Bernice King: Don't 'fuel the fires' ignited by Capitol mob
The daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. says Americans angered by the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol should refrain from responses that feed the divisive message of extremists
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. says Americans angered by the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol should take care to ensure their responses do not feed the divisive message of extremists.
“I think we tend to fuel the fires, to fan the flames quite a bit in this nation when people do stuff that is extreme like that in a hateful way,” the Rev. Bernice King said of the chaos in Washington last week.
Thousands loyal to President Donald Trump swarmed the Capitol last Wednesday, overrunning police and breaking inside in hopes of stopping Congress from certifying Trump's election loss. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died as a result of the violent riot.
King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, spoke to The Associated Press a week before the federal holiday honoring her father. She said people outraged by the Washington attack should not channel that into “hateful rhetoric. We can't become them.”
“We have to elevate them. We have to bring them up to a higher place,” King said. “So the way in which we speak to them, in truth, has to be in the right way. You know, we can’t attack their personhood, but we can attack their actions.”
King noted the predominantly white mob that stormed the Capitol was met with remarkably less force from police than largely Black crowds that protested racial injustice in cities across the U.S. over the summer.
She praised authorities for pursuing arrests and criminal charges in the week since the Capitol siege. And she said those deserving punishment include Trump, who implored his supporters to “fight like hell” in a speech outside the White House right before the crowd marched on the Capitol.
King said taking no action against Trump would send a message that “it's OK for the leader of the country to act in that way and that there are no consequences.”
“That’s why I’m glad that they have they’ve been talking about the removal and impeachment,” King said. “Even if they don’t succeed, for history they have to do this.”
___
Follow Alex Sanz on Twitter at @AlexSanz.