Race And Lack Of Punishment After Capitol Attack

United States Capitol storming 2021
William Anderson
January 31, 2021

People were disgusted and outraged when it was revealed that the Department of Justice was considering NOT charging all of the attackers that stormed the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. However, this neglect isn’t exactly surprising under this “criminal justice” system.

When news broke of dozens of these terrorists receiving “supervised release” and lenient treatment, many were left asking: “What if they were Black?” Since they did not hide their faces, and were armed with weapons like guns and explosives, the answer to this question is very clear.

We know for a fact, thanks to data on sentencing disparities, that Black people are charged more harshly for the same crimes that white people commit. We’re more likely to be stopped, detained, imprisoned, and executed. The Capitol attack shows that this happens even in extreme cases.

This problem won’t simply be reformed away, because what we know as the “criminal justice system” functions according to white supremacist design. It’s not a mistake that white people are charged less – that’s how the system is supposed to work!

Prison industrial complex abolitionists want to dismantle the racist system piece by piece and reprioritize. It’s not just about punishment, it’s about changing our society as a whole. Since we know this system doesn’t serve us, we need to take it apart and create something new.

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