When I saw the CNN headline about the heroism of police during the Capitol insurrection, I did a double-take because I wasn’t sure I’d read it correctly.

“New radio and video footage from Capitol riot shows a coordinated attack and officers’ restraint,” it said.

In that moment, the anger I felt was visceral. While I will always have empathy for the Capitol officers who fought valiantly despite being betrayed by everyone from their police chief to America’s commander-in-chief, one question overshadows everything else. Would the police have shown such tremendous restraint if the Capitol Hill rioters were Black?

In my view, the answer is a resounding no. In a society where white life is seen as more valuable, everyone, even Black police officers under attack by a racist Capitol Hill mob, thinks twice before shooting at white people. Black people don’t get the same consideration. 

That’s why, when Harvard researchers concluded a four-year study of police shootings, they found that Blacks, on average, were more than three times as likely as whites to be killed during a police encounter. That’s no accident. The value of white life is taught to every American from the time we are born.

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Photo: Capitol Breach. By. Brett Davis

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