One of the first things that we on The Left noticed about yesterday's chaos at the Capitol was the stark difference in response versus a typical BLM rally, or the March 2007 anti war rally led by veterans. In the past year we've seen tanks and bayonets as an acceptable response to BLM events, tear gas and violence during a vigil for Elijah McClain and countless examples of egregious use of force.

When climate activists staged a sit-in at Nancy Pelosi's office in December 2018, all 138 participants were arrested. After yesterday's bloody altercation with Capitol Police, there were 52 arrests. Some of the CP's even posed for selfies with the intruders. Most of the trespassers were courteously ushered from the building.

On NBC News, their on site correspondent claimed that the calm and respectful manner in which the protest was dispersed, as if a concert at Merriweather Post had just ended, was standard operating procedure "same as they disperse a BLM rally."

We know different, and we're not the only ones to notice.

Of course, it didn't take long before Tucker Carlson was blaming all the violence on ANTIFA. Quickly, Twitter was awash with comspiracy theories, and well known right wing activists were being picked out of photos and accused of being infiltrators, agents provocateurs.

But just like the way the term "covidiot" was co-opted by both sides of that argument,

the police opened the fucking gates. pic.twitter.com/HyDURXfoaB

— katie (@cevansavenger) January 6, 2021

video showing Capitol Police opening the barricade and letting protestors through has been used by both sides as evidence of chicanery, even though it's possible the CP had learned that other sections of the barricade had been breached and it was futile to try to hold the crowd back. Perhaps they realized they were too few in number against such a massive crowd and did their best to de-escalate. Perhaps they were sympathetic to their brethren in the crowd whether they be ANTIFA or White Supremacists. If you ask me, I'll take odds that at least one of these cops had a Punisher challenge coin in his pocket.

But one thing is for certain. There was a distinct lack of police presence for a well publicized event that promised more than 10,000 attendees, and a significant change in police tactics during the response.

On January 4th, NBC 4 Washington reported that the National Guard would be present at the Capitol, but they were strangely absent. A Washington Post reporter claimed via anonymous source that the Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller, a Trump loyalist who got the job only two months ago, had denied a request to deploy the guard to the Capitol yesterday. When the DC guard finally was deployed, reports changed from it coming from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, then the President, and then the Vice-President.

One thing that the Tucker Carlsons of the world need to face is that this was not a handful of ANTIFA infiltrators. I'm not saying they weren't there, or that it couldn't have been a government sponsored operation, but it is undeniable that decisions regarding law enforcement deployment and response were made at very high, if not the highest, level.

Why?

Why were the insurrectionists treated with kid gloves? That is the burning question which will trouble us for many days. Ulterior motives go from right wing comraderie or Trump wanting to cause chaos, and range to GOP lawmakers looking for an excuse to break from his madness or even an authoritarian plot to curtail civil liberties.

It didn't take long for the media to start pushing the narrative that this breach of security was evidence that social media allows us too many freedoms - and presumably a rationale for repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.