ALABAMA – Keith Young watched the mob riot inside the U.S. Capitol building, thinking back to the pain in his chest after police shot him with a rubber bullet this summer in downtown Huntsville.
“I remember watching snipers in downtown Huntsville as we protested,” said Young. “To know that happens to us when we’re peacefully protesting and following the laws, then to see people in the nation’s Capitol, being allowed to run through that place, and the lack of a (police) response, it’s highly discouraging.”
Young and other Alabama activists who took to the streets to protest for racial justice this past summer say Wednesday’s chaos at the Capitol provided more evidence of inequality in America, more evidence in their fight for racial justice.
On June 3, 2020, police in Huntsville used tear gas, pepper spray, flash bangs and less lethal weapons to clear out non-violent demonstrators who were calling for police reform and justice for George Floyd.
They breached no buildings, pushed through no barriers. Police said they defied an order to disperse and began releasing tear gas into the crowd. As a line of Alabama State Troopers drove through the square, a small group of demonstrators threw water bottles at their patrol vehicles. Huntsville police later reported broken windows on patrol cars. About two dozen people were arrested. Police later said they wanted to break up the protest to head off the kind of property damage seen in other cities after dark.
The scene in Washington D.C. was not peaceful. Five people died, including an Alabama man and a Capitol police officer, as supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, entering through smashed windows, crossing toppled barricades and battling with police.
Rioters breach U.S. Capitol Building
Yet amid the riot and melee, Young said he saw instances of restraint by law enforcement.
“It wasn’t anything like what happened to me and thousands of other people across the nation when we were peacefully protesting,” said Young. “That restraint and discretion is reserved for white people.”
‘White supremacy on display’
Kimberly Williams Pettway, a Mobile activist and instructor of social work at the University of South Alabama, said the differing responses of law enforcement to Black Lives Matter protesters and supporters of President Trump is a result of racial ideologies ingrained in American society.
“I don’t believe we don’t have the capacity to secure the Capitol,” Pettway said. “They just didn’t see the people there as a threat.”
When Black Lives Matter activists marched on Washington over the summer, there was a “totally different atmosphere,” Pettway said. “It was clear force would be used. It sends a clear message in our society about who is considered a threat.”
Remus Bowden, a Huntsville activist who has been calling for police to be held accountable for their treatment of protesters and Black citizens, recalled attending a racial justice protest in Washington D.C. this past summer. In an interview with AL.com he said police there fired rubber bullets while he was marching in the streets with friends and thousands of other demonstrators.
