TRUMP WHITE SUPREMACIST COUP ATTEMPT SCENE 1

Police Filmed Appearing To Let Rioters Onto Capitol Grounds
BY : SAMAN JAVED ON : 06 JAN 2021 22:38
  

JoshuaPatash/Twitter

Video footage shows police officers allowing protesters onto the grounds of the US Capitol, despite the escalating situation inside the building.

Posted on Twitter, the video shows Trump supporters cheer in delight as barricades are removed and they are allowed to progress onto the site.

‘Police are squabbling with protesters … and they just breached the Capitol again,’ the video-maker can be heard saying.

Another video from outside the building shows two Trump supporters recreating the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in May 2020.

In the footage, a Trump supporter, donning a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap is seen with his knee on the neck of another man, who is laying across the steps of National Capitol City Church.

President Trump’s former chief of staff, Reince Priebus has branded the rioters as ‘domestic terrorists’.

‘Many of these folks are nothing but domestic terrorists,’ he tweeted.


‘And many are criminals and trouble makers all acting in a manner opposite of patriotism. These violent people have no respect for democracy. Pure insanity and disgusting,’ he said.

Elsewhere inside the grounds, a separate video shows what appears to be a US Capitol police officer taking selfies with protesters.

Posted by Twitter user, Timothy Burke, the video shows a member of law enforcement, in full uniform, posing for pictures with a protester.

‘Cops are taking selfies with terrorists,’ he wrote.

His uniform indicates that he is a member of the US Capitol police force, however there is also speculation that he may be a protester dressed as an officer.

In what a former DC police chief described as the closest to a coup attempt the US has ever seen, Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol shortly after today’s ‘Save America’ rally.

Trump encouraged attendees to march on the Capitol Building in protest against the election results, which he described as being ‘explosions of bullsh*t’.

Astonishing images taken from inside the building show rioters inside the Senate chamber. As protesters clashed with law enforcement officials, violence quickly ensued. One woman is now in critical condition after being shot in the neck.

In a televised address, President-elect Joe Biden has called on Trump to appear live on national television to put an end to the riots.

‘At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times,’ he urged.

‘I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege,’ he said.

US Capitol violence in 10 pictures: 

When pro-Trump mob stormed the building to overturn election

Published: 07th January 2021

A violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn America’s presidential election, undercut the nation’s democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House. (Photo | AP)1 / 10


USA’s elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and don gas marks, while police futilely tried to barricade the building, one of the most jarring scenes ever to unfold in a seat of American political power. (Photo | AP)2 / 10


The rioters were egged on by Trump, who has spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and had urged his supporters to descend on Washington to protest Congress’ formal approval of Biden’s victory. (Photo | AP)3 / 10


The president gave his supporters a boost into action Wednesday morning at a rally outside the White House, where he urged them to march to the Capitol. He spent much of the afternoon in his private dining room off the Oval Office watching scenes of the violence on television. (Photo | AP)4 / 10


District of Columbia National Guard stand outside the Capitol, Wednesday night after a day of rioting protesters. (Photo | AP)5 / 10


Protesters clash with counter-protesters at the Capitol. (Photo | AP)6 / 10


Supporters of President Trump, including those with guns and a bat, stand outside the Governor's Mansion after breaching a perimeter fence. (Photo | AP)7 / 10


Supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol. (Photo | AP)8 / 10


Demonstrators break TV equipment outside the US Capitol. (Photo | AP)9 / 10

TOLD YA SO

Scrap EU consumer and worker protections now Brexit is completed, leading Tory says

Safeguards over data, pay and conditions, GM foods, hedge funds and disposal of old vehicles should all be binned, Daniel Hannan says

Rob Merrick
Deputy Political Editor 

A leading Tory credited with inspiring Brexit has urged Boris Johnson to cull a raft of EU consumer and worker protections, now the UK has the freedom to act.

Safeguards for the use of data, pay and conditions, GM foods, hedge funds, dangerous chemicals and the disposal of environmentally-damaging vehicles should all be binned, Daniel Hannan said.

“Change is coming. To succeed outside the EU, we need to be fitter, leaner and more globally engaged,” said the former MEP, who has just been made a Conservative peer.

The call comes after the prime minister vowed to start breaking free from EU rules, now the post-Brexit transition period has is over, saying “we have nothing to fear”.

Under the trade agreement he signed, Brussels has the power to inflict wide-ranging tariffs or other sanctions on the UK if it breaches the so-called ‘level playing field’.

