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Crazy how the police took such a hands-off approach to keeping the riot out of the capitol. I saw a video of police opening up the barricade line so they could
by cwkoss 6y ago
Crazy how the police took such a hands-off approach to keeping the riot out of the capitol. I saw a video of police opening up the barricade line so they could come past it. Such a stark contrast to police action during the BLM protests.
I wonder what the chain of command was who told these cops to essentially do nothing today. Who does the buck stop with?
- awnird 6y agoThe police are a criminal gang who have been in on the coup from the start.
- sitkack 6y agoIf BLM had done this blood would be flowing in the streets.
- minkzilla 6y agoWell a woman died.
- abraxas 6y agoShe stormed a parliament building in session. She should have fully expected exactly this outcome in any non failed state. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes and all that...
- HideousKojima 6y agoLike when they took over several square blocks of Seattle for a month and declared independence and weren't stopped by the cops until their private police force killed too many black teenagers?
- vkou 6y ago1. The Seattle protests did not storm any buildings, force people out of their workplaces, or planted any bombs. 2. The SPD, for a reason they still can't explain, and against the orders of both Mayor Durkan, and Police Chief Best, chose to leave the East Precinct, and then, in a petty manner, stopped responding to calls in the entire Capitol Hill area. 3. The CHAZ occupied a public park, and the streets of the surrounding block. It did not stop the operation of businesses, legislatures, or government. It did not prevent the police from accessing the area. What we're seeing here, is a failed coup - an attempt to prevent the peaceful, democratic transfer of power by force, at the behest of a politician. I can't believe that you can't tell the difference between a coup, and a protest. One is treason and insurrection, which carries the death penalty, while the other is a constitutionally protected right.
- HideousKojima 6y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/21/seattle-chaz-shooting-police-free-zone https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/21/seattle-chaz... "police say violent crowd prevented access to victims"
- vkou 6y agoPolice have said a lot of things in Seattle that turned out to be complete falsehoods. Nearly every night of the protest, they'd make false statements that were trivially disproved by video evidence. I'll believe it when its a citation from an impartial third party - a paramedic, a bystander, etc. The fact is, the police retained access to both the East Precinct, and to CHAZ, through the latter's existence. They would show up in small groups of two or three, and were allowed in.
- noxer 6y agoDo you realize how biased you come across? You can pick whatever "evidence" or "source of evidence" you want but you'd still need to apply that standard to "both sides".
- 6y ago
- soared 6y agoI completely 100% agree. I do give a small amount of consideration to the sacredness of the capitol, and the additional damage that images of blood spilled on the steps of our capitol would do.
- cwkoss 6y agoOne woman was shot dead today at the capitol, and I saw several other images of puddles of blood. I understand the rationale could still stand, but wanted to point out that their lack of enforcement did not prevent bloodshed entirely.
- dannyw 6y agoOne unarmed woman was shot by police.
- burmer 6y agoWell that doesn't make sense. The sacredness of the capitol should demand that it be protected. Images of law enforcement preventing a mob from disrupting the act of signing off on the transfer of power would be a strong statement that needs to be made, I think.
- slacktide 6y agoClearly, they didn't want to take the risk of injuring an off-duty officer.
- dstick 6y ago+1 for a genuine LOL, sad as it may be - the truth can be funny.
- dredmorbius 6y agoFormer US Secty. Defence and head of CIA Leon Panneta had a long interview on NPR today which was highly critical of the Capitol's security response. No transcript yet, but here's the slug: https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/954115945/former-defense-secretary-on-pro-trump-mobs-insurrection https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/954115945/former-defense-secr...
- suresk 6y agoThe juxtaposition of this vs the indiscriminate violence police used in the summer against protestors on the streets is pretty jarring. The fact that a large mob of people like this - many of them armed, and some of them planting explosives - breaking into the Capitol, taking things and causing a bunch of damage, results in only a small handful of arrests is pretty crazy, too.
- jakelazaroff 6y agoHopefully this demonstrates to the "defund the police" opponents that deescalation and unconscious bias training are not the reforms we need. It's crystal clear that the police have no trouble deescalating violent situations when they want to.
- tartoran 6y agoI agree that they can deescalate when they want to. However, the way I understand the defund the police idea was to defund and eventually get their needed funds back with lots of reform. The prospect of funds does change things quite a bit. Always! At this point they're overfunded so no carrot to get them to move forward.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoMost "defund the police" opponents I personally know are furious that protesters were ever allowed to enter the building and are demanding to see everyone who did arrested.
- jakelazaroff 6y agoAre they reconsidering their stance on the necessary reforms?
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoIt's hard to even get that far at this point. They (and I - I don't want to pretend to be a neutral party here) are still reeling from the idea that you can forcibly enter the US Capitol without being shot dead on the spot. Basically everything we thought we knew about the typical processes of policing is, apparently, wrong.
- systemvoltage 6y agoThe contrast is insane. We have double standards. Even without comparing to BLM, the actions of the people that raided the Capitol should be condemned on their own. There is no need to bring in BLM as a crutch to make the case. It just makes it less weaker than it is. This is an assault on democracy. We don't need to explicitly cite double standards to make our case. Stop comparing what's going on on the Capitol with BLM protests.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mikepurvis 6y agoWhy? The contrast is important and highlights how difficult it is to peacefully assemble for a noble cause if armed representatives of the state are determined to abuse and provoke a response out of you. It underscores the hypocrisy of people who said that they would support BLM in abstract if not for “all the violence.” Turns out the violence had nothing to do with it, which was obvious all along of course. But it’s good to know for sure.
