North Texas Activists Say Treatment Of Capitol Rioters Exposes Law Enforcement Double Standard
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The dry tinder of an America divided finally ignited as pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, Jan 6.
Now, many North Texans say the "hard-to-watch video" simultaneously exposes the nation's law enforcement double standard.
"This is the slap in the face," says Indianna Taylor of Dallas. "Like huge slap in the face."
In August, Taylor travelled to the nation's capital to mark the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington.
She says peaceful protesters were met with police in riot gear.
Those that blocked traffic were pepper sprayed.
"They were prepared for us," shares Taylor. "I'm just wondering why they [pro-Trump rioters ] were able to scale walls and things like that. Everybody knew they were coming. I knew they were coming."
In an interview on CBS This Morning, former Homeland Security Advisory Fran Townsend acknowled that race in America carries weight, telling Gayle King and Anthony Mason, "Let's be perfectly candid: if these rioters had committed criminal acts, and they were black or Muslim, they absolutely would have been arrested. So we ought to be ashamed of yesterday's display of law enforcement, as well as of the rioters."
North Texas activists agree.
Dallas Attorney Daryl Washington of the Washington Law Firm said, "Had those protesters been black, I doubt that you and I would be talking today because the vision, the photos we would be seeing in our country would be body bags, because there would have been so many people who would have been killed as a result."
Washington represents several protestors injured during last summer's peaceful demonstrations in Dallas calling for an end to police brutality.
Among them was Brandon Saenz who was left blinded in one eye by a non-lethal police projectile.
Washington says the nation cannot turn away from the issues that brought us here.
"After George Floyd, it wasn't only black people protesting, says Washington, "we had a lot of young, white kids and I think what's happening now is they are asking parents these very tough questions. And they are wanting to know 'why are you in agreement with this type of action?' And it's forcing them to have these conversations. There cannot be any significant change in Dallas or in this country until we have the conversation."
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