Nevertheless, Mr Hannon, in a website article, called for the scrapping of:

* the Temporary Workers’ Directive – which guarantees agency staff receive equal pay and conditions with employees in the same business.

* the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – that gives individuals control over their personal data and limits its transfer to other countries.

* the ban on products made from genetically modified (GM) crops – potentially allowing US food derived that way into the UK, as part of a future trade deal.

* the REACH Directive – to outlaw chemicals linked to health problems including cancer, thyroid disease, hormone disruption and slow development.

* the End of Life Vehicles Directive – to achieve environmentally-friendly dismantling and recycling, with targets for the reuse of vehicles and their components.

* the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) – introduced to regulate hedge funds and private equity following the 2008 financial crash.

* the ‘Droit de suite’ rules – that pay artists a fee on the resale of their works of art, instead of the American ‘first-sale doctrine’ that removes rights from subsequent sales.

* “chunks of” the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) – the legal framework to harmonise regulation of securities markets and trading venues.

Mr Hannan is widely seen as an intellectual driving force from the 1990s for what became as Brexit, pushing for a clean break from the EU as a campaigner and then a Euro-MP.

In the article, for the conservativehome website, he argued that – in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic – everything possible must be done to “stimulate growth”.

That included ripping up “regulatory barriers”, targeting “everything from planning restrictions that inflate the cost of housing, to staff ratio rules that give us the most expensive childcare in Europe”.

“We have won the right to make different decisions outside the EU,” Mr Hannan wrote – attacking “Stone Age instincts” that instead back stronger state intervention, because of the pandemic.

Hong Kong Crackdown Intensifies With Mass Arrests Of Democracy Politicians And Activists

Robert Olsen Forbes Staff



Benny Tai, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong and cofounder of activist group ... [+] ANTHONY KWAN/GETTY IMAGES

Hong Kong police arrested scores of pro-democracy politicians and activists Wednesday in the largest roundup yet under the national security law that was implemented six months ago.

Beijing introduced the law in response to protests that started with opposition to an extradition law but evolved to include demands for greater democracy. Many of the protests were marked by clashes between police and protesters.

Police targeted 53 people involved in organizing an informal primary runoff held last year to determine its candidates in an election for the Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s law-making body. The election was later postponed, with officials citing safety concerns over the coronavirus pandemic as the reason.

Police reportedly said the arrests were made on suspicion of “subversion of state power” because the aim of last year’s primary was to win office and eventually force Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, to resign. Subversion carries a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Winning a majority in the Legislative Council polls would allow the democrats to veto legislation and the government’s budget. The Basic Law stipulates that the city’s leader can dissolve the Legislative Council if it refuses to pass a budget or other important legislation, but the city’s leader would have to resign if the new legislature also vetoes the budget and legislation.

All of the pro-democracy candidates in the unofficial primaries were arrested along with Benny Tai, a former law professor who organized the 79-day street occupation that paralyzed parts of Hong Kong in 2014. American lawyer John Clancey was also arrested. Clancey is the chairman of the Asian Human Rights Commission and the treasurer of political group which had been involved in the primaries.

Court orders were also reportedly issued to three local media outlets—Stand News, Apple Daily and InMedia—demanding that they surrender documents to assist with a national security investigation. Some news outlets had hosted election forums for the candidates that took part in last year's pro-democracy primaries.

More than 600,000 people participated in the primary of Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp last year, far exceeding the expected turnout of 170,000. The event was hailed at the time as a clear demonstration of Hong Kong people’s desire for democratic elections.

  

American lawyer John Clancey was also arrested. 

Protesting Farmers Target India’s Largest Cell Company and Its Billionaire Owner

More than 2,000 cell towers operated by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries have been damaged amid a backlash over agriculture deregulation

Thousands of Indian Farmers Protest New Agriculture Laws



Tens of thousands of Indian farmers have gathered outside New Delhi to protest new laws that aim to deregulate agricultural markets. While the government says the law could help India’s economy, farmers fear it may leave smaller farmers at the mercy of big corporations. Photo: Rajat Gupta/Shutterstock

By Eric Bellman

Updated Jan. 6, 2021 

NEW DELHI—More than 2,000 cell towers in northern India have been damaged, as a backlash over the deregulation of the nation’s agricultural industry has led to a showdown between farmers and India’s wealthiest businessman.

The businessman, Mukesh Ambani, heads Reliance Industries Ltd. The company, along with local authorities, says vandals showing support for a protest that has blocked the roads into New Delhi for more than a month are responsible for damaging the cell towers.

