Raluca Bucur is an entrepreneur of Romanian origin who lives in Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the neighborhood where the headquarters of the United States Congress is located. In an interview for HotNews.ro, she tells how she experienced Wednesday’s events and what changed in the neighborhood after the violent protests of Trump’s fans.

Five people died after several supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday, where US deputies and senators were debating the confirmation of the vote in the US presidential election won by Joe Biden.

The events came as a surprise to both American politicians, who did not expect Trump’s unproven allegations of election fraud to anger the president’s fans so much, and law enforcement that failed to block the angry crowd’s access to the Capitol.

Raluca Bucur, a Romanian woman who lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, says that although she is very used to protests of all kinds, what happened on Wednesday was unusual, both for her and for her neighbors.

Gabriel Bejan: What were you doing when the protesters came to the Capitol?

Raluca Bucur: I want to specify that I was not in the middle of the protests, we live in Washington DC, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It is a short distance from the place where the protests took place. I was at home, in the middle of the working day, I was also following the procedures at the Capitol with the certification of the electoral votes. During this time I heard police cars and helicopters.

I knew there would be demonstrations that day in front of the White House, they had been planned for many weeks, all the neighbors in the neighborhood were aware that they would happen. Demonstrations are a very common thing in this area, we are always ready for crowds that come, for one reason or another, to demonstrate in Washington DC, so I don’t think anyone was very worried about what might happen.

GB: Did the scale of the protest take you by surprise? Do you expect so many people to come?

RB: The magnitude did not necessarily surprise us, because we knew from social media platforms that many people were planning to come to Washington DC, we knew that the hotels were busy. However, we were surprised that, at one point, the protesters were urged by the president to go to the Capitol. The demonstration was in front of the White House, it’s a distance of about two kilometers from there to the Capitol.

It was also a surprise when they began to cross the security barriers that were around the Capitol. Those who have been and visited the Capitol know that it is a very restricted area, ie after 9/11 you are not even allowed to climb the steps of the Capitol. Visits and access are severely restricted.

When the protesters began to cross the security barrier, I was initially following on Twitter data reported by people who were on the spot, I began to receive messages from friends who could not believe when they saw that the crowds were trying to enter the Capitol.

GB: How do you explain this ease with which they passed? Were there security / police cordons or not?

RB: The police had a presence there, there were police cordons, there were barriers that said “do not cross”, there were signs. Now there is a lot of discussion on this topic, why and how they managed to get through.

One theory is that the police were simply not worried that the demonstrators might try to attack the Capitol. I don’t think anyone imagined that their intentions were to enter and interrupt the deliberations.

In Washington we are used to protests, everyone’s right to free opinion is respected, which includes peaceful demonstrations, but we did not expect an attack. No one expected people to enter and try to interrupt legal proceedings that were taking place at the time.

GB: I suspect you’ve seen the BLM protests as well. Could you make a comparison of how the authorities reacted to the two protests?

RB: What I can say is that we also live very close to the area where the National Guard is being managed from (note: DC Armory). In the case of the Black Lives Matter protests, the National Guard was brought not only from the Washington DC area, but there were delegations from several states. This meant that there were armored vehicles parked on Constitution Avenue and in areas where protesters were expected to be.

There were not only police forces, but also security forces that were not easy to identify. I didn’t know exactly who those people were. In that case, indeed, the presence of the authorities was shocking. It was much more visible.

Police and security forces were more present and vigilant. There were also cases of illegal activities of protesters, such as graffiti and so on, but in general there were peaceful protests.

I can also tell you from my own experience that after every demonstration like this the city remains quite “trashed”.

GB: You mean dirty ..

RB: Yes, dirty. It’s impossible to have so many people demonstrating in one place and not be dirty.

GB: How did the protesters look like two days ago? I saw on TV that some were relaxed taking selfies, others were violent, tense. There were also exotic characters, as you probably noticed that Viking-clad gentleman. How would you characterize them?

RB: It seems to me that they are absolutely normal people. At the moment things are very polarized here and people can be easily identified. For example, supporters of President Trump wear red caps with “Make America Great Again.” People really want to be identified, to know which side they belong to.

