Expert: How law enforcement would have treated a mostly Black and brown group of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol

BUFFALO, N.Y. — University at Buffalo expert Henry Louis Taylor Jr. can discuss differential treatment of people of different races by law enforcement, and what might have ensued had a predominantly Black and brown group of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol.

Taylor, PhD, is a professor of urban and regional planning in the UB School of Architecture and Planning, and director of the UB Center for Urban Studies.

His research focuses on a historical and contemporary analysis of underdeveloped urban neighborhoods, social isolation, and race and class issues affecting people of color. An important goal of Taylor’s work is to fight for social, economic and racial justice.

“I am stunned by the restraint showed by law enforcement, including the National Guard. This crowd of angry Trump supporters stormed the nation’s capital,” Taylor says. “If hundreds of Blacks and brown people had stormed the nation’s capital, there would have been a bloodbath. Moreover, if the government knew that thousands of African Americans and Latinx were coming to D.C. to protest, legions of police and the National Guard would have been there.”

“Yet, this is not surprising,” Taylor says. “In May 2020, hundreds of white protestors, some bearing arms, entered the Michigan statehouse to protest coronavirus restrictions, and nothing was done. The double standard is glaring, and it reflects the reality that Black lives do not matter. When the 17-year-old shot Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Trump focused his anger on protestors, not the white vigilante-type shooting of protestors.”