Reliance controls India’s biggest cellular company and its largest retailer, including some of the country’s largest grocery-store chains. Those chains are expected to benefit from a new law that deregulates the farming industry to allow more private-sector control of distribution. Mr. Ambani, worth around $75 billion according to Forbes magazine, is seen as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is backing the new law. He is one of the most influential corporate leaders in New Delhi.

The state of Punjab said on Tuesday that it had deployed more than 1,000 people to protect Reliance assets across the state. The company had petitioned courts this week in Punjab and the state of Haryana, where it has more than 20 million cellular customers, for more protection for its retail stores and towers for its Jio telephone network.

Reliance has “sought the urgent intervention of government authorities to bring a complete stop to the illegal acts of vandalism by miscreants,” it said on Monday, without specifying exactly what actions it expected authorities to take. “These acts of violence have endangered the lives of thousands of its employees and caused damage and disruption to the vital communications infrastructure.”

THE REST OF THE STORY IS AT WSJ BEHIND PAYWALL

'A colossal failure': How were pro-Trump rioters able to breach Capitol security?

Kristine Phillips Kevin Johnson Bart Jansen
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The violence inside the U.S. Capitol building had turned deadly by Wednesday evening, as officials announced that a woman who was shot earlier had died. At least three others were injured and taken to hospitals after rioters, many waving Trump flags and wearing Trump garb, breached security at the Capitol building and swarmed the area.

The breach prompted an evacuation of the Senate chamber and a 3 1/2-hour lockdown before officials declared the building was secure. The FBI is also investigating reports of two suspected explosive devices, though both have been rendered safe. 

This series of events, which disrupted what should have been a largely ceremonial democratic process of counting state-certified Electoral College votes, was a culmination of weeks of resentment fueled by President Donald Trump's false claims that the election had been stolen from him. 

The security breach also raised questions about how demonstrators managed to force their way inside the Capitol and whether there was enough law enforcement presence, especially when threats of violence brewing for days on social media should have raised red flags. 

Earlier Wednesday, protesters crowded halls inside the Capitol building and climbed over chairs. Some made it inside the Senate chambers, while others sat inside lawmakers' offices. Shots and chemical irritants were fired. 

"In my experience in 50 years in law enforcement, this is unprecedented," said John Magaw, a former Secret Service director

.
PHOTOS HERE:  How were pro-Trump rioters able to breach Capitol law enforcement? (usatoday.com) 

"The coordination of security has virtually fallen apart. We are watching the deterioration of law and order in the U.S. It just becomes chaos. I don't see any sign that the current president is going to stand up and lead like presidents have led in the past," Magaw said. "Our democracy is on the edge of a cliff."

Ed Davis, former commissioner for the Boston Police Department, said law enforcement should've been better prepared.

"There has to be political will to put resources in place to stop what clearly should've been seen. … This is the result of a lack of political will to control an attempted insurrection.

"What happened here is a colossal failure, and I believe it's a colossal political failure, not on the part of the police," Davis said. "They were outnumbered and overrun."

It's unclear whether the Justice Department or the Department of Homeland Security were involved in coordinating a robust law enforcement response with the U.S. Capitol Police, which has jurisdiction of the area, before the protests. The federal agencies deployed a large number of agents during protests last summer in Washington and several other cities after the death of George Floyd. 

Videos on social media, which USA TODAY has not been able to independently verify, showed men in police uniforms taking selfies with and removing outdoor barriers for the rioters.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said a review of Wednesday's events "will determine what failures occurred and why."

"The plans should have anticipated the potential for what happened today," Thompson said.

Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said the Justice Department has sent hundreds of federal law enforcement officers and agents to assist Capitol police. "The violence at our Nation's Capitol Building is an intolerable attack on a fundamental institution of our democracy," Rosen said in a statement.

Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke late Wednesday with Vice President Mike Pence and congressional leaders about the riot at the Capitol.

“We have fully activated the D.C. National Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to peacefully address the situation,” Miller said in a statement. “We are prepared to provide additional support as necessary and appropriate as requested by local authorities. Our people are sworn to defend the Constitution and our democratic form of government, and they will act accordingly.”

'Intent on causing harm'

The protesters gathered at the National Mall early on Wednesday to protest election results. During a rally, Trump urged his supporters to go to the Capitol building.

The protesters came to Capitol Hill "following the president’s remarks,” said D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee. “It was clear that the crowd was intent on causing harm to our officers by deploying chemical irritants on police to force entry into the United States Capitol.”

