What do rioters want

There are some superficial parallels here. Both cases involved large crowds of protesters demonstrating against a wrong they believed had been done to them.

A few of them, but only a few, participated in violence. But the parallels run out pretty quickly. Violence against businesses and police stations is wrong, but it is not the same as assaulting the seat of the federal government and in some cases reportedly discussing assassinations and c oming prepared for hostage-taking.

And Black Lives Matter demonstrators were protesting about a real problem: Police killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, just as they have killed and injured many other people, recently and historically. By contrast, the insurrectionists were rising in support of false and debunked claims.

Recent experience also suggests that law enforcement would have deployed much greater force and acted more swiftly against a Black Lives Matter march than was initially seen on Wednesday. Read: The rise of victimhood culture. Instead, Republicans thundered that Democrats were trying to delegitimize Trump and nullify his election. After all, victimhood is an exclusive and exalted class in contemporary American politics.

To Trump and his enablers, the truth about the insurrection is clear: The perpetrators are the real victims. Then another hour. The evening will end not long after when the group starts to march. Some walk to their cars. Others try to cross the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Reporters are with them and will tell the story of how they are corralled there with smoke on one side and cops on the other. They are forced to lie down and are arrested, booked and quickly released. It is, all told, a relatively easy night for all.

On other nights, and in other parts of the country, the protests turn both uglier and more beautiful. In Fort Worth on the same night, the crowd dispersed after officers took a knee in unity against police violence.

Protesters left shaking hands and exchanging hugs with the cops they saw. In New York, scores of officers and protesters were hurt in clashes. There are a lot of bad things that can come of all of this. The president has somehow managed to lead down the worst path we can go, using this as a chance to show strength and power instead of understanding and healing, to crush instead of embrace. There is another terrible path though, and that is for it all to be meaningless.

The way down that road is by failing to listen beyond the worst words that are said and failing to see past the images of the worst things that are done. Whatever violence there is must stop, not only because it is terrible in itself but because it obscures a larger reality. The people who are gathered are there in a collective pain about their world and a collective hope that their voices do mean something. Sections U. Science Technology Business U.

Records rebut claims of unequal treatment of Jan. In this combination of photos, demonstrators, left, protest June 4, , in front of the U. Capitol in Washington, over the death of George Floyd and on Jan. Some charged in the Jan. Capitol as well as their Republican allies claim the Justice Department is treating them harshly because of their political views.

Court records tell a different story. AP Photos. Full coverage: Capitol Siege. Read more: AP Politics. New 'rocket docket' for migrant families raises old concerns. Michigan Government. Share This: Share this article on Twitter.

Share this article on Facebook. Share this article via email. Print this article. Michigan Government They were at the Capitol riot. Howland is now running for state House. Bridge Michigan photo by Dale Young. Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley, seen here at the Michigan Capitol on May 15, has acknowledged he was at the U.

Capitol waving others up and pumping his fist. Parler screenshot. In the foreground, wearing a black sweatshirt, hat and goatee, is Jason Howland, a Republican candidate for state House in Macomb County. YouTube screenshot via Storyful.

No clue. Peter Meijer. She was outside the Capitol on Jan. Courtesy photo. Related Articles:. Share the article you just read on Twitter. Share the article you just read on Facebook. Share the article you just read via email.