copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-08-20): Feds Deliberately Targeted BLM Protesters To Disrupt The Movement, A Report Says The federal government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter protesters via heavy-handed criminal prosecutions in an attempt to disrupt and discourage the global movement that swept the nation last summer in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, according to a new report released Wednesday by The Movement for Black Lives. [...] Richard Wallace, founder of Equity and Transformation in Chicago, said over the past summer he witnessed overly aggressive policing by law enforcement officers who levied accusations of rioting and looting at protesters who were peacefully protesting. Wallace said he is deeply concerned for those who have been charged.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-10-12): Civil rights movement protests were primarily nonviolent, and BLM protests were even more so [...] Police were also more aggressive during the civil rights movement. Police arrested some protesters in 36 percent of all civil rights movement events but in just 7 percent of the Black Lives Matter protests last year. [...] King famously defended disruptive protest in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," saying that direct action can "dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored." Last year’s BLM protests were especially nonviolent. But the conservative news media and the president with his White House megaphone successfully mischaracterized them as violent. That response appears to have undermined the brief widespread outrage at the cellphone video of Floyd’s murder under a policeman’s knee, the racism that act made visible, and the protests that aimed to prompt change.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-08): That situation produced the scenes that have drawn the harshest comparisons to the Black Lives Matter protests. Heavily armed police hugged the walls as the mob swirled past them. One helped a rioter down the steps as she left the building. Another paused as a departing rioter snapped a selfie with a Capitol Police officer. [...] "How the Trump administration handled the BLM protests was draconian and outrageous," Maguire said. "Flexing military muscle and trampling peoples' rights. We had a massive over-response." [...] One other factor likely shaped the responses of police at the Capitol in ways different from the Black Live Matter protests. That’s the perceived attitude toward the police.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-07): While police did deploy tear gas and hold the line against rioters in some instances, many images appeared to show officers communicating peacefully with protesters, some even taking selfies with them, and declining to use violent tactics. As a result, they faced criticism for taking a less aggressive stance than they did towards Black Lives Matter protesters over the summer. Bowser on Thursday called the response from Capitol Police a failure and called for an investigation into the apparent disparity. "We must also understand why the federal law enforcement response was much stronger during the Black Lives Matter protests," Bowser said. [...] "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 said. "We all know that's true, and it is unacceptable."
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-07): As hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, breaking windows and wreaking havoc, politicians and activists were among the many who drew comparisons between the police response on Wednesday to that of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. [...] However, Wednesday’s protests, many pointed out, were different. The Black Lives Matter Global Network, one of the most well-known organizations fighting for the well-being of Black people, described Wednesday’s riots as a "coup." [...] "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. "Make no mistake, if the protesters were Black, we would have been tear gassed, battered, and perhaps shot."
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-11): That situation produced the scenes that have drawn the harshest comparisons to the Black Lives Matter protests. Heavily armed police hugged the walls as the mob swirled past them. One helped a rioter down the steps as she left the building. Another paused as a departing rioter snapped a selfie with a Capitol Police officer. [...] "How the Trump administration handled the BLM protests was draconian and outrageous," Maguire said. "Flexing military muscle and trampling peoples’ rights. We had a massive over-response." [...] One other factor likely shaped the responses of police at the Capitol in ways different from the Black Live Matter protests. That’s the perceived attitude toward the police.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-07): If the largely white, pro-Trump insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol had been Black Lives Matter protesters, there would have been a starkly divergent law enforcement response than what played out Wednesday afternoon. No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protestors yesterday that they wouldn’t have been treated very differently than the mob that stormed the Capitol. [...] "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protestors yesterday that they wouldn't have been treated very differently than the mob that stormed the Capitol," Biden tweeted Thursday.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-07): - President-elect Joe Biden described the violence as "one of the darkest days in the history of our nation" and blamed President Trump for stoking violence. He added it was "totally unacceptable" police had shown more leniency than in Black Lives Matter protests last year - Former First Lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday's events "desecrated the centre of American government", adding: "Millions voted for a man so obviously willing to burn down our democracy for his own ego"
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-09): 'Now The World Gets To See The Difference': BLM Protesters On The Capitol Attack 'Now The World Gets To See The Difference': BLM Protesters On The Capitol Attack [...] But when the Capitol was stormed Wednesday, Trump told the extremists threatening to execute Democrats and target journalists and Black Lives Matter activists, "We love you. You're very special ... but you have to go home." Prior to the mob storming the Capitol, he'd told the rally of his supporters to "fight like hell." By the end of the day, one person was killed by a police officer and three others had died. One police officer later died from his injuries. Two pipe bombs were found at the Democratic and Republican headquarters. [...] "People like me, Black people who have been doing work to actually put this country in a place where we're practicing our ideals around justice and liberty for everybody, are being designated Black identity extremists, being compared to the same people" who attacked the Capitol, she said. "I felt frustrated. I felt empathy for every targeted and marginalized community in this country that was like, 'God, man, they really clearly treat us differently than they treat white people' and all of the hard feelings that come with that."