Wednesday afternoon, several Republican lawmakers called on Trump to strongly urge his supporters to back down. Doing so is the "last thing you'll do that matters as President," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said on Twitter. In a video posted on Twitter, Trump urged his supporters to "go home," repeating false claims of a stolen election and telling them he loved them. He later tweeted that "these are the events and things that happen," which many criticized as condoning the riots.

Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said it’s premature to speculate on how or why protesters were able to swarm the Capitol.

“We won’t know until it’s over. … You don’t analyze a battle while in the middle of it,” Pasco said, adding that demonstrators breaching security at the Capitol is “a national disgrace.”

Terry Gainer, former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police who also served as the Senate’s sergeant at arms, described Wednesday’s protests as unprecedented in four decades in law enforcement.

“It’s dangerous,” Gainer said. “This is a much more hateful crowd incited by the president himself. It’s definitely something new in our business.”


Gainer said there have been breaches of perimeter fencing and barriers at the Capitol, but he wasn't aware of any mass breach of the Capitol building.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the think tank Police Executive Research Forum, said government officials are likely to look back at this and evaluate whether additional law enforcement resources might have been necessary. 

"At this point, it's hard to say," Wexler said. "Most demonstrations are peaceful, but then if they suddenly turn violent like this one did, it’s difficult for the police without a massive police presence to prevent it."

National Sheriff's Association President David Mahoney said protesters' actions were "indistinguishable" from those of antifa, a loosely organized far-left movement, "or any other lawless groups who chose to destroy cities and communities."
History of violence at the Capitol

Though the rioting was unusual, there has been violence at the Capitol in past decades.

History of violence at the Capitol

Though the rioting was unusual, there has been violence at the Capitol in past decades.

Two Capitol police officers – officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective John Gibson – were killed July 24, 1998, by a gunman who made his way into the first floor of the building on the House side between the chamber and the crypt.

Five House lawmakers were shot and wounded March 1, 1954, by members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, which argued for the island’s independence. The four nationalists shot indiscriminately from the gallery above the chamber’s floor and unfurled a Puerto Rican flag. All were apprehended. A bullet hole remains in a desk that is part of the House dais, a reminder of the attack

A former Capitol police officer, William Kaiser, fired two shots at Sen. John Bricker, R-Ohio, on July 12, 1947, as he entered the subway tunnel linking the Capitol to Senate offices. Both shots missed, and Bricker jumped aboard an electric subway car to escape.

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook

With the Capitol's breach, President Trump's virtual coup on Twitter became all too real

Susan Page
USA TODAY

It was the moment that the virtual coup President Donald Trump had been waging on Twitter since Election Day became all too real.

"We will never give up; we will never concede," the president told thousands of supporters on the Mall at midday Wednesday, repeating debunked allegations that fraud had cost him a second term. The crowd had gathered in Washington to pressure Vice President Mike Pence and Republican legislators to object to the certified Electoral College count that would make Democrat Joe Biden the next president.

With that, the protesters marched toward the Capitol, breached metal barricades, pushed their way into the halls of Congress, and took over the dais where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Pence had been standing an hour earlier. The rioters trashed offices and took selfies. They draped a huge Trump banner off the front of the Capitol.

What has traditionally been a ceremonial rite honoring the results of the presidential election already had been transformed into a partisan battle. Dozens of Republican lawmakers had vowed to object to accepting the electors certified by the states.

'Violence and anarchy'

:Chaos erupts following Trump's unprecedented effort to overturn Biden's election win

Now that verbal clash sparked a violent one. The scenes of a mob taking over the Capitol was reminiscent of the forceful governmental overthrow more familiar in authoritarian regimes, not in the world's oldest democracy. Law enforcement officials used flash grenades and tear gas to clear the rioters from the outdoor balcony where Biden is slated to be inaugurated in two weeks.

Former President George W. Bush issued a statement calling it an "insurrection." Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, his face grave, said on MSNBC that "it's a moment where you know that indeed our democracy is fragile."

'A colossal failure': How were pro-Trump rioters able to breach Capitol security?

The shock among officials and former officials, journalists and academics, and President-elect Joe Biden was palpable. The reaction from Trump himself was more muted. Only hours after the rioting began – and after Biden had delivered a public plea to the president to help put an "end to this siege" – did Trump post a short video calling for calm.

"I know your pain; I know your hurt," Trump said, addressing the rioters. "But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order." That said, he also repeated his baseless charges that the election had been "stolen" from him, the very issue that had sparked the mob's actions.

Later, he seemed to justify their actions in a tweet, calling the rioters "great patriots."

