Black Lives Matter Leader DeRay Mckesson Speaks Out On Disparities In The Right To Protest

The U.S. Capitol Police chose to utilize only 500 of its more than 2,000 officers for a planned event on Wednesday when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol building, he says. Mckesson says he was surprised to see pro-Trump extremists take bold actions such as putting their feet on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk and then walk out of the building without handcuffs.

“I've seen the police be more aggressive for 40 people than they were for the thousands of white supremacists that were on the Capitol,” he says. “I thought I'd seen it all. And then there was that.”

Mckesson says he’s attended Black Lives Matter demonstrations where protesters didn’t bring weapons or damage property — but law enforcement tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed and shot at them. Friends of his have lost their vision and been hit with rubber bullets at protests, he says, all for advocating against police brutality.

In contrast, people were physically pushing the police on Wednesday. And one officer died from injuries sustained during the insurrection.