During my jury selection process, something unexpected became painfully obvious. The city of Washington, and the District of Columbia (in theory they are one place) are actually 2 separate things.
The jury pool was made up of residents of the city of Washington, District of Columbia, which does not have a vote in the electoral college, with regards to the presidency of the United States of America. On one occasion one of the potential jurors expressed how disturbed they were around January 6, 2021 with so many 'foreigners in red hats taking over our city and walking around on our streets'.
Almost without exception, the jury pool's personal lives were affected by the events surrounding January 6, 2021. Many of their lives were disrupted by the post J6 military occupation, roadblocks and other evidences of the mass number of people that had been in and around the city. There was a real feeling that the people who attended Trump's rally were foreigners, invading their "home". They were crime victims themselves.
On the other hand, the District of Columbia, DC as it's known to the 50 states, is the federal capitol, "Our Capitol". The residents of the 50 states, unlike residents of the city of Washington, have votes in the electoral college, and send representatives who legislate both for the nation and their districts. Those who traveled from outside the city of Washington, DC, they felt that this is "Our Capitol".
Do you see the distinction? The vast majority of protesters felt like they were on "our Capitol" grounds. We felt like we had a right to finally be there, to finally redress our grievances directly,especially after phone calls, letters and twitter posts had failed. A common chant on the Capitol grounds was, "Who's House is it?!", with the chant reply, "Our House!"
To the jury pool, this was not their belief, I don’t believe. The residents of Washington actually have a license plate that says "End Taxation without Representation", I assume because they actually don't have a vote that counts in the legislature.
By strict definition, all US citizens are citizens of the District of Columbia, OUR Capitol. But the residents who live here call it Washington, THEIR city. In the city of Washington, it feels like a stratified society. There are two job classes, government (or something connected to it, lobbying, nonprofits and law) and the service industry (food service, parking lot attendees or something behind a counter). My impression of DC was there is a giant sucking sound, drawing in tax revenue, but the city of Washington has little or no manufacturing or industry to speak of. And yet, there are brass plated fire hydrants...does your neighborhood have brass plated fire hydrants? I doubt it...
In a very literal sense, Washington is surrounded by 'foreigners', people who do not share a similar understanding of the difference between DC and the City of Washington.
The jury pool is full of people who (I believe) intuitively felt like those in the 50 states did not belong in their city that day, and those in the 50 states felt that they had every right to be in their Capitol.
What a difference these two perspectives can make? People describe Washington, DC as a 'bubble'. Wouldn't you if you lived here? The residents of the city have little at stake with who the President is, they have no representation in that regard. But on J6, the residents could easily see US citizens coming from the 50 states as invaders, in THEIR city, OUR Capitol.
Taylor
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