Twitter removed both posts shortly after it flagged them with warning labels.

"These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long," he said as darkness fell. "Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"

There were calls to impeach Trump, despite the short time he has left in office. He "must be removed from office and prevented from further endangering our country and our people," said Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass, a member of the House Democratic leadership. The head of the National Association of Manufacturers, a business group not generally given to hyperbole, suggested Pence consider invoking the 25th Amendment to oust Trump. "This is sedition and should be treated as such," Jay Timmons said. 

In a step heavy with symbolism, Pelosi announced that the Electoral College count would resume Wednesday night once the Capitol had been cleared.

Since Election Day, Trump has refused to accept the outcome. For two months, he and his allies have filed dozens of lawsuits in battleground states; none of them have gotten legal traction, not even from judges he appointed. He has lobbied governors and state legislators to change the count in their state or hold new elections. In a phone call Saturday that stretched for an hour, he cajoled and threatened the Georgia secretary of state to "find" the 11,000 additional votes Trump needed to win that state.

By the numbers:President Donald Trump's failed efforts to overturn the election

Through it all, he has repeatedly told supporters that a massive scheme waged by Democrats, the news media, Big Tech companies and others had robbed him of a victory he had won.

In an interview on Tuesday, Alvin Tillery Jr., director of Northwestern's Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy, had compared Trump's actions to sedition. "This looks like a real coup d'etat we see in developing nations or in our Latin American neighbors," he said then. "People behave this way when they don't think they can win on the rules."

Trump's attacks on the legitimacy of the election erodes faith in democracy itself, said David Barker, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. "Support for the system is the thing that keeps a democracy going," he said. "If you lose it, you have to start wondering if there's a danger of the U.S. going the way most other democracies have gone in the history of the world."

Which would be what?

"Which would be failed," he said.

QAnon supporter from Arizona dressed in fur and horns joins storming of US Capitol
Richard Ruelas
Arizona Republic



Among the supporters of President Donald Trump who mobbed their way into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, one – unmistakable in his fur, horned hat and painted face – was Jake Angeli, a QAnon supporter who has been a fixture at Arizona right-wing political rallies over the past year.

Angeli was seen in photographs from Washington, D.C., amid rioters who turned violent and stormed the building, causing both chambers to suspend their intended action of the day: certifying the results of the presidential election for former vice president Joe Biden.

At one point, Angeli was seen on the dais of the U.S. Senate. He posed for a photo flexing his right arm; his left was holding a spear from which hung a U.S. flag.

Since at least 2019, Angeli has held court outside the Arizona State Capitol shouting about various conspiracy theories, most related to the wide-ranging beliefs espoused by QAnon.

Angeli, in a 2020 interview with the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, said that he wears the fur bonnet, paints his face and walks around shirtless with ragged pants as a way to attract attention.

Then, he said, he is able to speak to people about his beliefs about QAnon and other truths he says remain hidden.

The QAnon conspiracy theory supposes that a high-level government agent with Q-level security clearance has been unspooling cryptic clues about secret investigations inside Washington, D.C. Some of those investigations involve politicians running a child sex trafficking ring.

In February 2020, Angeli worked the crowd outside a rally in Phoenix for Trump.

He held up a tattered sign that read, “Q sent me,” and asked the crowd if they knew of the conspiracy. Several met him with affirmative nods.


“The snowball has been rolling and it’s only getting bigger,” Angeli said at the time. “We’re the mainstream now.”

Angeli did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

More:Were voters manipulated by QAnon a force behind Trump's 'red wave' in 2020 election?

Angeli was a fixture at rallies to reopen Arizona businesses shuttered by the government as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19. He has also been at rallies contesting the Arizona election results.

Besides the government corruption espoused by QAnon, Angeli believes that leaders have conspired to keep blockbuster scientific discoveries from the public in order to maintain the system as it is.

Angeli said that he discovered much of what he found through his own research on the Internet. That research – which included “Behold a Pale Horse” by Arizona author William Copper – involved shadowy groups, including the Illuminati, Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg group, that control the world.

“At a certain point, it all clicked in a way,” he said. “Oh, my God. I see now the reality of what’s going on.”

The Q movement, he said, validated beliefs he had held as far back as 2016.

Double standard': Black lawmakers and activists decry police response to attack on US Capitol
Grace HauckDeborah Barfield Berry
USA TODAY

VIDEO AT END

WASHINGTON – Civil rights leaders blasted law enforcement agencies for their slow response to rioters at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, noting the massive show of police force in place for Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year over police killings of unarmed Black men and women.

