On Jan. 6, what seemed to be a peaceful protest at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., turned violent. The walls of the Capitol were breached and rioters looted and vandalized offices of elected officials. House and Senate members were escorted out of the building to safety, but many people believe there weren’t enough safety measures put into place during the event. 

  University of Central Missouri students have come to their own conclusions about the riot, and many have negative feelings.

  Melanie Cox, a freshman accounting major, said she believes the event revealed former President Donald Trump’s true character.

  “I think they just wanted to fight back, but when that happened, Trump was like, ‘Oh, it’s okay, guys, we’ll get through this.’ When the Black Lives Matter protests were happening, he was like, ‘Those are riots, those are awful,’ but it’s the same thing,” Cox said. “They meant for it to be violent. It’s kind of hypocritical.”

  Senior Jerry Delargy, a health studies major, said he thinks the entire event was maddening.

  “I’m kind of a moderate, and I saw it and agree nor disagree with either side, but it’s just like common sense to me, like why are we storming the Capitol?” Delargy said. “It just goes against everything that they’re saying.”

  Delargy also said he believes Trump should not have put up a fight with the election results.

  “It’s a bad look,” Delargy said. “Just accept the loss. Move on. That’s just how life is.”

  Paige Bockes, a sophomore early childhood education major, said she found the event terrifying.

  “I actually watched almost the entire thing as it happened,” Bockes said. “We had C-SPAN up on the TV just because we were wanting to watch the Senate because it was Confirmation Day. We watched everything kind of unfold live, which was really scary because that’s something you never think to see on live television.”

  Bockes also said it’s important to not blame Capitol security for the event, since there is not enough information released to the public.

  “For all we know, maybe it was an inside job and someone had purposefully lessened security or we just had sympathizers within the police, but there were also people that did their jobs and did protect our nation’s leaders,” Bockes said.

  Despite the protests and additional ballot counting, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States on Jan. 20, as scheduled.

  Victor Nieves, a senior political science major, was in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. Nieves said his decision to go to D.C. was mostly spur of the moment, and Donald Trump’s words impacted his decision.

  “To me, it was as soon as we heard from the president at the time. He said ‘I want y’all to be in D.C.’ I booked everything, and I decided I was going to go to D.C.,” Nieves said.

  Nieves said he wasn’t in the group that stormed the capitol, and that while people there were upset, he had a positive experience. 

  “My experience was that everybody was kind, peaceful. It blew my mind, the demographics between young, old. You saw people from all over the world were there. Every ethnicity, race, gender, whatever it could be, we were all there,” Nieves said. 

  Nieves said he believes the biggest misconception about the events of the day was that everyone there was a domestic terrorist. 

  “Although there were certainly people there you would condemn and say they went way too far, you’re talking about a tiny little handful,” Nieves said. 

  Nieves said he is glad he went to D.C., but he said he is careful about who he tells about his experience. 

  “I’m very hesitant even about who I’ll tell that I went there, just to exercise my first amendment. Most everybody there didn’t do anything wrong, but I’ll say ‘I was at D.C.’ and people immediately kind of distance themselves,” Nieves said.

  Last updated: March 2, 2021