Black Lives Matter South Bend condemns Trump-inspired insurrection

Black Lives Matter South Bend

Black Lives Matter South Bend released a statement on Thursday condemning Trump supporters’ siege of the Capitol Building in Washington DC.

On a day when Congress convened to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the November 2020 presidential election, the heart of American democracy descended into chaos as Trump supporters heeded the call of their leader to head to the Capitol Building after a speech filled with lies and venom directed at members of his own party, including Vice President Mike Pence, a former Indiana governor. The mob breached lax security, damaged federal property, and forced lawmakers into hiding. At the end of the historic day, five people were dead, including a police officer.

The statement from Black Lives Matter South Bend reads:

On the afternoon of January 6th, 2021, directly following a Trump rally, white supremacist terrorists stormed the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, attempting a coup to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. Trump’s assertion that “We will never give up! We will never concede!” as he claimed false victory of the 2020 election and urged his supporters to “stop the steal”, activated those who were ‘standing back and standing by’.

U.S. Representatives from Indiana Trey Hollingsworth, James Baird, Jim Banks, and Jackie Walorski all supported and repeated Trump’s election conspiracy theories. They share liability for this attempted coup with him. All people in positions of power who failed to condemn the tide of fascist rhetoric sweeping the nation are accountable as well.

This failed insurrection is emblematic of white privilege. We all learned that law enforcement officers are indeed capable of restraint in the midst of chaos, because the overwhelmingly white mob stormed the Capitol largely unimpeded. In stark and compelling contrast, just this past summer, National Guard soldiers and police in tactical gear anticipated and rapidly confronted Black Lives Matter protesters throughout the country from Washington, DC to Los Angeles. These “peace officers” beat, tear-gassed, and shot rubber bullets at unarmed protesters. In addition, white supremacists militias thoughtlessly murdered protesters for exclaiming and affirming that Black Lives Matter.

BLM South Bend and chapters across the global network condemn the violence unleashed during yesterday’s siege of Capitol Hill by fascist Trump supporters. They clearly show how unchecked white supremacy takes over all facets of American society. Everyone needs to stand up and speak out against white supremacy in all its forms. Because this act of domestic terrorism and all the little acts leading up to it, show when Black lives do not matter, eventually all lives do not matter.

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