"When Black folks are protesting and progressives are protesting peacefully they were tear-gassed, they were arrested, they were shot with rubber bullets. They were shot with real bullets," said Derrick Johnson, president of the national NAACP. "We watched it take place all summer long when people were peacefully demonstrating."

Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Democrat from Ohio and former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, also questioned security efforts.

"The Capitol police were unprepared, ineffective and some were complicit. All of them should be held to account," said Fudge, who was still in lockdown by the evening and who has been tapped by President-elect Joe Biden to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.


Fudge said there's "no question" the response was different than at last year's Black Lives Matter protests at the Capitol. She shared a picture of a row of police standing guard on the steps of the Capitol.

"There is a double standard,'' she said.

As thousands of people of color and allies took to the streets this summer to peacefully protest police brutality, law enforcement often clashed with demonstrators, deploying tear gas and rubber bullets, bruising faces and bodies, and, in one incident that went viral, pushing an elderly man to the ground.

But as thousands of President Donald Trump supporters, mostly white, marched from a campaign-style rally to the Capitol Wednesday and broke into the building as lawmakers were convening to count presidential electoral votes, forcing lawmakers and staff to shelter in place, crowds of law enforcement were notably absent.

Trump, who previously characterized Black Lives Matter protesters as "thugs," said on Twitter that the people involved in the riots Wednesday were "great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long."


D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III said the mob of Trump voters came to Capitol Hill "following the president's remarks" and was "intent on causing harm to our officers by deploying chemical irritants on police to force entry into the United States Capitol."

But only a small group of riot police stood outside the back of the Capitol building in the early afternoon, and as demonstrators called for breaching the building, hundreds started swarming into the area, reporters at the scene noted Wednesday.


As protesters began climbing up the side of the building and on the back balcony, police appeared to retreat. After the break-in, police attempted to secure one section outside the building but were quickly overwhelmed, according to reporters at the scene.

One video posted to social media showed several people in D.C. Capitol Police jackets removing barriers outside the Capitol building, allowing demonstrators to pass through to the building. Videos posted to Twitter also showed at least one person who appeared to be an officer taking selfies with people who had breached the Capitol. USA TODAY has not been able to independently verify the identities of the people in these images.

By Wednesday afternoon, Army Gen. Mark Milley said the D.C. National Guard had been fully activated. "We have fully activated the D.C. National Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to peacefully address the situation," Miller said in a statement.

Several videos shared to social media Wednesday afternoon showed officials slowly escorting people out of the building. One officer in riot gear could be seen helping a white woman in a Trump hat down the Capitol steps, holding her hand, according to a CNN livestream.

By Wednesday evening, nearly a full day after the demonstrators first clashed with police Tuesday night, officers began using tear gas and percussion grenades to begin clearing crowds, ahead of a 6 p.m. curfew. In the moments before, there were violent clashes between the police and protesters, who tore railing for the inauguration scaffolding and threw it at the officers. 

At least one woman suffered a fatal gunshot wound inside the capitol, Contee said. At least 13 people were arrested, and five firearms were recovered.

By comparison, in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, which sparked last year's protest movement, more than 100 people were arrested over the course of three days in Minneapolis. In subsequent days, cities across the country arrested dozens of people in a single night, with Los Angeles arresting more than 500 in one day.

U.S. Capitol Police did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.

'A fanciful reality':Trump claims Black Lives Matter protests are violent, but the majority are peaceful

Johnson questioned why the Capitol police and other local law enforcement agencies weren’t prepared for thousands of Trump protestors, including the Proud Boys. There had been plenty of warnings on social media and talk shows about the potential for riots, he said.

"We should not be witnessing what we are witnessing today in this nation,'' he said. "It is a global embarrassment.”

Johnson said tens of thousands of people joined protests at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington without this level of violence. "None of this took place,’" he said.

The majority of Black Lives Matter-affiliated protests over the summer were peaceful, according to a report by the U.S. Crisis Monitor, a joint effort including Princeton University in New Jersey that collects and analyzes real-time data on demonstrations and political violence in the United States.

Kofi Ademola, a local Chicago activist who helped organize civil rights protests throughout the summer, said he was not surprised Wednesday by the police response.


"It’s not any shock that we see this huge contradiction that we can storm a capitol ... break into elected officials’ offices, the chamber, and create other chaos trying to perform a fascist coup, and we see little to no consequences,'' he said. "But Black protesters here in D.C. and Chicago, we’re heavily policed, brutalized, for literally saying, 'Don’t kill us.' There was no planned insurrections. We were literally just advocating for our lives. It speaks volumes about the values of this country. It doesn’t care about our lives."


