evidence: The rampage comes only months after police in several states shot, beat, tear-gassed, and arrested Black demonstrators protesting peacefully against police brutality. Observers were appalled by what they describe as the glaring disparity in how police responded to the mostly white rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. [...] "Not only did we see the failure to protect one of the three branches of our government, we also saw a clear failure to carry out equal justice," Biden said. "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that’s true, and it is unacceptable." [...] The scenes at the Capitol revealed a stark contrast in how police responded last summer, when thousands of Black protesters in cities across America took to the streets following the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. Videos of those protests captured police in full riot gear beating protestors, knocking them down, and using tear gas to disperse crowds.