What would MLK have thought about violence at the Capitol? We asked his daughter

ATLANTA — The deadly riots on the U.S. Capitol last week have left many across the country reeling.

As we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today, a man who stood for nonviolence, Channel 2 Action News reached out to King’s family to see what advice he would give during troubling times for our nation.

Channel 2′s Audrey Washington talked to King’s daughter, Dr. Bernice King, who said her father would call on officials to act.

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[SPECIAL PAGE: Honoring MLK]

“Acts of violence were always very troubling and disturbing to him,” King said. “He would be encouraging us all the way around. One that we do have to ensure that there are penalties for those who violated the law because that was not peaceful protest. We need to stop calling it that. That was an insurrection.”

King said her father believed the seeds of violence ran deep, and that what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 26 was the harvest.

“He understood that if we did not do certain things in this country that we were headed to this,” King said.

King said the siege at the Capitol will be discussed the annual King holiday celebration, which is being held virtually this year because of the pandemic. She said the main focus will be on King’s belief in nonviolent protest and why it’s still relevant today.

“Violent vs. nonviolent revolutions, nonviolent revolutions are more successful,” King said. “They have more adherence. They win more people over. Violent ones don’t.”

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Martin Luther King the III reflects on his father's message, how it would relate to world in 2021