Philadelphia Civil Rights Activists Note Different Police Responses To US Capitol Breach, George Floyd Protests
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Local community leaders are reacting to the violence at the U.S. Capitol and talking about apparent double standards when it comes to demonstrations in Washington, D.C. Black city and state leaders are speaking out.
One civil rights organization says there are two forms of policing in America. And it was demonstrated yesterday at the U.S. Capitol.
"You have how they treated Black people and how they treated white people and when you saw the treatment of the white individuals who were a mob, I didn't see arrests," Urban League of Philadelphia President Andrea Custis said.
A mob broke into the United States Capitol Wednesday, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
At least 90 people were arrested in the seditious act. But there was a very different response to George Floyd protests back in June.
"Had this been Black people, you would have been doing a body count of my brothers and sisters who were out there," Custis said.
Custis is the president of the Urban League of Philadelphia, a civil rights group that has been working for change for more than 100 years. She says there's a different judicial system for Americans depending on the color of their skin, and it doesn't stop there.
"You have policing that is done for white people and you have policing that is done for Black folks. That is not an opinion, that's a fact," Custis said.
One Pennsylvania state senator agrees with her. If these rioters were civil rights protesters it would have been a different scene.
"Their brains would have been knocked in, they would have been maced, they would have been tear-gassed -- the whole deal," State Sen. Vincent Hughes said.
Civic leaders are hoping other Americans don't continue to watch silently. Custis added there needs to be an investigation into the breach of the Capitol.
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