We need to start calling it the sacking of the Capitol.

[LS_Editor]

The Capitol was sacked. All the damage. All the injuries. Deaths. Call this what it is.

[Jim__]

1. It may yet prove to be an underlying event in the decline and fall of the United States.

I hope not. But the ultimate price remains undecided.

[CTyankee]

2. Sacking was done in ancient times by Vandals .

Those folks were vandals, vandalizing public property.

[MyOwnPeace]

3. No - it was not JUST a 'sacking'.........

it was an INSURRECTION - an attempt to overthrow the government!


in·sur·rec·tion
/ˌinsəˈrekSH(ə n/

noun
a violent uprising against an authority or government.

The RepubliQans are TRYING to make it seem like just another little problem or 'sacking.'

IT WAS AN INSURRECTION!!!!!!!

"With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost." ...William Lloyd Garrison

[magicarpet]

4. Keep it simple,... SACKING is fine,....

Sacking,... ransacking,... $30M worth of damage by trDump fascist vandals being Nazis.

There must be consequences for them, or they come back and do it again.

[TheRealNorth]

5. But it was an insurrection....

And the stated purpose was to prevent Congress from recognizing the legitimate winner of the election.

[Hortensis]

18. Right. This downplays what happened to vandalism. Why?

[bottomofthehill]

6. To me, sacking is a bad term. People were worked up over calling it a riot over insurrection.

Sack seems like a lower bar than Riot, Armed Insurrection, seems a higher bar than Riot. Having lived through it, I think it important to capture the harshest term possible as it was as crazy as the word of the worst videos showed. It was an act of domestic terrorism. I know sacking the castle in the time of the feudal lord was a terrible thing, but it does not seem to capture what happened in today’s language.

It was an armed insurrection against the government of the United States. An attempt to overthrow an Elected President of the United States.

I hope everyone convicted rots in jail for a long time as that punishment ( to me ) is justified.

I have to say this again, THINGS WERE AS BAD ON 1/6 AS THE WORST VIDEO SHOWED.

The people who attacked the Capitol are terrorists

[fescuerescue]

8. All this handwringing over the dictionary

I think will be lost to history.

History will just define it as it is.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. The sacking during the riot was only part of the insurrection. It's all of the above. . . . nt

[fescuerescue]

7. Umm. That's a bit of over statement.

Read up on what happens when a city is sacked.

I mean you can call it whatever you want. But if you want credibility you gotta stay stay within reason.

[bullimiami]

9. Or the crapping in the capital.

[Gaugamela]

11. While we're at it, we need to call it the Republican War on Democracy. The sacking of the Capitol

was part of an ongoing effort to destroy democracy in this country. Many people have a low opinion of “government” because of 40 years of right wing anti-government propaganda, but the ideal of democracy still has a halo around it for most Americans, like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Our Democratic Senators and Representatives should start referring to Republican voter suppression laws as the Republican War on Democracy.

[pnwmom]

12. Sacking means plundering. Insurrection, revolt, mutiny, uprising

are all better descriptions of what happened at the capitol.

Yes, there was some plundering -- things were destroyed and items were taken -- but the biggest crime was the act of revolt against the government.

[BobTheSubgenius]

13. One thing's sure. "Riot" is just NOT cutting it as a description.

[pnwmom]

14. I agree. "Riot" implies that people are out of control. This was a deliberate revolt. n/t

[BobTheSubgenius]

19. Exactly! It has a connotation of being a spontaneous outburst, which for some, it may have been.

But there was at least a large cadre who were in on it for months, and planned and planned, and reconnoitred. They were still pretty ragtag, but did accomplish some mayhem.

And, btw, pnwmom....greetings from north of the border. Victoria BC here.

People call this part of the PNW, but it's actually the PSW for us.

[pnwmom]

21. We've always loved Victoria. It's beautiful there.

Looking forward to returning someday, when the border reopens.

[BobTheSubgenius]

23. It is great here. I was born here, but moved away before I had a say in it.

Came back in 79, and have been right here ever since. I'm glad you like it here - many of us are quite proud of the place. Not as proud as if we'd built it ourselves, of course. That's Texas.

Maybe our paths will cross!

[pnwmom]

24. What we've always been struck by in our visits to Canada

is how polite and helpful most people are. Not just superficially friendly, as in some of our southern states -- something that feels real.

I hope that never changes.

[BobTheSubgenius]

25. You and me both!

[scarytomcat]

15. Who is going to pay.for the damage?

30 million for a few hours of fun

[Buckeye_Democrat]

16. That's the term used by Malcolm Turnbull...

... former PM of Australia.

Interview by CNN in which he strongly criticized Rupert Murdoch, and described Jan. 6th as a sacking:

After he said it, I was struck by how rarely Americans ever use that term!

[Hortensis]

17. It was an attempted overthrow of our election and new president. NOT a "sacking." nt

[Aristus]

20. Like the barbarian sack of Rome.

Although none of the Trumpsters were that cut...

[sir pball]

22. Haha..oh wait, you're serious...let me laugh even harder

The Insurrection of January Sixth is absolutely a stain on history and must be understood as appropriately serious, you can call it vandalizing, an invasion, a rebellion - but it was most emphatically not a sack.

This is "sacking".

In the early morning of 20 May, the attack began with heavy artillery fire. Soon afterward, Pappenheim and Tilly launched infantry attacks. The fortifications were breached and Imperial forces were able to overpower the defenders to open the Kröcken Gate, which allowed the entire army to enter the city to plunder it. The defence of the city was further weakened and demoralised when commander Dietrich von Falkenberg was shot dead by Catholic Imperial troops.
------
By ten o'clock most of the city was on fire. General Tilly sent some soldiers to save the cathedral, where 1,000 survivors had fled. Most of the victims in the sack suffocated or burned to death. The wind fanned the flames, further spreading the fire, in the end destroying 1,700 of the city's 1,900 buildings.
------
Whilst Magdeburg was razed by the fire, many Imperial soldiers supposedly went out of control. The invading soldiers had not received payment for their service and demanded valuables from every household they encountered. There were reports of gang rapes of minors and torture:

When civilians ran out of things to give the soldiers, the misery really began.
For then the soldiers began to beat, frighten and threaten to shoot, skewer, hang, etc., the people.

—?Otto von Guericke, Magdeburg councilman

Of the 25,000 inhabitants, only 5,000 survived.

Also see Rome, 410.