CNN commentator Van Jones highlighted the discrepancy in a tweet Wednesday.

"Imagine if #BlackLivesMatter were the ones who were storming the Capitol building," he wrote. "Thousands of black people laying siege to the seat of government – in the middle of a joint session of Congress? Just imagine the reaction."

At the Capitol Wednesday, some lawmakers were holed up in their offices and other places. Several would not say where they were for safety reasons. Staffers were cleared out of the press galleries and the Capitol by the afternoon.

"The after-action review will determine what failures occurred and why,'' said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "The plans should have anticipated the potential for what happened today."


The chaos that unfolded Wednesday stands in particularly harsh contrast to the law enforcement presence seen when U.S. and military police drove protesters out of Lafayette Square, located between the White House and the historic St. John's Episcopal Church, shortly before a presidential photo op with a Bible at the church on June 1. Officers used smoke canisters, shields, pepper balls and horses to force demonstrators from the park.


Black Lives Matter Global Network called the law enforcement response to Wednesday's riots hypocritical.

"When Black people protest for our lives, we are all too often met by National Guard troops or police equipped with assault rifles, shields, tear gas and battle helmets,'' the group said in a statement. "When white people attempt a coup, they are met by an underwhelming number of law enforcement personnel who act powerless to intervene, going so far as to pose for selfies with terrorists, and prevent an escalation of anarchy and violence like we witnessed today.'

"Make no mistake, if the protesters were Black, we would have been tear-gassed, battered, and perhaps shot,'' the group wrote.

Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., put out a series of statements on Twitter Wednesday calling on law enforcement to engage demonstrators “with the same humanity and discipline with which they should have engaged people who were outraged by a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck.”

“What many are saying is true: If this were Black Lives Matter storming the Capitol, tanks would have been in the city by now,” she wrote. “The response tells the story of our nation’s racist history and present. How can we stop it from being the future?”

U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., was holed up in his Capitol Hill office Wednesday as protestors continued their assault on the Capitol. During a Zoom call with reporters, said he and his staff were safe and weren’t leaving. Kind said he intended to return to the House chamber to continue the debate over the certification of electoral votes.

"Things are still not in control, unfortunately," he said.

Kind blamed Trump, who has been reluctant to denounce white nationalists and fraudulently insisted he won the November election, for encouraging the violence Wednesday. 

“When he was encouraging the demonstrations, tweeting out that this was going to be quote ‘wild.’ I mean, what would he expect the reaction would be, especially when you're talking about the Proud Boys, militia groups, white supremacists coming into our nation's capital today,” Kind said.

Contributing: Will Carless, Marco R Della Cava

 TRUMP LIKE MUSSOLINI HAS MARCHED HIS TROOPS TO THE STEPS OF THE GOVERMENT 

HIS FOLLOWERS ARE NOW MARCHING ON THE SENATE

THE COUP HAS BEGUN

THE SENATE IS CLOSED 

DOWN

  

WHITE PEOPLE RIOT 

COPS USE PEPPER SPRAY

WHERE IS THE TEARGAS

TRUMPS TROOPS ALLOWED 

INTO CAPITOL BUILDING BY

 REPUBLICAN ALLIES 

ONLY CAPITOL POLICE RESPONDING

WHERE ARE BARR'S BULLY BOYS THE

PARK COPS

TRUMP HIDDENING IN WHITE HOUSE

BUNKER

COUP HAS BEGUN IN THE USA

DC protests live updates: Trump speaks to thousands of supporters (usatoday.com)

Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates and follow USA TODAY reporters on Twitter here. Scroll down for more news you need to know. 

• The Capitol was locked down and staffers were evacuated from two congressional buildings as crowds tried to breach them.
• City officials had braced for violence. Mayor Muriel Bowser asked that area residents stay away from downtown, but added that "we will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.” Colleen Cupp of Carmel, Indiana, said Wednesday the crowd was friendly and that she wasn’t worried about violence.  “We’re here supporting our president,” she said. “It feels unifying.”
• Most of the early crowd shunned face coverings despite the nationwide surge in coronavirus cases, though some wore red “Make America Great Again” masks. “USA” and “stop the steal” chants rippled through the area. Music blared and people stumped for the president with megaphones. Many donned red, white and blue apparel, and waved "Trump 2020" flags.
• Legislators began meeting at 1 p.m. ET to count the Electoral College votes during a special joint session of Congress — 306 for Biden, 232 for Trump. It takes 270 to win the presidency. Follow live updates from inside Congress here. 
• Tuesday night, D.C. police made six protest-related arrests. The charges ranged from carrying a pistol without a license to assault of a police officer, according to a spokesman. The U.S. Park Police also made one arrest.
• Members of the "Proud Boys," designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, were expected to attend. The group's leader, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested Monday after arriving in D.C., on charges related to the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner at a protest last year. Tarrio pleaded not guilty to destruction of property and weapons charges and was released – but ordered to stay out of D.C. until his next court appearance in June.
• 
  

Is Pakistan prepared to deal with climate migration?

