PIIN condemns the violent attempt to disrupt the democratic process and undermine the results of the November 3, 2020 Presidential election. We call upon every member of Congress to hold President Donald Trump accountable for inciting these unlawful acts and demand that the rioters be arrested and held accountable for damage incurred and laws broken.

We call upon leaders at all levels of government and on both sides of the aisle to call the action what it was: an act of domestic terrorism and an attempted coup.

We also stand against the double standard exhibited in the preferential treatment given these white rioters versus the militaristic approach taken against peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors. We agree with President-Elect Joe Biden, who wrote that “No one can tell me if that had been a group of Black Lives Matter protestors, yesterday, that they wouldn’t have been treated differently than the mob that stormed the Capitol.“ We are determined to work until this is no longer true in the United States of America.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Washington, D.C. and with our entire country at this moment in history. We mourn the loss of life and the violence inflicted upon our nation’s capital. We pray for unity, peace and justice for all as we move forward.

As a faith-based organization, we will continue to draw on the strength of our traditions, staying committed to dismantling structural racism and injustice until all people are treated as equal.

PIIN is a network of congregations and organizations in the Southwestern Pennsylvania committed to drawing together people of faith to act powerfully on local and regional issues of justice and fairness. We are an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation a grassroots network of non-partisan, faith-based organizations in 15 states and 45 regions.