(Written as a former AP reporter covering India in the late 1980s)
Unruly mobs breached barricades and invaded the US Capitol on Wednesday, 6 January, in an apparent coup incited by President Donald Trump who has refused to accept the results from the November 2020 elections.
The rioters from the majority White tribe descended on the building to stop the counting of votes that would formalise Democrat Joe Biden as the next president. They broke through the weak security cordon, smashed windows and scaled the walls of the building in an attempt to remove the American flag and replace it with a Trump flag.
The fundamentalists managed to enter the building and pose for photos in costume – a tribal leader wore fur coat and face paint – inside the main hall.
Some were seen stealing a podium as lawmakers ran for their lives into other buildings through a secret tunnel system.
How Trump Was ‘Enabled’ By His Own — And What Led To The Total Collapse Of The System
A curfew was imposed in Washington, DC, capital of the United States, as Biden, the incoming president, called for calm and asked Trump to do the right thing and tell his troops to go home. But Trump continued to claim the election was stolen, a signal to his violent supporters to march from the White House to the US Capitol and lay siege.
Scenes of chaos and anarchy spread like wild fire on social media as ‘third world’ countries and ‘sh*t hole’ countries – a term Trump coined for African countries – expressed concern about the attempted coup. Leaders of those countries noted the coup should have been crushed before reaching climax.
It was a total failure of the system because the American president has been building up to it over the past four years.
Some experts noted that if anything, Trump had been honest about his intent – he made repeatedly clear the only election result he would accept is one that declares him a winner just like many ‘strong men’ leaders he admires. Yet, nothing was done to school Trump about the fine points of democracy.
Instead of reining him in, key members of his Republican Party became Trump’s ‘enablers’ and indulged his whims and taste for the unconstitutional. They started living on the edge with him, indulging in their own side-shows of conspiracy theories.
What Happened To The Same Security Forces & Police Who Are Ruthless With Blacks?
After the alarming developments, some foreign observers declared the United States a ‘banana republic’ because the head of the current regime had been pressuring government officials to carry out vendettas against his ‘enemies’, which in this case are all those who oppose or criticise Trump, including Cabinet members chosen by him.
As the insurrection unfolded, security forces on duty seemed unable to control the radicals.
They did not start shooting indiscriminately as they normally do to subdue members of the Black tribe, sometimes for imaginary infractions.
It seemed security forces had also forgotten to pack tear gas shells to disperse the thousands surrounding the building even though they had fair warning. Finally some smoke grenades were procured as were additional forces from neighbouring states.
No arrests were made for hours even though the rioters violated countless laws in the ‘nation of laws’. Foreign observers were puzzled because in many ‘third world’ countries police come prepared with buses, water bottles, and extra handcuffs when they anticipate mass arrests.
It seemed the security forces in charge of protecting one of the most important buildings in the crisis-torn country were woefully underprepared and maybe even undertrained for the expected assault by White tribesmen and women.
For the record, police do a ruthless job on members of the Black tribe. A Black woman Miriam Carey was killed for making a U-turn at a police checkpoint near the Capitol building in 2013.
America, Time To Look Into Your (Abundant) Mirrors
Mainstream American media shied away from calling the Capitol Hill marauders ‘terrorists’ even though police found a pipe bomb, apparently planted by the radicals on the premises.
Some experts said there was inherent bias in how the police and media deal with different tribes.
Ethnic violence and extra-judicial killings of Blacks have been rampant in America for most of its history although many Americans believe they live in an exceptional country that was once described by a former actor and president Ronald Reagan as a “shining city on a hill”.
The ‘believers’ took to Twitter, the medium of choice for the rich and poor, expressing disbelief at the photos of rioting and pillaging of offices. They tended to say two things: “We are better than this” and “This happens only in … (name random capital like Bogota or Kabul or simply ‘Third World’).
The ‘non-believers’, whose numbers are growing, pushed back to remind them they were exactly like this – except they did this in other countries through well-established channels.
After the anarchy witnessed on Wednesday, several Europeans and Arabs asked the Americans to stop lecturing others on ‘democracy’ and related topics. They advised looking into the mirror. Mirrors in American homes are abundant.
(The writer is a senior Washington-based journalist. She can be reached at @seemasirohi. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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