The lack of security and limited police response, despite weeks of promotion of the pro-Trump protest that sparked the riot, was in sharp contrast to the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests in Washington six months ago.

“My mom said if you did this you’d be shot,” Beatrice Mando, who works for the district and attended BLM protests last year. “She is right. There would be hundreds dead, if not more, had this group been Black.”…

In Washington, participants in those protests said their reception was very different.

“There were cops at every intersection in DC. There were cops at all the monuments, at the Capitol, in front of the White House,” said Abby Conejo, 29, who works at a small business in Washington.

The Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington had been faced with rows of masked National Guard troops at the Lincoln Memorial in June, as Trump vowed to crack down on what he called lawlessness by “hoodlums” and “thugs.”