Those I saw in the neighborhood wore T-shirts and hats with Trump, had flags, and were generally peaceful. They believe in things different from what the Democrats support, they are absolutely normal people, but it seems to me that they were encouraged and incited by the president to some actions that in the end were not entirely positive.

GB: A theory is circulating in conservative circles on the Internet that the perpetrators of the violence are people of Democrats infiltrated there to provoke and compromise the pro-Trump movement. What do you think?

RB: I find these theories absolutely ridiculous, fortunately there are enough records and enough people who witnessed what happened so that those who attacked the Capitol can be identified, many have been identified.

GB: What has changed in the last two or three days regarding security in the area? There are more controls at the moment, you are legitimate, is it harder to move from one area to another?

RB: Here, in general, people are not asked for identification by authorities due to privacy rules. That day, the mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, imposed a curfew (n.r.-state of siege) which means restricting movement between 6 pm and 6 am. From my point of view and that of my neighbors, it is quite complicated, because we could not go out or walk our dogs after 6 o’clock, so it was forbidden to absolutely any street movement. That bothered us, so to speak.

It seems that the protesters did not respect this ban because they were in the street until late in the evening and very late the police managed to clear the Mall and the streets around the Capitol.

Since then, I can say that the mobilization of the National Guard was done much later, in the afternoon to evening, unlike the BLM protests when the National Guard was present a few days before. Yesterday I was in that area and there are still streets blocked by police cars, you can’t enter there by car, I don’t know if you can walk because I haven’t tried, but I know that there are streets that are blocked by traffic. I’ve never seen protesters.

GB: Where did the protesters stay during this period, because many came from other cities? Have you seen tents around town?

RB: No, there are tents in the city, but they are typically for homeless people. I guess they stayed in hotels in the DC area, but I couldn’t tell you exactly where. Yes, that’s a good question. Some of them may have come for a day and returned home.

GB: As a personal opinion, how do you see the protesters, are they victims, manipulated, criminals? I am referring strictly to those who entered the Capitol, because the others exercised their right to protest.

RB: I think there was definitely some manipulation, I don’t know, it reminded me of the Romanian “Mineriade” (note: an incident in 1990 in Romania when then-president Iliescu asked miners to come to the capital and defend the administration. This resulted in violent incidents that are still infamous today), because President Trump appealed to the protesters who came to support him, he appealed to them to go to the Capitol . His words were “to encourage senators and deputies.” Now his words were probably interpreted directly.

However, I believe that the protesters felt justified, encouraged, supported by the President of the United States to start the action and for the fact that they violated the law, I hope they will be judged according to what the law says.

What I can say is that they have been entitled to protest, it is their right, we all have the right to express our free opinion here in the United States, which includes protesting, but what they are not entitled to is to attack a national institution, break the law and provoke chaos and endanger the lives of the country’s elected leaders.

GB: How widespread is this theory that the US election was stolen? For example, in your circle of acquaintances, neighbors, people you work with, are there many who believe that the American elections were stolen by Democrats?

RB: I personally do not know anyone who claims that the election was stolen. But we are really in a very polarized situation. We all live in our own bubble, so to speak. However, the president and his supporters had countless opportunities to prove, there were 62 lawsuits filed to prove electoral fraud, and out of all these 62 lawsuits they won only one and lost 61 times. And there are conservative judges who have decided in those cases. You can’t accuse them of subjectivism.

I understand that some people, living in their bubble and having access only to the information in their immediate circle, might get the impression that if they voted one way, everyone voted that way, but legally and procedurally. no one has been able to prove massive fraud, as President Trump claims it did. I think it’s the difference between believing something you are told and seeing the evidence.

GB: What do you expect in the next period?

RB: We hope to return to normal, we hope that the institutions that have resisted attacks for hundreds of years, from inside and outside, will continue to resist. Yesterday, the president issued a statement talking about a peaceful transition to the new administration. We hope for a normalcy in which the state institutions will be allowed to function. Many people recognize that it is a big problem that there are two completely different factions in society, they believe in completely opposite facts and live in different worlds, and this will take some time. It will not be resolved in the near future.