" We are here to help you.
On the window of a police car parked across a street in downtown Washington, those words are meant to be reassuring.
For ten days, traumatized by the attack on the Capitol on January 6 and under tension before the inauguration of Joe Biden, this Wednesday, the American capital has been barricaded to the point that it becomes unrecognizable.
Military tanks, fences topped with barbed wire, concrete blocks, areas closed to vehicles and sometimes even to pedestrians: all areas between the White House and Congress are under bell.
Victoria, a 19-year-old college student, lives in the "Woodward" apartment complex one block from the White House.
“Last Wednesday, the day of the Capitol storm, I stayed home all day, I really didn't feel safe.
The pressure has since diminished because there is a military presence on every street corner, ”she says.
The young woman must, however, adapt to new rules: "My building has asked residents to take all the cars out of the parking lot," she says.
VIDEO. United States: armed men in front of the capitol buildings of several states
The security forces feared that the attackers would place their vehicles in the parking lots of the city center several days before the inauguration in order to launch car-ram attacks.
Result: offices and residents are deprived of garage.
“They added a barrier right in front of my street,” continues Victoria.
If you want to approach the Mall
(Editor's note: the huge lawn between Congress and the Washington Monument)
, you have to go to the metal detector.
We're not used to it.
"
"Trump shed blood"
In the streets now, journalists are more numerous than the few passers-by who come to take photos of their metamorphosed city.
On the "Black Lives Matter Plaza", baptized this summer by the mayor of Washington, some demonstrators put down signs: "Domestic terrorists are not welcome", "Racism has no place here" or " Trump shed blood ”.
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Taylor, 29, walks her dog reading the slogans: “It's pretty surreal.
We felt like we had moved on after the violence this summer
(Editor's note: related to the Black Lives Matter protests)
, but we are facing another type of protest now.
"And to add:" There are so many security personnel that I hope that we will watch this moment by saying to ourselves that we have done too much.
But it's also because there are so many that it's effective.
They are doing a good job.
"
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Faced with this intimidating presence, the far-right demonstrations planned for Sunday have been reduced to grief.
But there is no question of letting your guard down: the tension is all the stronger as the authorities fear the complicity of members of the police in view of a possible attack on Wednesday.
The FBI will thus investigate the antecedents of the 25,000 members of the National Guard who will be deployed.