Environmentalists have expressed concern over a massive climate-induced migration in various parts of Pakistan and the government's apathy toward tackling a serious problem.

A symbolic picture of thick smog engulfing Pakistan's Lahore city

A report by ActionAid International and Climate Action Network South Asia recently revealed that in the past few decades, more than 18 million people in South Asia have been forced to migrate due to climate change. By 2050, up to 63 million people could be displaced as a result of it, the report said.

Many of these environmental migrants are from Pakistan, which has been hit hard by climate change.

In the past decades, the South Asian country has witnessed a drastic change in rain patterns and an increase in droughts and floods. At the same time, experts say ground water is rapidly depleting across the country.

Sitara Parveen, an environmental expert, told DW that the northern Gilgit-Baltistan area and the southern coastal belt of Sindh have been worst hit by climate change.

"Northern glaciers are melting as a result of rising temperatures. It has triggered flooding in some areas, and at the same time we see a shortage of water in some parts of the country. This has affected our agriculture sector and has forced thousands of people to migrate to other areas," Parveen said.

"Similarly, in the southern Sindh province, we are experiencing a rapid sea intrusion. The fishermen are losing their livelihood, and many of them are forced to move to other places," she added.

Watch video 01:33 Pakistanis planting trees to tackle climate change

Experts say that more than 1.2 million acres of land in Pakistan have been invaded by sea in the past decades, leaving tens of thousands of people with no option but to migrate and search for an alternative livelihood.

Migration and economic loss

Arif Mahmud, a former lecturer at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, says that severe droughts in parts of rural areas in Sindh and Punjab provinces are also forcing people to migrate to cities, resulting in an overpopulation in metropolises.

Irfan Choudhary, a Faisalabad-based environmental expert, says that Pakistan is witnessing severe droughts more frequently than ever. "It is happening because of a changing rain pattern caused by climate change," he told DW.

Choudhary says the situation is negatively impacting the country's agriculture sector, which is a source of livelihood for millions in Pakistan.

Farooq Sulehria, a Lahore-based academic, says that Pakistan is losing around $2 billion (€1.63 billion) annually because of climate change. "It is causing multiple problems in the country. Floods caused by climate change are the major reason behind environmental migration. The 2010 floods damaged around 132,000 square kilometers of area, killing some 2,000 people, and affecting at least 20.2 million people," Sulehria told DW.

Amir Hussain, an Islamabad-based expert, says the 2010 floods triggered one of the largest climate-induced displacements in human history. "Pakistan should spend at least 7% of its GDP to deal with the adverse effects of climate change," he told DW.

Residents carry belongings as they wade through a flooded area during a heavy monsoon rains in Karachi in August 2020

Sulehria believes the government faces a difficult job dealing with the situation. "In the next 30 years, Pakistan needs between $7-$15 billion to tackle this issue. This cannot be done without the support from the international community."
International efforts

Analyst Mahmud says it is high time the authorities step up their efforts to deal with the climate change crisis. "The government needs to offer alternate livelihoods to people migrating from the coastal areas. For instance, they can be useful in the artificial fish farming business," he suggested.

Watch video02:32 Dams threaten Pakistan's unique Indus River dolphins

Prime Minister Imran Khan's government denies allegations that it is not taking the issue seriously.

"The migration phenomenon is linked to an overall environmental degradation. We are trying to address the issue by planting trees and promoting sustainable ways of power generation. We have recently scrapped coal power projects and ensured that no coal plant is installed in the future," Khial Zaman Orakzai, a member of the Parliament's Climate Change Committee, told DW.

Orakzai says mitigating the impacts of climate change is a long-term plan. "It will also prevent climate migration," he said, adding that Pakistan can't tackle the situation alone.

"The international community must help us. Pakistan contributes very little to the global carbon emissions but suffers a great deal as a result of environmental pollution caused by industrialized countries."