Several Americans,
including President-elect Joe Biden and Michelle Obama, have accused US authorities of treating a pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday more leniently than last
year’s anti-racism demonstrators, AFP reported. 

“No one can tell
me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday…
they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs
that stormed the Capitol,” Biden, who is set to take over the White House
later this month, said in an address from his hometown in Delaware.

“We all know
that’s true, and it is unacceptable,” he added.

On Wednesday, a large group of pro-Trump supporters barged into the US Capitol and broke down barriers and doors to
invade the building.

Local media reported
that police officers in charge of security held off using tear gas until the
mob had reached the heart of the building, where they roamed freely, ransacking
offices. Some reports also accused the enforcement officials of opening doors
for them.

Also Read: Capitol Hill violence result of Trump’s ‘contempt for democracy’, says Biden

Americans believe this
was in stark contrast to last year’s anti-racism demonstrations in the nation’s
capital during which police forcibly dispersed the protestors and the National
Guard was regularly deployed as an early preventive measure.

On Wednesday, the National
Guard reinforcements did not arrive until several hours into the chaos, despite
participants publicising their plans to gather days in advance.

Following this,
several Americans have accused the authorities of leniency and “double
standards.”

“We spent an
entire summer last summer fighting for people like George Floyd and Breonna
Taylor, and we are met with rubber bullets,” Patrisse Cullors, one of the
founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, told CNN.

Michelle Obama also
voiced outrage saying, “This summer’s Black Lives Matter protests were an
overwhelmingly peaceful movement… And yet, in city after city, day after day,
we saw peaceful protestors met with brute force.”