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-08): In remarks to Ohio reporters, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said there was a big difference in police response between what Black Lives Matter protesters faced and what riotous Trump supporters encountered at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. In the summer, "peaceful Black protesters outside the White House were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, a full militarized response," Brown said Jan. 8. "While this week, white supremacists, rioters were able to breach the Capitol." [...] On the afternoon of May 29, the Black Lives Matter protest movement arrived in Washington, D.C. About 1,000 people gathered in a park across the street from the White House. The confrontation between police and protesters grew more tense. At about 3 a.m., a line of officers in riot gear with shields advanced and deployed chemical irritants to disperse the crowd.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-14): Above, June 1: Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrate outside the White House. (Jose Luis Magana/AFP/Getty Images) [...] President-elect Joe Biden said that if the rioters had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters, they would have been treated "very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol." [...] U.S. Capitol riot, a Black Lives Matter protest: A visual comparison of two starkly different policing responses
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-08-01): The rampage comes only months after police in several states shot, beat, tear-gassed, and arrested Black demonstrators protesting peacefully against police brutality. Observers were appalled by what they describe as the glaring disparity in how police responded to the mostly white rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. [...] "Not only did we see the failure to protect one of the three branches of our government, we also saw a clear failure to carry out equal justice," Biden said. "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that’s true, and it is unacceptable." [...] The scenes at the Capitol revealed a stark contrast in how police responded last summer, when thousands of Black protesters in cities across America took to the streets following the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. Videos of those protests captured police in full riot gear beating protestors, knocking them down, and using tear gas to disperse crowds.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2020-12-31): As the sun went down, tensions rose. Police, dressed in riot gear, fired tear gas and other projectiles. Some protesters destroyed property and set fires. Many people suffered injuries, including seven who were wounded when someone opened fire into the crowd. It was a night that shook Louisville, and for protesters, it was only day one. [...] Protests under the Black Lives Matter banner have rocked streets in cities big and small. And organisers have sought to "to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes". [...] Police also responded to those protesting and documenting police brutality with more police brutality. Thousands have been arrested. Many have been injured.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2020-06-04): The rare display of military might outside the seat of American power was only the beginning. "I am your President of law and order," Trump declared in the Rose Garden, just before curfew descended on Washington on the seventh night of national unrest. Trump threatened to deploy "thousands and thousands" of "heavily armed" military personnel to quash the protests. As he spoke, officers fired rubber bullets and sprayed chemicals to disperse demonstrators outside the White House gates. Shortly after, twin-engine UH-60 Black Hawk and UH-72 Lakota helicopters swept just above the tree line over the capital’s streets, buzzing a crowd of protesters with a downwash of air, debris and fuel exhaust in an apparent "show of force," a maneuver used to cow insurgents in combat zones.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-14): They charged on the mostly Black crowd, situated almost a block away from the White House, with a large force made up of Washington police, US Park Police, National Guard troops, and members of other federal agencies. Army helicopters swooped low over the heads of protesters, forcing them to disperse. And when Trump wanted to stage a photo op outside a church across the street, officers used tear gas, batons and horses to quickly clear the president’s way. That day, 289 Black Lives Matter protesters were arrested. The protesters never even came close to breaching the White House and were doing nothing other than exercising their First Amendment right to protest, but nonetheless, they faced the full force of US law enforcement. [...] The police’s subdued and inefficient response to and tacit support for the Capitol riot was not an isolated incident. American police have long been treating white vigilantes who resort to violence to maintain white supremacy and suppress movements for racial justice with kid gloves. This is why far-right vigilantes felt emboldened enough to threaten and violently assault Black Lives Matter protesters hundreds of times in the last year. And this is why Kyle Rittenhouse was not immediately arrested after opening fire on anti-racist protesters in Kenosha.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-12): But many have been quick to point out the differences between the police responses to the mostly white mob that stormed the Capitol and Black organizers who have called for the end of police brutality and over-policing in communities of color. Summer protests following the police killing of George Floyd last May were met with aggressive police action, including mass arrests, surveillance, and the use of rubber bullets, batons and flash-bang grenades. On June 1, 2020, during the height of last summer’s protests, D.C. Metropolitan police made more than 300 "unrest-related" arrests, according to police data. "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday that they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol yesterday," Biden said in a speech on Thursday. Ronnette Cox, 35, a New York City-based activist, recalled being pepper-sprayed and pushed on several occasions by law enforcement this summer. "I still remember the stinging," she said, noting the frustration she felt seeing police officers escort white rioters out of the Capitol, knowing how they had responded to herself and other Black protesters during largely peaceful gatherings.