My wife and I attended the "Stop the Steal" Trump Insurrection on Wednesday (worth the read)
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Terry Bouton
@TerryBoutonHist
My wife and I attended the “Stop the Steal” Trump Insurrection on Wednesday (as observers, NOT participants) and there are FIVE big take-aways from what we witnessed and heard outside the Capitol that I'd like to share. (We took all the pictures below). 1/22
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My wife and I attended the “Stop the Steal” Trump Insurrection on Wednesday (as observers, NOT participants) and there are FIVE big take-aways from what we witnessed and heard outside the Capitol that I'd like to share. (We took all the pictures below). 1/22
1) This insurrection wasn’t just redneck white supremacists and QAnon kooks. The people participating in, espousing, or cheering the violence cut across the different factions of the Republican Party and those factions were working in unison. 2/22
Preppy looking "country club Republicans," well-dressed social conservatives, and white Evangelicals in Jesus caps were standing shoulder to shoulder with QAnon cultists, Second Amendment cosplay commandos, and doughy, hardcore white nationalists. 3/22
We eavesdropped on conversations for hours and no one expressed the slightest concern about the large number of white supremacists and para-military spewing violent rhetoric. Even the man in the “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt wasn’t beyond the pale. They were all “patriots." 4/22
I'm sure there were Republicans there who were horrified by what was happening. But the most common emotions we witnessed by nearly everyone were jubilation at the take over and anger at Democrats, Mike Pence, non-Trump supporting Republicans, and the Capitol Police. 5/22
2) There is no doubt the Capitol was left purposefully understaffed as far as law enforcement and there was no federal effort to provide support even as things turned very dark. This contrasts sharply with all of other major protests we have attended. 6/22
A lot has been made of the contrast to the overwhelming police presence at Black Lives Matters protests in the fall, and this is certainly true. But there was also A LOT more federal law enforcement presence at every single previous protest we have attended in DC. 7/22
Most of these protests involved tens of thousands of mostly white, middle-aged people (meaning race wasn’t the only reason for the disparate police presence). Even the March for Science had far more police for a non-partisan event featuring “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” 8/22
By contrast, there was a tiny federal police presence at “Stop the Steal” despite weeks of promises of violence spread on social media by well-known far-right radicals, many of whom had long histories of inciting violence. 9/22
When we arrived, the only forces present were the clearly overwhelmed Capitol Police. The only reinforcements that arrived were other Capitol Police. There were a handful of DC Metro police, but they had accompanied the ambulances to take away the injured. 10/22
The only other federal law enforcement presence was an FBI Swat team of about eight officers who arrived to provide cover for the Capitol Fire and EMTs there to extract Ashli Babbitt, the QAnon radical who was shot inside the Capitol Building. 11/22
Once the FBI team got Babbitt out, they left and no other federal officers arrived in the more than two hours that followed. The small Capitol Police force was left to deal with the chaos by themselves. 12/22
3) The Trump rioters only supported law enforcement as long as they believed law enforcement was supporting them. Rioters, many carrying Thin Blue Line flags, seemed convinced that the Capitol Police would turn against the government and join them. 13/22
Numerous rioters shouted at the police, saying some version of “we had your back, now you need to have ours.” All of the Capitol officers we saw—Black, white, Latino, male, female—seemed alarmed by what was happening and continued to try to do their job faithfully. 14/22
And the crowd reviled them for it. They booed the police and FBI swat team, calling them traitors and murderers. A man on the back Capitol steps ripped up a Thin Blue Line flag, the torn stripes fluttering down over a crowd briefly chanting “fuck the police.” 15/22
4) There were also no clear crowd rules imposed for Stop the Steal like there were for all the other protests we have attended. All of the “liberal” protests of the last four years we attended had a long list of things you could not bring that were enforced at the Capitol. 16/22
At these protests, there were no poles or sticks, no backpacks, no weapons or body armor, etc. There were sometimes security check points to go through to get onto the mall or Capitol grounds. 17/22
None of these standard rules applied to Stop the Steal. There were poles and flags and backpacks and body armor EVERYWHERE. We didn’t see any guns or knives. But there were certainly people brandishing flag poles as if they were weapons. 18/22
5) These people are serious and they are going to keep escalating the violence until they are stopped by the force of law. There were many, many people there who were excited by the violence and proud and excited about the prospect of more violence. 19/22
And it wasn’t just the white nationalists, Second Amendment radicals, and QAnon boneheads. I can’t adequately describe the blood lust we heard everywhere as we walked over the Capitol grounds, even from mild-mannered looking people. 20/22
The most alarming part to me was the matter-of-fact, causal ways that people from all walks of life were talking about violence and even the execution of “traitors” in private conversations, like this was something normal that happened every day. 21/22
I am convinced that if Congress doesn’t act to do something about this quickly, these people are going to keep going and the unrest and violence will get more widespread and more uncontrollable. This is a crisis. It’s real. It’s happening. It must be taken seriously. 22/22
= new reply since forum marked as read
Sadly, you are correct. 
