Shahzeb Khan
AFTER watching so many cataclysms shake the world, we witnessed the United States Capitol being violently invaded for the first time since the British burned down Washington in 1814. How was this possible? Two questions arise; why rioters faced such little resistance and how so many people ready for a forceful confrontation could assemble near the Capitol. Is America’s security apparatus not fully capable of defending the nation’s most important buildings from an ordinary mob? The build-up of protestors in Washington D.C should have sent them scrambling to prepare and deadly force should have been ready to be applied to those with potential to harm the nation’s top politicians. Deadly force did not happen, maybe because police did not want to inflict mass casualties. But large-scale police deployment did not happen either, unlike with the BLM protests. Security institutions are ultimately guided by the person in charge of the country and that person supported those protesting the election result. Politics steered duty instead of the other way round.
As for the second question, though everyone is rightly pointing to how much Trump and his allies riled up supporters, particularly on the day of the rampage, much, much more is at play here. Being surprised by mob storming the Capitol is a huge mistake on the part of all of us (particularly those responsible for America’s security). After the killing of George Floyd, an estimated 26 million Americans took to the streets in more than 2,000 cities, some involved in devastating riots. We watched turmoil engulf all of urban America because a civilian unknown to the public was killed by police. But the President (with 74 million votes) spent two months pushing allegations of election fraud to his followers and encouraging them to fight for “their right” as January 6 approached, yet we stayed assured about the safety of a single building complex where Trump’s fate was to be sealed?
It is not just Trump’s behaviour that made this possible. Outrageous killings of black people by police often made headlines in America without setting the country ablaze, but when George Floyd was killed, the coronavirus pandemic was in full swing. No doubt, the massive disruptions it brought instigated Americans to erupt in anger at racial killing. The same must be true for the unrest culminating in the Capitol rampage. In fact, to understand the storming of the Capitol by force of sheer numbers, we must look at the current state of the American psyche. Americans currently have every reason to be restless, because all 327 million of them have endured a full year of unrelenting trauma. 2020 began with Americans stricken with worry that their loved ones would be conscripted to fight a war with Iran, all while going through their nation’s third ever presidential impeachment trial, a particularly divisive and stressful time. No sooner had both episodes passed, panic and fear gripped Americans as Covid-19 inexorably spread through the USA. Soon, America became epicentre of global pandemic and life under lockdown began, along with sudden and severe economic hardships.
Millions lost jobs. Restrictions were placed on every aspect of Americans’ lives. They couldn’t meet their loved ones and could only interact with their faces covered. As the death toll rose rapidly, grief and terror spread, but so did rebellion against COVID-19 restrictions. As soon as lockdown measures were relaxed at summer’s beginning, racial tension exploded, throwing every urban area into chaos as trauma over systemic racism, including attacks on much of America’s heritage and customs, spread. Simultaneously, Americans in the east constantly feared hurricane impact while Americans across the west suffered extreme heat waves alongside widespread power outage, while wildfires displaced millions. Wildfire smoke made it difficult for tens of millions to breathe. Blood-red and orange skies across mainland USA further sullied people’s moods.
As infections, economic hardships, lockdowns, racial fury and rioting raged, the election race stoked severe polarization. Americans turned out to vote in record numbers, but the election turned into turmoil as POTUS refused to concede and took nonstop action to overturn the result, while the pandemic showed no signs of abating, reaching record-heights in December and with a death toll now more than 360,000, new coronavirus strains emerged to cause further fear, and severe winter storms became another cause for Americans to shut down. The American people are obviously extremely unsettled by these experiences. If absolutely nothing about their lives is normal anymore, then their behaviour is no longer likely to be kept within normal boundaries. This is what brought America to mob storming of the Capitol and will undoubtedly lead to many more acts of violence. For the first time in modern history, the perfect storm of tumultuous circumstances puts America’s democracy at great risk. As Americans continue to bear unimaginable strains, the USA, and the world, needs to be on guard.
—The writer is Director at Pakistan’s People-Led Disaster Management and occasionally contributes to the national press.