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2024-09-29): There have been numerous reports and videos of aggressive police actions using physical force including "batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters, bystanders and journalists, often without warning or seemingly unprovoked".[265] These incidents have provoked "growing concern that aggressive law enforcement tactics intended to impose order were instead inflaming tensions".[265] The police responded that such tactics are necessary to prevent vandalism and arson, and that police officers themselves have been assaulted with thrown rocks and water bottles.[265] Amnesty International issued a press release on May 31, 2021, calling for the police to end excessive militarized responses to the protests.[266][267] A project by ProPublica compiled 68 videos during the George Floyd protests of police officers who used what appeared to researchers to be excessive levels of force. By a year later, police departments had disciplined 10 officers in connection to those captured on video.[268] [...] - ^ "Comparison between Capitol siege, BLM protests is denounced". Associated Press. January 14, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2021. [...] - ^ Julie Watson (January 14, 2021). "Comparison between Capitol siege, BLM protests is denounced". Associated Press.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-06-04): Protests coincided with New Zealand conducting a trial run of arming its police officers — something not routinely done there. The experiment was a response to the 2019 mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, which were committed by a white supremacist. But Black and Indigenous populations worried that armed police would only put them in danger. [...] As the summer of protests blazed through the U.S., Washington, D.C. became a national center for the Black Lives Matter movement. The city created Black Lives Matter Plaza, near the White House, less than two weeks after Floyd's death, and it is now a regular gathering space for protest and activism. Washington was also the site of the nation's most notorious crackdown on protesters. On June 1, law enforcement used tear gas and riot control tactics to push peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so that then-President Trump could cross the cleared-out street and pose in front of the vandalized St. John's Church, holding a Bible.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-13): While the militarized police response to Black Lives Matter protests has now become predictable, it is emblematic of how police generally respond to Black communities. A 2018 study concluded that "militarized police units are more often deployed in communities with high concentrations of African Americans, a relationship that holds at multiple levels of geography and even after controlling for social indicators including crime rates." 77 Jonathan Mummolo, Militarization Fails to Enhance Police Safety or Reduce Crime but May Harm Police Reputation, 115 PNAS 9181, 9181 (2018), https://perma.cc/7J98-6QSC.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2020-09-03): The escalating use of force against demonstrators comes amid a wider push to militarize the government’s response to domestic unrest, and particularly demonstrations perceived to be linked to left-wing groups like Antifa, which the administration views as a "terrorist" organization (New York Times, 31 May 2020). In the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s killing, President Trump posted a series of social media messages threatening to deploy the military and National Guard to disperse demonstrations, suggesting that authorities should use lethal force if demonstrators engage in looting (New York Magazine, 1 June 2020). The president called governors "weak" for allowing demonstrations in their states and instructed them to call in the National Guard to "dominate" and "cut through [protesters] like butter" (Vox, 2 June 2020). Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas, an advisor to the president, recommended that the administration "send in the troops" and give "no quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters" (New York Times, 3 June 2020, 23 June 2020).
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2024-01-05): And since that day, more than 1,200 people have been charged for their assault on the Capitol. Nearly 900 of them have been convicted or pled guilty. Collectively, to date, they have been sentenced to more than 840 years in prison. (Applause.) [...] But instead, the mob that attacked the Capitol, waving Trump flags and Confederate flags, stormed right past that portrait. That image of George Washington gave them no pause, but it should have.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-01-17): BLM and the failed Capitol insurrection cannot be compared, according to Cynthia Miller-Idriss, professor of education and sociology at American University and author of "Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right." [...] There was a "stark difference" in the makeup of the Black Lives Matter protests and the Capitol riots, according to professor Mark Anthony Neal, chair of the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University. [...] Rioters that led the insurrection on the Capitol were a mix of "far-right extremists" and self-proclaimed patriots who believe they were called to defend democracy, according to Miller-Idriss. She described how some were "intentional in their planning" and arrived "tactically prepared to storm the Capitol" carrying weapons, cuffs and mace.
Claim: Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House faced a more militarized response than rioters who assaulted the Capitol. (Sherrod Brown, 2021-01-08)
Evidence (2021-02-23): While many facts remain to be sorted out about how hundreds of rioters caught police off guard and stormed the nation's Capitol building last month, African American studies professor Mark Anthony Neal said recent history shows that had the multitude of marauders been Black Lives Matter protesters the law enforcement response would have been very different. [...] Critics contend the stark contrast between the massive law enforcement response to recent BLM protests in Washington, D.C., and its weak performance during the Capitol riots is evidence of the double standard they allege can be found not just in the nation's capital but in police agencies across the country. [...] "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 from the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol," President Joe Biden said during a Jan. 7 press conference, adding that one of his granddaughters had emailed him a photo of hundreds of National Guard protecting the Lincoln Memorial during a BLM protest in June.