Working Families Party: No police dogs were awaiting the white supremacists who gathered outside the Capitol
EDITOR'S NOTE: Cori Bush is a St. Louis Democrat who was elected last November,
By CONGRESSWOMAN CORI BUSH
My skin burned for 22 hours after I was pepper-sprayed during a protest against police brutality in Florissant, Missouri last summer.
The memory of that burn stung with a new kind of pain on Wednesday as I, now a newly sworn-in member of Congress, watched in horror and disbelief as white supremacists overran the Capitol.
Many have said that what transpired on Wednesday was not America. But this is the America that Black people know. To declare that this is not America is to deny the reality that Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate incited this coup by treasonously working to overturn the results of the presidential election — members like one of my senators, Josh Hawley, who went out of his way to salute the white supremacists before their attempted coup.
They must face consequences. That's why I just introduced a resolution today to expel them from Congress. Will you add your name and join me in calling for those members of Congress to be expelled?
This wouldn't have happened if the rioters were there to fight for Black lives rather than white supremacy. We've been tear-gassed for much less, beaten for much less, and shot at for much less. We've been assaulted by law enforcement for much less.
We faced police dogs when we fought for justice for Mike Brown in Ferguson in 2014. There were police dogs at protests for Black lives this year, from the East Coast to the West. The president himself tweeted in May that the "most vicious dogs" awaited protesters standing up for Black lives at the White House.
But no police dogs were awaiting the white supremacists who gathered outside the Capitol. And my colleagues who fueled the violence that ensued broke their sacred Oath of Office. None of them should have the honor of representing the American people in Congress any longer, and all of them need to be held accountable.
In solidarity,
Congresswoman Cori Bush