American Ironies Depicted in Pictures: 'the Police on the Day US Democracy Was in Jeopardy'

A historical day in the US has just witnessed the first-of-kind attack on the Congress buildings in Washington, DC, as angry supporters of the outgoing president Donald Trump stormed and vandalized the US Capitol while legislators were certifying the results of 2020 elections, leaving millions of people around the US and the world in shock.

Thousands of online users shared photos of the events that didn't seem to be met with enough police force during the first hours, which reminded commentators of other less threatening protests that had the US police on alert.

Some of the shared photos also showed how the police handled protests that were organized by minority groups, including disabled people who had protested in June 2017 at the Senate against abolishing the Affordable Care Act by the Trump administration.

Additionally, photos of pro-Trump rioters raising Confederate flags inside the Congress, as some of them vandalized offices caught photographers' attention, reminding the online community of the strong police response to similar riots by black individuals who had stormed department stores and coffee shops during the BLM protests last summer.

Pointing at even more ironies after the Congress insurrection that resulted in at least 4 deaths so far, Twitter users shared photos of the different forms of protests organized by black people during the Black Lives Matter, ones that were considered 'offensive' to American symbols, such as Colin Kaepernick's kneeling during the national anthem, which had triggered a massive backlash by conservative voices over several years.

Written by Riham Darwish