CNN’s Van Jones said that there is a double standard between how the supporters of President Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol were treated compared to black protesters during this past summer.
“If you’re black, if you’re a progressive, the price of protesting … is you go to jail for it,” Jones said. “To watch a completely lawless band of traitors and insurrectionists go and tear up the Capitol … is an unbelievable statement about race in this country.”
“If you’re Black, if you’re a progressive, the price of protesting… is you go to jail for it,” @VanJones68 says.
“To watch a completely lawless band of traitors and insurrectionists go and tear up the Capitol… is an unbelievable statement about race in this country.” pic.twitter.com/z2TOalz3qd
— CNN (@CNN) January 7, 2021
Jones’ comments came in response to host Alisyn Camerota saying that the “peaceful protesters” in Lafayette Square this summer were “pepper sprayed before curfew.”
“One of the most sickening things was when our minds harkened back to this summer and thinking about what happened to those peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square. They were pepper sprayed before curfew,” Camerota said. “And then to see the treatment that this marauding mob got or didn’t get … how do we square that?”
A June protest of police brutality in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park was broken up by U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops through the use of tear gas.
Shortly after, Trump emerged along with daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as well as then-Attorney General William Barr to visit the historic St. John’s Episcopal church that had recently been vandalized during protests.
“We have the greatest country in the world,” Trump said as he held a Bible. “Keep it nice and safe.”
Jones responded by saying that the message to black Americans is that they can be “beaten” for “jaywalking” or shopping in a store, but “this band of white traitors go and tear up the Capitol building and walk out.”
“They were escorted out,” Jones continued. “They should all be in jail right now.”
Jones went on to say that police made the mistake of letting people go and will now have to depend on pictures to figure out who they are and arrest them.
“You had them,” Jones said.
Capitol Police were seemingly caught by surprise when a large group of Trump supporters descended on Capitol Hill and began forcing their way into the building. Lawmakers were rushed to secure locations while D.C. Metro Police and other law enforcement agencies rushed in to assist.
Rioters were eventually able to gain access to the Senate chamber and the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before tear gas and smoke grenades were used to clear the area.
One woman, identified as 35-year-old Ashli Elizabeth Babbit, was fatally shot by Capitol Police when she tried to gain access to the House chamber. Another three rioters died of what police described as “medical emergencies.”
