Wednesday’s Insurrection Exposed America’s Serious Police Problem

Adam E. Badenhorst
4 min readJan 9, 2021
@twessel20 via Twenty20

Wednesday, January 6th, 2020, was a dark day in the United States. President Trump organised a “protest” that quickly turned into a riot. There were several key Trump allies who played their part in the insurrection that later took place in the capital, Washington D.C.. We can start with Josh Hawley, Mo Brooks, and Rudy Giuliani as the key instigators to the attack. However, there is one party that is now coming to light too — Capitol Police.

The Capitol Police allowed the rioters to enter the Capitol. The rioters stormed in and destroyed property and stole Nancy Pelosi’s computer. By any standards, that trespass and vandalism of federal property amounts to an attack against the United States. Further, five people died as a result of these rioters’ actions. The end result — the police failed to do their job. The reason why they didn’t do their job is very simple — skin colour.

Most, if not all, of these rioters were white. They came from the strength of the Trump base. It’s uncanny to think that the police, whose job is to protect people and property, allowed these rioters through. Let that sink in for a moment.

Now, after that has sunk in, take in something else — if these rioters were black and brown people, they would have either been shot or arrested for sedition on the spot. In addition, the President would have called the National Guard in to defend the Capitol taking into account that these rioters are attacking Federal property. Immediately, we can see the hypocrisy and clear racist view on law and order.

Sadly, this racist view permeates deeper and has been going on for too long. Countless cases like George Floyd or Breonna Taylor have gone on without justice. In both of these cases, as well as others, the white police officers aren’t charged or receive no/little penalty ending in no justice for the victim or their family. That’s alarming considering that America, and specifically the GOP’s mantra, is all about “law and order”. Let’s call it for what it is — white law and order.

This white law and order isn’t new sadly. In previous US President administrations, these fatal attacks happened too. They gained national spotlight, but many ignored it. Now, it should be going off like an alarm bell, because…

Adam E. Badenhorst

Writer. Into politics, heritage, environment and crypto/future. Love a tough debate and intellectual discussions.