The Capitol mob's gleeful selfies are easy to mock. They're also a warning sign.

[Nevilledog]

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Julia Davis
@JuliaDavisNews
Many rioters failed at operational security in particularly ridiculous ways—white supremacist stormed the Capitol while wearing a court-ordered GPS tracking device, Texas Realtor advertised her services while live-streaming herself entering the Capitol.

Perspective | The Capitol mob’s gleeful selfies are easy to mock. They’re also a warning sign.
Accused rioters didn’t expect any consequences because they thought they were saving the nation.
washingtonpost.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/01/19/rioters-incompetent-fbi-arrests/

One person posted an image of himself on his Instagram story. There he was among the crowd of rioters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. Not content with a simple image, he added an arrow to make sure he was visible and recognized among the sea of people in the photograph. In all caps, he announced: “This is Me.”

Another perpetrator emailed videos depicting his actions at the Capitol to the FBI agent investigating him. “Hello Nice FBI Lady,” he said, “here are the links to the videos …. Let me know if you need anything else.” With that email, the bureau had enough information to arrest and charge the man in a criminal complaint. Front and center of the complaint and the detention memo were still shots from the video provided by the now-defendant.

As the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Justice Department last week unleashed an opening salvo of dozens of arrests against the perpetrators of the siege on Capitol Hill, their investigative efforts may have been inadvertently assisted by the targets of their investigations. Many seem somewhat clueless of the consequences of many of their actions, including those whose overt and public actions have led directly to their arrest and their likely successful prosecution. But the ease with which federal agents have rounded up some of the alleged perpetrators shouldn’t obscure the seriousness of the threat the failed insurrection posed — and the apparent certainty that many accused rioters had that they would face no consequences for their part in the violence is an ominous sign.

During and after the assault, social media was awash with photos, videos and announcements of these insurrectionists breaking a seemingly obvious criminal code by documenting their own violations of federal law, to the shock of many — including, one would imagine, the assistant United States attorneys charged with prosecuting these individuals. Admittedly, many rioters failed at operational security in particularly ridiculous ways — from the alleged white supremacist who stormed the Capitol while wearing a court-ordered GPS tracking device to the Texas Realtor who advertised her professional services while live-streaming herself illegally entering the Capitol. (She now says she deserves a pardon from President Trump.) One college student facing felony charges messaged another Instagram user on the 6th with a particularly salient point: “idk what treason is.”

*snip*

[Bluethroughu]

1. Funny thing these people can manage social media accounts during

An insurrection they are in the middle of, but fail to look up the consqences of breaking into a US CAPITAL BUILDING, planning and threatening to kill Heads of State.

Ignorance is no excuse for the law.

[EarlG]

2. This is why consequences are now so important

It was pretty startling to see how quickly many of the MAGA mob backed off once arrests started getting handed out.

I agree that their attitude — stoked by Trump and other Republicans — was that anything goes, and they thought there would be no consequences for their actions. This is why we can’t just let what happened go (despite laughable GOP calls for “unity” ). They need to know that there will be consequences for crimes.

Someone the other day flipped around that awful phrase the GOP loves — “cancel culture” — and relabeled it “consequence culture.” I like that.