ST. LOUIS — Were the events in D.C., a double standard? St. Louis activists agree, calling Wednesday's events at the US Capitol hypocrisy in its most blatant form.
"There are two Americas when it comes to law enforcement and people of color and others," said St. Louis County NAACP president John Bowman.
"They've killed us for less," this tweet by the National NAACP saying what many people of color feel after watching a group of insurrectionists storm the nation's Capitol.
"I am beyond using that phrase were better than this, I am now of the belief that we're not better than this," said Bowman.
"This is beyond the definition of white privilege," said Missouri State Representative Rasheen Aldridge.
Wednesday, activists noted the difference in police response as rioters entered one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country, shattering doors, climbing walls, walking through statutory hall with perceived ease.
"People are being treated differently people don't have the same rights as others. There's no way you can go to the U.S. Capitol and do what so many did. Someone literally died that has never happened in a Black Lives Matter protest in St. Louis or the Ferguson area," said Aldridge.
Tim Fitch is currently a police consultant and former police chief who says this was not about race.
"I don't see that I mean they shot and killed a white woman coming into the capitol grounds coming into the building… so to say that they only target different races and different circumstances I don't think is accurate at all. You target the activity," said Fitch.
Fitch believes police criticism is why officers were not more aggressive.
"Police are very cautious they're very reluctant in many respects to take aggressive action and that's really what the people have asked for and why it's happened that way," said Fitch.
St. Louis activists like Ohun Ashe disagree.
"That isn't an excuse it wasn't that they learned to do better that was leniency that was grace that was all of the things that we never received," said Ashe. "Our safety mentally emotionally all of those things have happened to us and these people get to do that and just walk away."
President-elect Joe Biden also spoke about the issue during a briefing Thursday.
"No one can tell me if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they would have been treated very, very differently," said Biden.