Whether you enjoy watching the news and staying up to dates with current political affairs occurring globally, as adolescents growing up internationally amongst rapidly transforming political environments, most students attending international schools must bear in mind the importance of critically analyzing ongoing the various political movements that continually infiltrate society.

Political unrest has been omnipresent globally, a result of juxtaposing personal beliefs and values and their representation in governmental and constitutional institutions. Past and current conflicts have instigated a flurry of violent reactions, in the form of protests and riots. Recently, in 2021, new height were reached in the United States, insighting grave concern amongst local and international spectators as reported by numerous new agencies such as ABC news.

Political tension within the United States have been rising ever since the inauguration of president Donald Trump in 2016, and many of his attempts to implement policies which many deem as unconstitutional and an infringement on human rights, such as many of his immigration laws against Islamic nations. Additionally, his belief that climate change is simply a hoax, also lead to the United States pulling out of the United Nations Paris Agreement, a legally binding treaty on climate change created in the hopes of globally peaking greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve a climate neutral world by 2050.

The 2020 United States presidential election also garnered worldwide attention, with spectators curiously waiting to see whether Americans would once again vote for a man who's solution to COVID-19 was injecting hand sanitizer into the circulatory system. However, after much anticipation, it was announced that Joe Biden would be serving as president of the United States for the next four years. The emotionally charged nature of politics, at times, makes individuals act rather irrationally. As shown from the news segment broadcasted on ABC news, the building frustration generated by the presidential election was finally unleashed on January 6th 2021. The United States Capitol was flooded by a mob of Trump Supporters in an attempt to reverse his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

The mob protestors were supposedly egged on by Trump himself, smashing windows and looting congressional offices. Some rioters were reportedly shouting about lynching powerful law makers including Vice President Mike Pense. Once the building was secured hours later, authorities found a gallows and a noose. The aftermath of such riots generated much backlash from the public, who compare how police handled this riots, in contrast to previous riots.

On June 2019 in Washington DC , police officers in riot lobbed stun grenades at demonstrators gathered near the White House to condemn police use of deadly force against African Americans. Most of these demonstrators were African American, chanting slogans as a means of denouncing police brutality by carrying signs with the names of African Americans who had previously died at the hands of law enforcement. Comparatively, this protest was carried out much more peacefully than the more recent one at the Capitol, if so, why were the peaceful African American protestors treated so brutally in comparison to the white protestors at the Capitol?

"No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol," President-Elect Joe Biden said in a video statement Thursday. "We all know that's true. And it's unacceptable. Totally unacceptable."

The riots brought forth at the Capitol have garnered world wide attention, leaving many questioning the morals/values and the extent that individuals will go through to reclaim a lost election. This tragedy prompted the president to declare a state of emergency in the District of Columbia. Such violence and vandalism should be unequivocally condemned.

However, many have begun questioning the acceptability of such violence as a means to and end. Commentators globally have compared the Capitol Hill riot to the American Revolution, radical changes are often greeted with violence, so in reality, is this concept new to society?

The answer: this concept is fairly atypical for the evolved, tamer, 21st century society which new generation Americans have grown up amidst. As a society, it is increasingly important to recognize that much more constructive methods exist in regards to improving institutionalized procedures. We must remember to improve and not rescind into the barbaric past. Recent events have demonstrated that peaceful protests achieve the same amount of advocacy and call for even greater and more impactful change than methods of violence.

Although individuals are justified for demonstrating their opinions regarding their political beliefs, such riots were both morally and principally unjustifiable. How will Trump's loyalists continue responding to the numerous conspiracy theories and mis-information that they are being fueled with? Only time will tell.