Here’s one repeating theme that’s been making the rounds on cable news and in the larger (and obviously liberal) newspapers. A portrayal is being created that claims that the reason the rioters who stormed the Capitol building were so successful is that the Capitol Hill Police went easy on them. Why? Because most of them were white, of course, and because racism. While I’ve seen this cropping up in a few places, it was really trumpeted over at NBC News in an op-ed by Dorian Warren, the president of a “national social justice organization.” The title of the piece tells you enough of the story that you probably don’t even need to bother reading it. “Capitol police treatment of Trump rioters underscores America’s racist reality.” The subtitle really turns the knob up to eleven. “Black protesters must be controlled. White supremacists must be appeased.”

Oh to be white in America.

To be white in America means you can jump police barricades, storm the cradle of our democracy and even angrily confront police and the officers take selfies with you.

On Wednesday, I listened as sirens blared outside my Washington apartment, within walking distance of the Capitol. Along with the rest of America, I watched the most astounding images on television and social media of violent instigators.

But just as disturbing were the images of the U.S. Capitol Police treating white militants with kid gloves, even as these agitators — dare I say, domestic terrorists — broke into the building, smashed windows and physically assaulted the police.

Oh, yes. The CHP “appeased” the white supremacist protesters. I might remind the author that they certainly appeased Ashli Babbitt, didn’t they? They appeased her with a bullet to the heart while she was unarmed. (As a side note to Mr. Warren, aren’t we supposed to be angry about the police shooting unarmed people, or naw?)

Even if you want to ignore the recently deceased, since the riot ended, law enforcement has been hunting down perpetrators all across the country based on video and pictures from social media so they can be charged with federal crimes. I can only imagine the reaction if the police in Portland, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia had put ten percent of that much effort into finding and arresting all of the looters and arsonists from the BLM riots.

I do understand the reaction to some of the optics from the early moments when the former protest rally attendees first arrived at the Capitol building and turned into rioters. The initial reaction from some of the cops was unprofessional, posing for selfies with some of the marchers. But once they turned violent and began attacking the flimsy barricades, that all changed. Nobody was “coddling” the rioters no matter what color they were. They were fighting for their lives.

As to why the initial response seemed so low-key, I covered that over the weekend, because I had a similar reaction myself. If you bothered to ask any of them, I’d be willing to bet that the CHP just wasn’t expecting any trouble. Neither was I. Even while they were marching over from the White House, I expected them to show up, wave signs and begin shouting cries for Congress to reject the certification of the electoral college votes. I suppose I’ve grown too accustomed to conservative rallies being like Tea Party rallies or the March for Life. I’ve never seen a large conservative turnout devolve into a riot before.

Conversely, police both in Washington and across the country in other major cities have been showing up at Antifa/BLM marches armed for bear, as the author claims. Why? Because you only have to watch just so many of those “peaceful protests” turn into cases of cities (and federal courthouses and police stations) burning to the ground before you realize what’s going to happen in advance. Of course they show up in riot gear. That’s because they know there’s a 99% chance of a riot breaking out.

This opportunism in the media is beginning to snowball. As Matthew Schmitz points out this week, Democrats are trying to gin up anti-Trump sentiment by using the memory of a dead CHP officer and portraying him as some sort of hero of the #Resistance. (The fallen officer, Brian Sicknick, was actually an avid Trump supporter.)

On the plus side, as noted in an editorial from the New York Post, we’ve at least found one story where most of the mainstream media was actually willing to call a riot a riot. Getting that word to pass most of their collective lips was pretty much impossible while our cities were burning down and entire shopping districts were being looted for months and months on end. But let one crowd of Trump supporters show up and oh yeah, baby. We’ve got ourselves a riot. (For the record, and for the umpteenth time, I’ve said from the beginning that it was a riot. But so were the attacks in all of the other cities.)

What happened on Capitol Hill was a disgrace and those who crossed the barriers, murdered a CHP officer and did all the rest of the damage need to be prosecuted and held responsible. But if you want to use this horrible event on your platform to try to push your racism agenda or fundraise for the Democrats, maybe you should sit this one out. Unlike liberals and Democrats, we can actually hold our own people accountable.