This article aims to visually demonstrate how the media’s narrative exaggerated the true motivations and essence of January 6, while significantly downplaying the widespread and devastating George Floyd riots of 2020.
I’d like to begin the article by showcasing images of the two riots alongside each other.
I searched for “January 6th insurrection” and “January 6th violence,” and these are the images that appeared.
I searched for “Black Lives Matter protests, Antifa activities, Portland federal building incidents, and the CHAZ/CHOP autonomous zone.”
Beneath the images, I will include a comprehensive data analysis comparing the two riots, highlighting which was more severe and examining cases of selective prosecution and dropped charges.
The George Floyd protests erupted on May 26, 2020, continuing for several months, with the peak of the unrest lasting around a week. The total number of protests is challenging to pinpoint, as they spanned numerous cities across the United States.
Reports indicate that during the riots, at least 25 individuals, including both protesters and bystanders, lost their lives. Thousands sustained injuries, though precise figures remain unclear. Among law enforcement, over 2,000 officers were injured, with at least two fatalities.
The riots have resulted in property damage estimated between $1 billion and $2 billion, marking the event as the costliest civil disorder in U.S. history.
In comparison, the January 6th Capitol protest resulted in five deaths of Trump supporters. Around 138 police officers were injured. The property damage to the Capitol building was estimated to be around $1.5 million. Several police officers committed suicide in the following days (allegedly) and one died of a stroke later on. No police officers were killed on January 6th.
The George Floyd riots caused significantly more harm and damage than the January 6th protest.
Two police officers who were killed during the George Floyd riots are Officer David Dorn from St. Louis, Missouri, and Captain David Melton from Kansas City, Kansas.
Regarding prosecutions related to the George Floyd riots, many charges were dropped by federal and state prosecutors. For example, in Portland, Oregon, over 90% of the charges related to the riots were dropped. Similar trends were observed in other cities. Despite the widespread rioting and destruction, relatively few convictions have been secured against the rioters.
In contrast, the January 6th Capitol protest has led to a large number of prosecutions and convictions. As of early 2023, more than 725 people have been charged in relation to the event, with over 70 receiving prison sentences.
To put it directly, there have been far more convictions stemming from the January 6th protest compared to the George Floyd riots, despite the latter causing significantly more destruction and harm.
Federal authorities raised their estimate of property damage due to the January 6 Capitol riot to $2.73 million, according to a Friday court filing in the case of a man who pleaded guilty to participating in the riot, which left windows broken, doors splintered and paintings stained with pepper spray and tear gas.
George Floyd Riots Costs:
The US has experienced rioting over racial tensions before, but this report shows that the damage from the latest unrest will far exceed any historical precedent.
“The arson, vandalism and looting… will result in at least $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims,” Axios reports. “[This will] eclips[e] the record set in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers who brutalized Rodney King.”
Last October the Major City Chiefs Association (MCCA) issued “Report on the 2020 Protests & Civil Unrest.” This report looked at unrest in the 68 largest municipal and county jurisdictions in the United States and Canada from May 25, 2020 to July 31, 2020. MCCA members say they experienced 8,700 total protest events during that roughly two-month period. One city, unidentified but likely Portland, reported 1,100 protest events during that period. The average number of protest events in a single jurisdiction was 128.
The MCCA report looked at three types of protest events: peaceful and lawful protests, protests with unlawful but non-violent civil disobedience such as blocking roads and highways, and protests with acts of violence, in other words “riots.”
Of the 8,700 protest events reported by MCCA members, 3,692 involved unlawful acts of civil disobedience. Five hundred of these occurred in a single city. Eight of the reporting cities—Columbus, Denver, Detroit, Memphis, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, and Tucson—said that every protest during the May 25 to July 31 period involved unlawful but non-violent acts. Some of these protests may have also involved violence. MCCA reports that 574 of the protests it studied involved violence. One city accounted for 100 of these riots.
Looting and arson were common during the period studied. The 68 cities and counties reported that they experienced 2,385 incidents of looting and 624 incidents of arson, including 97 police vehicles burned.
More than 2,035 law enforcement officers were injured at the protests and riots during the time frame studied. The most common weapon used by the rioters against officers in the reporting cities and counties were thrown projectiles, including rocks, bricks, glass bottles, and frozen water bottles. The report says violent protesters often used a front line of peaceful protesters as human shields while they assaulted officers with thrown objects.
Officers were also commonly assaulted with commercial fireworks, impact weapons, and lasers targeting their eyes. Nearly half of the respondents said rioters had used incendiary devices. MCCA reports that some rioters used the tactic of throwing firebombs behind the officers so that they could be trapped between barriers built by the mob and the flames. A little more than half of reporting jurisdictions said they had encountered firearms during the protests and riots. One agency reported that four of their officers were shot by rioters.
The peak of the violence, according to MCCA, came during the first weekend of the protests, May 29 through June 1. The report says that violent extremists collaborated online and through social media to organize violence. “More than three quarters of agencies (78%) discovered persons that seemed to self-identify with far left ideologies, and more than half (51%) discovered persons that seemed to identify with violent far-right ideologies,” the report says.
MCCA member agencies arrested 16,241 protesters and rioters from May 25 to July 31. Nearly 17% of these arrests were for felonies and 7% of the total involved violence. Many of the cases were quickly dismissed, which may explain why 52% of the reporting agencies said they arrested the same people twice for “protest-related crimes.”
The January 6 demonstration fundamentally represented opposition to the perceived rise of communism in America. It stemmed from disbelief in what is widely considered a fraudulent election result, due to the fact that Joe Biden is extremely creepy with children and has obvious dementia. It was an orchestrated event, influenced and lead by the Democrat-led FBI and directed by figures like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. While these claims are difficult to verify because the FBI will not simply release all of the January 6 footage and communications, they reflect the strong suspicions held by many, many people.
The George Floyd riots however, of course were actual terrorism and completely demoralizing to the entire country. To watch every day for months as our country burned, people couldn’t leave their homes because of COVID restrictions, except to riot, loot, and commit crimes was so infuriating to some that it radicalized many Americans.
The further communist tactic of demoralization continued with the lack of prosecution of these individuals who were induced to riot for a cause they knew nothing about.
The January 6 witch hunt, and the militarized arrests and prosecutions of caring patriots was the most heinous and grievous blow to the soul of this nation since the Kennedy Assassination.
As our stories come out, it will stir the nation of patriots in a way that has likely not ever happened before.
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