Newly obtained video shows movement of group suspected of constructing Jan. 6 gallows hours before Capitol siege

[0rganism]

43. Not in that set up, not for long

I've done some carpentry in my time, not sure how much you do. I've also taken classes in Newtonian mechanics (static and dynamic) during my undergraduate engineering studies. From my POV there's no way that structure is robust and stable enough to use as an actual gallows.

The issue isn't the 4x4 posts themselves, I'm sure they're perfectly capable of supporting body weight when correctly placed. The problem is in the configuration. There's no easy way to make the thing work as more than a prop as constructed. Just look at it: where does the victim hang? In front of the platform? The posts that "vertically" (they aren't exactly straight up, you can see that from some angles) support the crossbeam also support the platform. There's no visible cantilever or drop door. How would you force an unwilling human to hang to death from the crossbeam when the platform is right under his/her feet? It just doesn't work that way.

As for its apparent stability, if that "noose" were replaced with a tire swing I wouldn't let a child play on it. Pushing an attached struggling victim off the side is a good way to get the entire thing to fall over. Granted, the injuries from such a fall could be fatal, but that's not a hanging.

If the mob had instead found a large tree and slung an actual noose over a thick branch about 10 feet up with a footstool beneath it, that would have been more of a credible deadly threat than these "gallows" with much less effort.