Let’s get one thing out of the way: if the federal police did not want far-right protesters to be inside the Capitol, they would not be inside the Capitol. Last summer, the police and National Guard attacked peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators who dared get too close to federal buildings. Countless people, including me, were injured.

Today’s violence, which was incited by President Donald Trump and has seen shots fired and rioters posing at the rostrum in the House of Representatives for cameras, would never have made it past the front door without the acquiescence of federal police. Authorities offered minimal resistance to the mob sent by the president to prevent the counting of electoral votes. With few exceptions, the response has simply been to let the far-right mob pass, to wait and see rather than to prevent the violence and seizure of federal property that is occurring.

Today’s maelstrom has left the character of the US state in naked relief. We do not live in a true democracy, and the repressive apparatus of that state does not simply take different approaches to left-wing and right-wing protesters by coincidence. It brutally cracks down on those who threaten the ruling class, and it coddles those who don’t.