JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Organizers of Jacksonville protests called Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol a disgrace and say that can’t be compared to what happened in Jacksonville last summer.
The main difference, organizers said, was the police presence and the purpose behind the protests.
In May in downtown Jacksonville, there was tear gas being thrown and a line of armed officers making arrests.
Some organizers say there is no way the riots at the Capitol would’ve happened if the shoe was on the other foot. The divide in America for some was clear Wednesday in DC.
President-elect Joe Biden pointed out the difference during a speech Thursday afternoon, saying the events show a clear failure to carry out equal justice.
“I got a text from my granddaughter Finnegan Biden, who’s a senior in her last semester at the University of Pennsylvania. She sent me a photo of military people in full military gear, scores of them lining the steps of the Lincoln Memorial because of protest by Black Lives Matter,” he said. “She said, ‘Pop, this isn’t fair.’ No one can tell me that have had it been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday there wouldn’t have been, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol.”
Aaliyah Core is one of the organizers for The Shift Jax, a social justice group that held one of the Black Lives Matter protests in Jacksonville over the summer.
“When we did it, it was a disgrace to America, when we were peacefully protesting,” Core said. “But, you know, they literally the defaced federal property.”
Though none of The Shift’s protest turned violent, other protests in the city did, and she says the Capitol situation shows the difference.
“I feel that if we were at the Capitol and we even tried to do that the police would’ve handled it in a very different manner,” Core said. “The Black Lives Matter movement is fighting for freedom and those people were fighting for power.”
The world watched as Capitol Police said “These individuals actively attacked United States Capitol Police Officers and other uniformed law enforcement officers with metal pipes discharged chemical irritants and took up other weapons against our officers. They were determined to enter the Capitol Building by causing great damage.”
President of the Northside Coalition Ben Frazier says this doesn’t surprise him at all.
“What we saw yesterday was the glaring display of racial discrimination in law enforcement. It was a classic example of white privilege, a stunning example of white supremacy that occurred right before eyes,” Frazier said.
At Jacksonville protests over the summer, Frazier says JSO over responded and overreacted to what was a peaceful movement.
“In Jacksonville, there were interactions between police, what about those moments in comparison to what we saw at the Capitol yesterday? We saw people in Jacksonville who were peaceful who were jostled and beat up by JSO officers, we even saw a minister who was arrested who was trying to help people. Clearly, there is a glaring difference in the way law enforcement handles various political protests,” he said.
One woman who was arrested during the protests following the death of George Floyd was sitting in front of a line of police officers in riot gear when they moved in, detained her and held her for two days.
She calls what she saw at the Capitol astounding.
“It was a pretty harrowing experience to know what happened,” said Coricia Campbell. “Honestly, I am shocked, still shocked at like the difference in it. I mean, people treat this like criminals, just because we protest racial disparity.”
The Guardian reported that over 10,000 protesters across the country were arrested over the summer.
As of Thursday afternoon, 68 people had been arrested after Capitol Police say their officers were attacked.
Over two days of protests in Jacksonville, more than 80 people were arrested in the protests. 63 people were charged with unlawful assembly and had their charges dropped. Four men were arrested for felonies.
Campbell’s charges were dropped, but she says this is something she can’t forget.
“It was just astounding of the difference. Like people weren’t out there calling them names and throwing rocks at them like nothing. They were just being hailed as patriots,” she said.
She also said she thinks President Donald Trump played a role and compares his tweets from yesterday to last summer.
In a video on Twitter taken down, the President called the mob “very special” and said we love you, but you have to go home.
Last summer, Trump called protesters thugs and said “any difficulty we will assume control but when the looting starts the shooting starts.”
“Like, he went from that to saying, okay, I love you, you’re special go home. I just, I honestly cannot find the words to describe like this feeling of, of saying that,” Campbell said.
She says she was surprised to see the way, President Trump supporters behaved but says she thinks this is an undeniable display of racial bias in the criminal justice system.