Here we are at the one-year anniversary of the 6 January protest/riot/clambake/mess/whatever. What have we learned?
Nothing.
Oh, there are hours of video, trial transcripts, telephone messages and so on. Column-feet of news stories have been written about that day, and hours of TV and radio reports and commentary. But we're in the position of the farmer whose barn has almost burned down, walking around the mess, rebuilding -- and entirely unsure of how to keep it from happening again.
Protest is as American as a harbor full of tea. The day we stop waving signs, making speeches, yelling slogans and pulling stupid stunts about issues some of us think are important would be a sad day indeed.
Trying to burn down the courthouse, any courthouse* -- or storming the Capitol building with the express purpose of stopping a normal function of government and succeeding in doing so for a time, is distinctly not normal. It goes beyond protest.
There are plenty of quibbles and caveats around the edges of 6 January, enough to keep squads of attorneys and commentators fat and happy, and no shortage of disturbing undercurrents. The basic facts stand: a large group of people overpowered the police and got into the U. S. Capitol building, where they made a mess and put Congress and the Vice-President to flight. Call it what you like but the events stand for themselves.
Here are some useful definitions:
Insurrection
Coup
Putsch
Revolt
Rebellion
You will hear those and their synonyms today, mostly because we don't have a word for short-term violent efforts that make messes but ultimately fail of their ill-conceived goal. None are exactly right and all of them are a bit too grand for the grubby reality -- but the events of 6 January 2021 were far worse than burning a courthouse. The mob was not out to lynch a person but a system of government.
Those events cannot be handwaved away -- and hand-wringing won't keep them from happening again.
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* Americans in mobs have historically burned a lot of courthouses, most of them in the course of lynchings. Nevertheless, it is not the done thing and sooner or later meets with opprobrium from the general public.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
5 comments:
From where I sit, I have a lot more questions about the conduct and count of the 2020 election then I do about the January 6, 2021 protest at the capital building.
Against my calmer judgement, Bruce, I have published your comment.
What happened outside the Capitol building began as an unauthorized protest; when it advanced to breaking windows and doors, entering the building and the House and Senate chambers and offices, it was at best a riot. "Unsuccessful insurrection" is a pretty accurate description.
As for the 202 Presidential election, I hear you (and what polls say are a majority of Republican voters), but I have to ask why you still believe that. Republican election officials in states where Mr. Trump lost all accepted the results as free and fair. Every court case was resolved in favor of the election not having been rigged or cheated -- including cases before Republican (or Republican-appointed) judges in Republican-majority states. The outside audit in Arizona found in Mr. Biden had won. There is no rational basis to believe the 2020 Presidential election was unfair or crooked.
A cross-check would be to examine Biden's "coat-tails:" did we see a disproportionate number of Democrat victories in down-ticket races, especially for the House and Senate? Surely a rigged election would also have aimed to tilt the balance of power to give the Dems an insurmountable majority in Congress. But that's not what happened. In fact, the Democrats did so poorly in those elections that the GOP could have had a Senate majority had they not bungled the Georgia runoffs.
I don't think any of this will change your mind. I wish I did.
I was dismayed at the behavior of Trump, after he had lost the election. If he felt that he had won, the smart money would have said that he should have respectfully admitted that Biden won, conceded, and then vowed to investigate the election, and ensure that never again would there be the possibility of such a thing happening again.
But instead, he acted like a petulant child, and in doing so, he made it so that I would never vote for him, again, no matter what. I never liked him, but I voted for him twice.
As for the riot at the capitol, I think that there were two different types who broke in. There were the super militant type, who really were out for blood, and wanted to actually cause harm to our congress people. And then, I think that there were the hangers on, the people who were there to see the action, and were the type who liked to follow along and see what was happening, but still wanted to remain away from any violence, if it started, and wanted to just say that they stepped foot inside the building, and then step right out, and go back to work the next Monday. Sadly, the Feds didn't seem to see it that way, but just counted them all the same, and through the net as wide as they could, and gathered anyone that they could, and put them all in the same basket, charging them with as much as they could, not caring if the charges reflected reality or not.
The name Ashley Babbit became either a rally for the pro rioting side, or a name to hang the group of rioters on, to show just how depraved they all are. Instead, I think that she is just a tragic reminder that all actions come with their own results, and you have to count the cost before you decide to step up for such things as attacking the capitol.
Now, I see the news coverage has Ashley B. and her life before getting put through a ringer, with things that she did before being shown for the whole world to see.
I live in Michigan, and there was a bus going to the capitol from my area. I didn't even hesitate before saying, Hell No. I knew that bad things were going to happen in D.C. that day, I didn't know what, but I knew that it was not the place to be. Sometimes, you have to be smart, and avoid bad areas, to stay safe. I don't go to certain areas in my city, during the day or the night. I am not afraid, I just don't want to be stupid, and those places are where the most shootings occur. Shootings happen in my city now almost weekly, instead of 30 years ago, when I moved here, when it was bi monthly. So you have to be smart, and careful. If only people like Ashley Babbit thought like that, perhaps we would not know her name. Stupidity is probably responsible for a large % of deaths or injuries that could have been avoided simply by avoidance.
Pigpen51, you raise an interesting point, and one that may not be well understood. While intent matters in the commission of a crime -- if a stranger runs up to your car, desperately begging for help getting away from pursuit, and you innocently help out this person who turns out to have been fleeing police after committing a crime, you will very likely not be charged as an accomplice -- only *general* intent to commit a crime is required. You don't need to have had a specific plan.
Criminal trespass is criminal trespass. The Capitol was closed that day -- closed, locked, barricaded and guarded. Going in, even "just to look around," was a crime. Going in with a sign on a wooden or metal standard? That's a weapon, and there are multiple examples from that location on that day of exactly that use. How much mind-reading should the FBI do? Isn't that more a matter to be determined at trial?
There was a time and a place to go be heard, and that was at the Trump rally in the Ellipse, starting earlier that day. There was a time and a place to go be heard rowdily, if a person wanted to do so, and it was the unapproved protest outside the U. S. Capitol. Action past that starts at criminal trespass, proceeds to assaulting police, and escalates from there.
Protesters (in smaller numbers and less violently) have trespassed into Congressional buildings before, and some of those people have been arrested, either at the scene or afterwards; some have later faced criminal charges. This was larger and uglier, but it's the exact same action and process.
We can put a good scare into our Federal legislators at the ballot box; we can bend their ear as long as they hold office, using everything from polite letters and telephone calls to marching around, chanting slogans and waving signs. Forming a mob and rousting them out ain't the way. It's not how you get positive results.
From my point of view, the light sentences so far handed out say that our justice system does, indeed, differentiate between types of participants at the Capitol.
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