Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, was aggressively invaded on January 6th by protestors angry with the election of  President Biden to office. The actions were done with the idea that the election was unjust and strengthened by Trump’s words, the protesters marched all the way up to the chambers of Congress. But, this brings to mind a proposal that was raised a few months ago that was denied in the Republican controlled senate: statehood for the District of Columbia. 

“I understand that where the senators are coming from when they mentioned BLM, I was slightly disappointed to see there wasn’t that much unanimous disapproval for the riots … peaceful protests are fine and I would have said that about Trump protests as well,” said Sri Kumara Kondapali, co-president of Amador’s Model Congress club.

To understand why, let’s take a look at the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in the same city. There is one main difference between the protests. The BLM protests had Trump position the national guard as a precaution. On the other hand, the national guard was not deployed on January 6th when protestors broke into Congress. Since the national guard is under the president’s control, it would be under his command when and where they are deployed. As such the District of Columbia area is almost defenseless in the case of such an event ever happening again. 

“Honestly it seemed to be a normal protest at first. And then a lot of people started storming into the capital through the capital gates, and I thought that was quite peculiar. I wasn’t exactly scared or anything because most of Congress had already evacuated, So it was just an exercise to see what these people are going to do, what are their goals?” said Kondapali.

How would D.C. statehood change things?

 The deployment of anything more powerful than what was already stationed on January 6th was out of D.C.’s control. Statehood on the other hand would allow it to be able to defend itself against external threats. During the event of the riot, D.C.’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, requested the deployment of the D.C. national guard at the scene, which was denied by the department of defense. If they had been under the control of the governor like in every state, then the events of January 6th might have been avoided. 

“D.C. has over 700,000 people just on merit alone, it should be in state. And in cases like this, it kind of gives an extra chance to really protect the federal government and whatnot, things that have importance,” said Kondapali.

While there are many other legitimate reasons for the statehood of D.C., the events of January 6th are more powerful and important than anything else. The capital of the United States, with a strong and modern military, is completely defenseless in a time of crisis. 

“D.C. is probably the most important bullet for central America. So I feel it’s a little foolish to deny representation. And doing this will prevent future attacks,” said Kondapali.

Overall, being a state would allow DC to have a force to protect itself from any and all threats regardless of foreign or domestic.  In hindsight, statehood will have also helped the defenselessness of the capitol and congress on January 6th and will prevent further events.