Agree with this. Not to condone Jan 6, but the prosecution of those protestors was punitively harsh. People who should have been given simple fines for trespassing were instead given custodial sentences.
Most of the Jan 6 trespassers got off pretty easy, especially if they settled. Most of them who made it into the rotunda stood around gaping with dumb looks on their faces, like the proverbial dog that catches the car. They didn’t know what to do and they sensed they shouldn’t be there. Many of them then listened to Capitol police offers in the building and exited.
But many didn’t exit and they formed a tense, violent, and scary mob, in the seat of our government, to disrupt the Constitutional transfer of power. It is amazing that more people didn’t die (a SWAT team quickly dispersed the mob outside the Speaker’s lobby right after the lone shooting) and there were many acts of heroism and smart policing to distract, disorient, and delay the mob, buying more time for evacuation of Members of Congress and for law enforcement to regroup in force. Many in the mob had weapons, which is a couple of felony counts right off the bat (possessing weapons in the Capitol, which is looser than you may think, and possessing weapons in the Secret Service restricted area around POTUS and VPOTUS, which is a felony that doesn’t mess around).
The felonies and misdemeanors at issue in the case I was on were pretty clear and the jury reached its verdict thoughtfully, carefully, and quickly (we all quietly read through the many pages of the counts and judge’s instructions before opening discussion; it was an excellent group of people).
January 6 was an insurrection. Most members of the mob were sad sack idiots, and I can feel sympathy for them as individuals. But if anything, the government did not treat them harshly enough, nor quickly enough.
I am a bit worried about my own safety now, with all the insurrectionists having been pardoned. Fun times.
If it was an insurrection, why didn’t they use them?
Or was it the peaceful kind?
1. They got lost. 2. When they got to the House, Cap Police was there, and distracted/delayed them for a few minutes. 3. Officers with guns drawn were on other side of doors. 4. Ashley Bobbitt was shot as soon as she started to climb through the Speaker’s lobby doorway, stopping and upsetting the mob. 5. The Capitol police SWAT came up the stairs into that area a minute or two later and cleared them out. 6. And finally I can’t emphasize this enough: these people were morons.
I don’t really want to argue online with a redpilled HN idiot about Jan 6. If you think Jan 6 wasn’t bad, then you, too, have likely been mislead because you, too, are likely a moron. Or if you’re not a moron, then you’ve just turned heel for the lulz, a moldbug wannabe.
it mentions exactly 7 people that carried guns:
Garret Miller
Christopher Kuehne
Guy Reffitt
Jerod Thomas Bargar
Mark Andre Mazza
Lonnie Leroy Coffman
Joe Biggs
also, Alex Kirk Harkrider brought a tomahawk axe
not much of an insurrection, we could say a mostly peaceful one
I find it odd that you’re ok with peaceful insurrections. It’s not ok for a small mob to attempt to overthrow the government, whether they go about it violently or not. (Ironically, the fictional election fraud that was being protested would itself be a peaceful insurrection, so one wonders what supporters of peaceful insurrections would have found to complain about in Biden’s victory!)
You can read the rest of the report if you are still inclined to view this disgraceful episode in US history as a ‘mostly peaceful’ one.
He was carrying zip ties (intent was to tie up house members), a taser, and wearing body armor. Later, he was found guilty of felonies and sent to prison, then pardoned and released by Trump.
That's right, Trump pardoned a guy whos intent was to go into the house of representatives, secure the representatives, and taser them.
Now, to be fair, I think most of the protestors were yokels who had no intent of doing that. It's typical in any protest to have a distribution- from peaceniks to fuck-shit-up people. If all you did was stand outside holding a sign and moved away when asked, I am not worried at all. If you go in an sit in nancy pelosi's chair in her office... that's worrisome but not truly scary. If you go in with weapons and attempt to kidnap representatives... you should go to jail and stay there and not be pardoned.
[update: there are a few factual corrections. It was the senate gallery, not the house chambers, and he stole the flexicuffs from a closet inside the building)