MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson joined the chorus of those on the Left who say you cannot compare the Capitol riot on January 6 to the months-long riots in 2020 that were often born out of BLM protests.
Johnson said he was concerned about anti-rioter legislation being proposed by state Republicans Alabama in the aftermath of the Capitol riot and the riots of 2020 being used against BLM activists.
"Right, Stephanie, because comparing what happened on January 6 to what happened last summer is completely conflating the issue. What happened last summer is mostly peaceful protesters who were attacked by police officers," Johnson asserted.
"What’s really problematic about this law is not just the things that Brittany mentioned, but at the core of it, who on Earth determines when something moves from a peaceful protest to a riot?" he continued. "If I go to a protest and someone downtown throws a rock into a window, these kinds of laws mean that you can just grab everybody in the paddy wagon and throw them in jail. And that’s the issue that we are seeing here. What they want to do is come up with an excuse to just throw black people and protesters in jail."
"They could have snatched all of those people," Johnson said regarding the Capitol rioters. "The only reason they’re not getting arrested and prosecuted is because of larger problems we have in our criminal justice system."
Johnson's assertion, of course, is not true. As Townhall reported last year, again and again, rioters were often the first ones to take action against police officers or government buildings, such as the Third Precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota, or the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon. During the height of the chaos in 2020, while protests were often peaceful during the day, the crowds that stayed out at night would often become violent, again with the crowd making the first move.
