DAP Notes on Insurrection
As the former President’s impeachment trial began and ended with the expected outcome of supremacy prevailing over justice, we are reminded of white Supremacy’s corrosive reality and its impact on the built environment. White Supremacy is the fatal flaw in the concept of U.S. democracy. It is a blinding pervasive systemic condition sustained by allegiance to malicious power and selfish individualism that propagates domestic terror across the nation. We were reminded firsthand of this insidious nature on January 6 when we all watched a pro-Trump mob storm the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to forcibly overturn the 2020 presidential election confirmation. However, beyond the behaviors of the traitorous swarms of insurgents who defaced, attacked, and killed in the name of Trump’s racist, authoritarian populism, this insurrection illuminated critical racial injustices of the built environment that must be addressed as the next Administration strives to restore confidence in our democratic spaces.
The most glaring is the treatment that terrorists received from law enforcement. We’ve seen, over and over again, the sea of individuals flood the Capitol leaving the officers who were there to respond overwhelmed. Not only were the white insurrectionists given access to the public space outside of the Capitol (BLM protesters wouldn’t have even been allowed to get into the proximity of the building because the M.P. were lined up outside of the Capitol occupying the entire steps), but there was very little to no physical assault on insurrectionists once they entered the building. This is, in large part, a result of white Supremacy’s consequence-phobic position in our society. The fear of losing power and place in the hierarchy dictates actions for white supremacists that would otherwise be considered illegal if conducted by non-whites.
The contrast in Capitol Police treatment of white insurrectionists versus Black people has been multifaceted throughout recent years.
In 2013, Miriam Carey was murdered by Capitol Police with her daughter in the back seat.
Reverend and now Senator Warnock of G.A. was arrested for holding a peaceful prayer in the Capitol Rotunda in opposition of healthcare cuts back in 2017.
Summer 2020 — BLM Protesters and Trump photo-op
The militarization that has occupied the Capitol in D.C., and other state capitol grounds across the country, since January 6 is a familiar presence to the Black and Brown activists who marched the streets of Portland, Baltimore, and Ferguson, and one can expect that the blowback from the White Supremacist terror attack will impact Black and Brown communities more than the perpetrators.
do more to criminalize the occupation of public space
Set curfews that will be largely waged against black people in D.C. — creating an atmosphere of hostility.
Install barriers and hostile structures to reduce the pedestrian presence
Decrease access and proximity to gov bldgs with increased profiling of Black and Brown bodies
To address these expected spatial injustices, Design Justice demands we advocate for policies and procedures that support a genuinely accessible public realm free from embedded oppression. In doing so, we must recognize the inherent health, dignity, and necessity afforded to cultural communities able to congregate in public without fear of harassment.
Restoring collective faith in the value of civic, democratic space is paramount in the next Administration. Several considerations must be taken into account to move us forward from this dark moment.
Here is how we move toward more protected democratic public spaces
The new Administration needs to first publicly knowledge a history of inequities that exist in the built environment dating back to the translation of slave codes into the Black codes that spread across this country during Reconstruction.
Establish anti-racist policies that prevent the designation of non-violent protest as a riot, including legal repercussions for police departments that purposefully instigate violence as a means to invalidate the people’s right to protest.
At the city, town, and neighborhood level, demand the end to public space privatization.
Work with designers of the built environment to support non-hostile conditions through the acute presence of officers and cameras as well as the more obtuse conditions like removal of benches, spikes, etc.
A protest is meant to occupy space with the intention of putting pressure on public officials.
That is a fundamental right pursuant to the first amendment.
The First Amendment allows protesters to peaceably assemble.
The utter privilege of whiteness is to occupy space with the stated intention of doing harm.
The historic lack of consequence gave them courage. the words of a petty despot gave them direction, and unadulterated zealotry drove them to commit treasonous acts against the U.S. (see Rev. Warnock reference above)
This particular protest by whites was a protest/insurrection to challenge a result of a democratic process solely because they didn’t agree with the outcome despite it being legally upheld in courts of law. This is another example of white privilege.
-The DAP Collective