We live close to downtown Washington, the weather was cool but sunny, and my family and I finally had a few hours off. We took a walk to see what our city looks like, 10 days after the riot at the Capitol and 4 days before the presidential inauguration.
Stars and Stripes reporter Bob Reid put it well on Twitter. The city’s center doesn’t quite look like a war zone. Instead, “it looks more like a Cold War frontier zone in the ‘70s. Empty streets, barriers, bored armed troops.”
About half a mile from Pennsylvania Avenue, you walk past the first security perimeter, where National Guard Humvees or dump trucks are parked, along with arrays of jersey barriers, to block vehicles. A block or so before Pennsylvania Avenue, you hit the next ring of security, where pedestrians like us wait in line to be searched, then let in. From there, you can go all the way up to the metal fencing that blocks access to the National Mall and everything about 1,000 yards from the Capitol.

Here are some photos of what we saw. It’s grim. We’re so much worse off than we were four years ago.
And may I emphasize: f*** every one of my fellow Americans who has made this happen to my city and my country. You can all go straight to hell.
Click on each photo for full resolution. Like everything else on my site, these photos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Yours to share and adapt, just give credit.















Thanks for recording this – it’s important to show those of us not there what it looks and feels like now. Really brings home what has been destroyed – the atmosphere and feel of our nation’s capital city.
Brought a tear to the eye… I blame every last asshole who has enabled, made excuses for, secretly liked the last four years, and Bush and Cheney. All those fucking people who drove this country to where we are now. No Lincoln Project republican can pretend they didn’t play a part. Amazing the rage we feel, but I didn’t see us behaving like mindless thugs when the Trumpsters won last election. Not feeling like I need to “understand” them yet!
Thank you for recording this for us to see. The country is riven, but I can only hope we will grow past this. We did survive the 60s with civil rights leaders murdered, students shot down at college protests, and on civil rights marches in the South, people setting themselves on fire, being beaten at national party conventions. A terrible fever dream that needs to be dispelled. May our poor country succeed in moving forward to a better, lighter place.