difference, so I don't think you should worry that Democrats will be dancing with criminals because the Republicans did.
Otoh, Democrats believe in the rule of law and principles of proportional punishment (while conservatives tend to be more to very punitive against those they define as criminals), so I can't assume you'll be more pleased with Democrats. Guessing that may depend on the laws currently on the books.
"the government," undifferentiated, never could be bothered to prosecute domestic terrorists. Struck me as kind of an odd take for both reasons.
I don't go looking for stories about arrests, but I'm in GA and noticed this morning that the current feds, not next month's, just arrested 4 domestic terrorism plotters in GA, 3 and then another, something about plotting to poison drinking water and take down infrastructure.
I rather doubt "the government," current OR Biden admin, will just turn them loose with probation and counseling, but others are concerned.
Get swept under the carpet. Even now they are trying to blame Antifa and say this stuff didn't happen.
They think they can delete the post and say "What do you mean I was there? There isn't any post like that on my account."
I used to read about how the KKK in the South would have so many key positions populated by their own so that they did not get prosecuted. How high up does the complicity go if they allowed The Capitol to be attacked and with held National Guard?
I wonder at this point if we don't specifically put that kind of violence into the language of Domestic Terrorism if it will just get swept under the rug again.
It is one thing to "interpret" the law when it's vague, but if it is clearly spelled out then it simply needs to be applied and even then not always equally as we've seen so many times white people with fancy lawyers get away with so much more.
Oh Hi BTW
I wish all the thousands were going to be tracked to their homes and prosecuted for something, since I don't believe any are innocent of very bad intentions, whether they admit that to themselves or not.
It would have helped any of these shocked "patriots" enormously to take time out from their favorite social media babble to connect to the real world. It's just not realistic to expect to break into the Capitol with a violent mob intent on overthrowing our election without legal repercussions, even if all they do inside is shit on the floor and track it around while taking selfies.
They are talking at this point of ultimately prosecuting hundreds there to do real, violent harm, but not all the thousands of idiot "patriots" come at the call of their president to join in the violence and insurrection the serious terrorists in the militant groups were promising.
If some knew their behaviors were motivated above all by fear and racism and went to take the government to impose white supremacy, those could perhaps be prosecuted for hate crimes, but that's not the case for the vast majority.
Authoritarians are specifically severely lacking in insight into themselves, which is how they got into this mess. They really do believe they're patriots answering their leader's call to save their nation from evil conspiracies, and most would sincerely deny racism has anything to do with it, though of course it's a huge factor.
Hopefully at least most will be forced to realize most around them see them very differently.
Who would have thought the alleged "Blue Lives Matter" crowd of Insurrectionists would kind of adjoin decades later with the likes of a Hip Hop group of the mid-late 1980's and early 1990's called N.W.A. in Chanting "fuck the police" but for COMPLETELY DIFFERENT reasons?
Talk about full circle.
However, N.W.A.,'s "fuck the police" was to combat Police Violence generally, especially in the wake of the L.A. Riots and Rodney King beating in the streets during that period versus beating police FIRST with flags, fire extinguishers, sticks, rocks and possibly guns to overthrow the seed of Government.
Yeah, full circle moments, for sure.
Explicit lyrics warning, in advance:
They killed a cop by beating him with a fire extinguisher. It really goes to show that "blue lives matter" was never about honoring the police force, but about silencing the "black lives matter" movement.
We have no choice, we already know they want to kill everyone who isn't with them.
Those days of innocence will never return to the USA. But we need to find new ways to stifle and punish the liars in our midst. That CAN be done, but not easily.
It seems like there is a window, even a doorway, just a little lower and easier to access.
