How chaos at the Capitol exposed a double standard

As hundreds of predominantly white supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol this week, breaking windows and wreaking havoc, politicians and activists said the lack of security and limited police response stood in stark contrast to law enforcement's handling of the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests in Washington six months ago.

Rioters on Wednesday broke through barricades and smashed windows in a rampage that terrorized lawmakers and killed five people.

Then, they left with few immediate consequences in what some, including Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, said shows the racial double standard in America.

"I couldn't help but to wonder if those were my kind storming the Capitol, what would have been the outcome? And I think we all know. There are no ifs and or buts, we already know what happened to my kind if anyone would even got close to the Capitol, let alone storm inside offices, inside the hallways."

President-elect Joe Biden expressed similar thoughts in a speech on Thursday.

"No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently from the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol."

At Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington in June, the National Guard was deployed along with a heavy police presence as Trump vowed to crack down on what he called lawlessness by "thugs."

Police then fired smoke canisters, flashbang grenades and rubber bullets to drive peaceful protesters away from the White House, so that Trump could walk to a nearby church and be photographed holding a Bible.

Nearly 300 were arrested that evening.

Meanwhile 68 people were arrested in connection to Wednesday's stunning security breach, though officials say that number is expected to grow.