- systemvoltage 6y agoBecause, if we need to make the case for opposing treason/insurrection by using black lives matter protests for social justice as a crutch - completely orthogonal reasons for protests, boy... we look weak.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- lscotte 6y agoThe comparison to Black Lives Matter rioting is important. I find it very bizarre that the media correctly calls these idiots rioters, but they call the Black Lives Matter idiots doing the same sort of thing protestors.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Triv888 6y agoThe videos that I saw were far from being like that... they were using tear gas and blocking them but it is plausible that they got in because they let them.
- wzy 6y agoHere you go https://twitter.com/cevansavenger/status/1346920924310867968 https://twitter.com/cevansavenger/status/1346920924310867968
- victor9000 6y agoHere's the video in question: https://twitter.com/cevansavenger/status/1346920924310867968 https://twitter.com/cevansavenger/status/1346920924310867968
- bitcurious 6y agoIt’s not clear to me that the direction the protesters walk is towards the capitol. They could just as easily be letting people who didn’t want to be associated with the rioting leave the protest.
- jmull 6y agoBut what does that show? Those people are being let past a barrier to where a lot of other people already are. So it doesn't look like they are getting let in to a restricted area. Maybe we're just seeing the police manage crowd flow. Without some context I don't see that this shows anything bad happening here.
- Rapzid 6y agoIt's not even clear the barricades, which didn't even meet in middle, were even moved by the police. The only police I can clearly make out are in the center and when the camera zooms in I can't see who moved the barricades away. It's a bit amazing this video is being peddled around HN as evidence of anything; there is so little context.
- noxer 6y agoSo we should delete it just in case ryt? Or at least put a message under it that makes sure people use their brain even less because they are told that the video shows something but has no context and thus should only be used for entertaining purpose.
- Rapzid 6y agoI guess that's up to Twitter, but I doubt random no-name user is on their radar as a person of authority spreading misinformation.
- tomcam 6y agoWhy be surprised? What’s been happening in Portland and Seattle for the last six months?
- esaym 6y agoThis. What is amazing is that everything has been filmed and yet people still disagree with what is being seen .
- BurningFrog 6y agoThat's true, but the cops also did kill one protester.
- matwood 6y agoIs protestor still the right word when they forcefully enter a building with a mob?
- drdaeman 6y agoWell... this mob surely had protest as a reason (or at least a declared reason) to assemble and storm the building, so - yes, why not? There are other words that are applicable, but "protestor" is a semantically valid option. Unless by the "right word" you meant "how they should be called". But then it becomes a highly subjective question.
- noxer 6y ago"peaceful protestor" is the right word
- Spooky23 6y agoImo the cops were left out to dry. There wasn’t enough force to stop that crowd. I’ve seen bigger responses to a frat party. Obviously the executive branch police forces were held back. There’s a reason why they are pulling in the New Jersey State Police.
- matwood 6y agoAgreed. It looked odd to me how few police where there when they knew for weeks this was going to happen.
- throwaway9870 6y agoTo be fair, didn't the police and govt let protesters take over an entire section of Seattle this summer in which multiple people were killed?
- _5yoy 6y agoThere were two deaths, one of which was a black man being murdered by Proud Boys, and the other does not have evidence suggesting it was related to the Seattle AZ (other than they were near the perimeter).
- winston_smith 6y agoWikipedia reports four shootings. And this killing sure looks like it was part of CHOP: https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/murder-charges-filed-against-suspect-in-fatal-chop-shooting-that-killed-teenager-08-06-2020 https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/murder-charges-filed-a...
- bird_monster 6y agoYou're right, I would delete/edit if I could, but I cannot.
- throwaway9870 6y agoThe fact that you felt qualified to post about this but don't even know how many people died scares me.
- gok 6y agoI remain confused why people think cops would treat anti-cop and pro-cop protesters the same.
- noxer 6y agoYes, seems to be very hard to grasp for some people that they would fight and use whatever means necessary to stop people who would literally stab, shoot or set them on fire if they turn their back also they demand them to kneel in front of them and what not. Some of them where directly coming for the cops directly attacking them or setting buildings on fire where they where inside. While the people who stormed the building today had zero interest in the cops. The protest was against the other people in the building not the cops. Even after the woman got shot there was no sign of revenge against cops. There is even evidence that cops where immediately given access to the victim to save her (which apparently wasn't possible anymore).
- triceratops 6y agoBecause the law says so. And cops are supposed to enforce the law.
- dang 6y agoThis is being discussed extensively at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25661474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25661474 and there are many comments along the same lines, though you may have to click More (at the bottom) once or twice to get to them.
- leereeves 6y agoAll the comments along these lines seem to be factually untrue, considering that the police killed a protestor at this protest. That alone makes this one of the most aggressive police responses to a protest in the past year, even ignoring the thousands of national guard and police in riot gear who responded with pepper spray, tear gas, and guns.
- darksaints 6y agoTerrorist. Killed a terrorist.
- dang 6y agoYou've unfortunately broken the site guidelines repeatedly lately. Would you mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and using HN in the intended spirit? If we can't rely on established users like you to do that, this place is really doomed.
- vixen99 6y agoJust to remind you, this is HN. (Don't even bother)
- throwaway829 6y agoPolice have already killed one of the protestors and liberally sprayed many with pepperspray. What else do you want them to do to the protestors?
- detaro 6y agoStop them from getting in. Not nicely escort them out, but arrest them? (although I assume the FBI et al are archiving posted pictures and videos as we speak). It's not like they don't know how to do that, see any other protest at the capitol.
- CryptoPunk 6y agoThe police took a hands off approach to plenty of BLM protests, even riots.
- newguy1234 6y agoMost police are right-wingers.