US elections 2020: Washington shields itself from the threat of riots on presidential election day

Washington DC businesses are shielded. The five-meter boards cover the windows of the city’s buildings to protect them from the threat of riots ahead of Tuesday, November 3, the day of the presidential elections. The owners of the establishments fear that scenes such as those lived a few years ago will be repeated. months for the Antifa groups and the radical part of Black Lives Matter. “These are preventive measures,” says the owner of an establishment. “We are very close to the White House and this area was one of the most affected during the last protests in Washington DC,” he adds. “In 2016, when Donald Trump won the presidential elections, the big cities of the US- Chicago, New York , Los Angeles and Washington – staged two months of protests. They are large cities with a large Democratic population “, says Ron Aledo, political analyst. Ron Aledo:” They are mostly young white people, university students and they are organized. They move from an ideological point of view. ”Two groups come together in these radical protests: the Antifa movement and the more radical part of Black Lives Matter. The Antifa groups distinguish themselves from the rest of the protesters by dressing entirely in black, they call themselves ‘The Black Bloc’, as a sign of protest against racial inequality. «They are mostly young white people, university students and they are organized. They move from an ideological point of view ”, explains Aledo. “They communicate through Facebook groups, WhatsApp and chat rooms,” he adds. The philosophy of this organization is direct action, they seek confrontation and make their voice heard in the protests.For its part, the radical part of Black Lives Matter is made up, for the most part, “by people of black race, of the working class, declared Marxists”, joined by people who simply “go to the protests to take advantage and commit crimes,” he says. Aledo. The movement began in 2013 as a hashtag on social media to protest the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a man who fatally shot an African-American teenager named Trayvon Martin. Since then, it has been used every time a disproportionate act of force has occurred, especially between the police and an African-American. Despite the fact that in the US the right to bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution, “it is highly unlikely the Antifa groups go to the armed protests “, argues the political analyst, Ron Aledo. “The most common is that either Trump supporters or pro-Trump groups, go to vulnerable places (establishments, small businesses or homes) and go armed as a deterrent. In this way they protect the American from acts of violence. ”Unlike Spain, the police do not depend on a Ministry of the Interior. Each police force is accountable to the mayor of the city. “In the US there are 17,000 individual police departments of each other,” explains Aledo. “In big cities, like Washington, the police are under great political pressure. Many times they try to minimize their actions and ask them to treat Protestants with white gloves.