Native Americans on Police Response to Capitol Insurrection
A version of this story appeared in Yes! magazine in January 2021. For more on topics like this, see my book, American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle.... “We are unarmed” was the cry of water protectors at Standing Rock. Photo by Joseph Zummo. On Jan. 6, while Congress was certifying the 2020 election results, hundreds of Trump supporters, seen here, stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. They smashed windows, broke through doors, breached the building, and ran through it, snapping photos of themselves carting off documents and artifacts. No attacking force has rampaged through the Capitol since 1814, when British soldiers torched it during the War of 1812. Tasked with protecting lawmakers and the building, responses of Capitol Police, seen here, ranged wildly—from great bravery to shooting a protester dead to taking a selfie with a rioter. Officers were pepper-sprayed and hit with projectiles; at the end, seven people died as a result of the assault. The Capitol Polic