Liliana Zaragoza Reflects on the Stark Contrast in Police Response to Philadelphia’s Black Lives Matter Protests and the Capitol Hill Riots

Liliana Zaragoza (’13), Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, was quoted by Philadelphia’s PBS WHYY discussing the antithetical police response to the BLM protestors and West Philadelphia residents she represents in a lawsuit against the city and the Trump supporters involved in the Capitol Hill riot (“Philly protesters’ lawyer: Police treatment of Capitol rioters shows two ‘Americas,’” Jan. 8). “I was not surprised. But it’s always disheartening to really see that evidently police officers can refrain from using force, it’s just usually that use of force is reserved for Black, indigenous and brown people fighting for their lives. . . . [T]here were hundreds of arrests last summer, often for very specious things. Many of us know about the two Americas that exist. But it was really in full view this week.”
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