Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol.
But many have been quick to point out the differences between the police responses to the mostly white mob that stormed the Capitol and Black organizers who have called for the end of police brutality and over-policing in communities of color. Summer protests following the police killing of George Floyd last May were met with aggressive police action, including mass arrests, surveillance, and the use of rubber bullets, batons and flash-bang grenades. On June 1, 2020, during the height of last summer’s protests, D.C. Metropolitan police made more than 300 "unrest-related" arrests, according to police data. "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday that they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol yesterday," Biden said in a speech on Thursday. Ronnette Cox, 35, a New York City-based activist, recalled being pepper-sprayed and pushed on several occasions by law enforcement this summer. "I still remember the stinging," she said, noting the frustration she felt seeing police officers escort white rioters out of the Capitol, knowing how they had responded to herself and other Black protesters during largely peaceful gatherings.