Race of Capitol rioters determined treatment by law enforcement, Taylor says

Noting the “glaring” double standard in the way law enforcement treats people of different races, UB faculty member Henry Louis Taylor Jr. says there would have been “a bloodbath” had predominantly Black and brown group of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol last week..

“I am stunned by the restraint showed by law enforcement, including the National Guard. This crowd of angry Trump supporters stormed the nation’s capital,” says Taylor, professor of urban and regional planning, who researches issues of race and class.

“If hundreds of Blacks and brown people had stormed the nation’s capital, there would have been a bloodbath,” Taylor says. “Moreover, if the government knew that thousands of African Americans and Latinx were coming to D.C. to protest, legions of police and the National Guard would have been there.

“Yet, this is not surprising,” he says. “In May 2020, hundreds of white protestors, some bearing arms, entered the Michigan statehouse to protest coronavirus restrictions, and nothing was done.

“The double standard is glaring, and it reflects the reality that Black lives do not matter. When the 17-year-old shot Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Trump focused his anger on protestors, not the white vigilante-type shooting of protestors.”