As President Joe Biden called for an end to America’s “uncivil war” at Wednesday’s inauguration, the surrounding streets of the nation’s capital resembled a military occupation. “At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed,” Biden told attendees as scenes nearby could be compared to a force of armed liberators—or invaders, depending on which side you ask—reestablishing order in a city that they had only recently captured. Amid heightened tensions the transfer of power proved to be an orderly affair, a dramatic departure from the chaos two weeks earlier as rioters stormed the Capitol building in a violent, Hail Mary attempt to keep Donald Trump in power. The National Guard, local and federal police, and an array of three-letter agencies installed dozens of security checkpoints around the National Mall, the Capitol, and the White House—all closed to the public—creating a buffer zone between the ceremony and any unwelcome disturbances from the general public.
Wandering around the perimeter, curious onlookers trying to get as close as possible to Biden’s coronation were greeted with an endless series of dead ends. “I’ve been trying to get around them to see the lights and the flags for over an hour, and there’s just no way to get through,” one local woman told me, referencing the thousands of state and territory flags assembled on the National Mall to replace the crowd of Americans that would fill the grassy blocks during any other Inauguration Day. This security labyrinth was made up of around 25,000 National Guard troops and police; miles of metal fencing and concrete barriers; hundreds of armored utility vehicles, which were being parked sideways in the street to cut off traffic; and seemingly enough desert brown Humvees to fill Baghdad in 2003.
The FBI even looked for threats within the national security state, as the agency removed 12 National Guardsmen from their roles in the security operation after vetting them and concluding that they could potentially pose risks. (Two of these National Guard members had expressed problematic political sentiments in posts or texts, according to Pentagon officials.)
Despite the so-called Million Militia March failing to come to fruition in D.C. over the weekend, due to the far-right movement being beaten back after the Capitol riot, law enforcement agencies pulled the city’s security net seemingly tighter than it was even following the Black Lives Matter protests in June. “It feels like some kind of dystopian movie—troops carrying rifles patrolling right outside my house and military convoys driving by,” one Capitol Hill resident, Drew Allen, told me Tuesday night. “I never thought I’d see the city like this, with everyone being shut inside and the streets being locked the fuck down.”
On the final night of Trump’s presidency, Black Lives Matter Plaza, which rests just across from the now infamous Lafayette Square, was the space closest to the White House that civilians could reach. The plaza only featured a handful of protesters and several anti-Trump signs on Tuesday evening, and they were far outnumbered by the National Guardsmen, who could be seen aimlessly wandering the street just in front of the South Lawn with their rifles in hand. The few protesters present were blasting Compton rapper YG’s “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump)” from a speaker that could no doubt be heard by anyone standing outside the White House. One woman was dancing along while waving a flag that also read “Fuck Donald Trump.” But her victory dance was quickly interrupted by a pro-Trump protester carrying a homemade MAGA sign, as the two got into a shouting match that quickly escalated to them exchanging racial slurs. Members of the National Guard eventually walked over to solve the dispute, and the two protesters went their separate ways.
The music then took an apolitical turn: “Jumpin’ Jumpin’” by Destiny’s Child began playing over the speaker. The genre change, from contemporary protest rap to pre-9/11, end-of-history dance pop, was very much welcomed by the authorities tasked with watching over a block that has been marred by political violence over the past year. As Beyoncé’s verse came on during the eleventh hour of Trump’s presidency, protesters began cheerily jumping around, while even a couple of police officers and Guardsmen joined in with subtle dances of their own.
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