Capitol Police and our federal government to an attempted coup by armed white supremacists, who explicitly announced their intentions to attack the Capitol building days in advance? I could only imagine the slaughter that would have happened at the Capitol if it were people of color who engaged in that behavior — people who look like you or me.
Major media outlets treated it first as a tantrum, and then clawed for adjectives to describe the unequivocal unlawfulness — mobs, protestors, Trump supporters — but avoided terms like thugs, looters, and criminals, words whose use has been racialized for decades to describe those who stand for racial justice and police accountability. Once these violent mobs departed — smug and secure in knowing they would face no consequences — representatives got back to business, continuing deliberations in the name of a resilient democracy, and completely ignoring the threat that white supremacy was still demanding its power in America, again.
While the difference in the policing of Black and white people was stark, what was glaring was the absence of the equivocation of police with safety. It’s because that equivocation only happens when the conversation centers around communities of color. Only then do talking heads and police unions base their value, necessity, and bloated budget on the need to police and criminalize people of color for their safety and yours. Currently, the NYPD has more daily contact with New Yorkers than any other city agency. And they wonder why law enforcement interactions terrify or haunt so many people, families and neighborhoods of color in our borough.
What we saw in DC yesterday was a hard look in the mirror for some, while for others it was confirmation of what we know everyday to be true. History has shown us the audacity of white mobs who entered places of worship, jails and courthouses to attack and lynch Black Americans in the South while Sheriffs stood idly by and looked the other way. But I also know that we — as voters, as activists, as people who turn our outrage and heartbreak into action — have the power to create the change that our nation so desperately needs. Now is a time for boldness. The fight is worth it, and we cannot give up. That’s why I’ve dedicated my life to fighting for civil rights and why I’m running for Manhattan District Attorney. I’m up for the fight and I know you are, too.
In solidarity,
Tahanie
