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The Other Ox Was Gored This Time
I don’t know why the elites of DC have their dresses over their heads about the violence in the capital yesterday. For months we’ve been seeing rioting, looting, vandalism, and violence in our cities, and the news media has downplayed it, characterized it as “mostly peaceful”, and acted as if the right to free speech extended to the right to riot and break the law to address political grievances. Clearly they’ve been communicating the message that violence is an acceptable means of protest. So why are they surprised by this?
Of course, it all just depends on whose ox is being gored.
This doesn’t excuse the violence, which ought to lead to the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators just as it should have been done to leftist perpetrators. Nevertheless, the hypocrisy of it is striking. The news media and Democrats who whitewashed the violence of Antifa and BLM share a great deal of responsibility for what happened yesterday.
Published in Law
There’s no excuse for what happened yesterday, but I have noticed one minor benefit. The media has rediscovered the word “riot.” The poor little word was undoubtedly concerned that it would never be used again.
They’ve also misappropriated the word “insurrection”. In general usage, an insurrection is a synonym for “armed rebellion”.
The US Capitol has a symbolic significance to most Americans that random government building in Democrat hellholes do not.
Certainly, the riots we have seen all year were more destructive, more malicious, and more concerning because Democrats encouraged those mobs.
But the US Capitol is among the closest things to a sacred space as the American people share. It is symbolic of America writ large, as it is where the many states come together to negotiate our shared project.
Furthermore, we only know in hindsight that the crowd was not murderous (though no Congressmen were left inside to attack or hold hostage). No one would allow an angry crowd to storm Congress on a presumption that they will be civil once inside.
It’s not the end of the world. But it was an embarrassment and, more importantly, undermined Republican legislators who were calling for an investigation of the rigged election.
I see your point, but the enormity of what has happened, that is, the destruction of the integrity of the ballot to the point that people don’t think elections are valid, suggests that a really shocking gesture needed to be made.
I agree, but this summer’s destruction went well beyond government buildings and reached into many people’s livelihoods. That has, or should have, a special significance as well.
I agree with his post. It need repeating.
As a side matter, the Capitol Hill cops screwed the pooch. This crapfest was foreseeable and those entrances can be secured. It was predictable and reinforcements from multiple sources were available. The Capitol cop force even tools up for the annual famously nonviolent Right To Life March so why they let themselves get overrun this way was inexcusable. The whole city has been on near high alert since the Floyd riots, so this was especially unforgivable. Costumed morons on the dais in our House should only happen in bad movies.
Reinforcements do require a multilateral communication. DC has lots of separate police forces. DC Metro Police don’t enter the Capitol or most federal buildings without notice or invitation. The Executive Protection Service and uniformed Secret Service have specific turf as do the Park Police. Every large agency has its own police force the rest are protected by the Federal Protection Service.
If you ever need to commit a murder in DC be sure to do it on federal land but drag the body to city jurisdiction and leave the murder weapon on federal agency property. You can be in Brazil by the time the jurisdictional issues are sorted.
I was surprised that it was so easy for rioters to get into Representatives’ offices. Do they not have locks on their doors?
Speaking of which:
https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/06/dc-mayor-told-federal-law-enforcement-to-stand-down-day-before-violent-us-capitol-riot/
One of the dumbest things about the Capitol incident is the entire Leftist/Democrat/Media complex immediately began to use the word “insurrection” as if it were magic, like it meant super-duper-riot. Same with “sedition” and “treason”. It seems as if suddenly Federal prison and/or death are required as punishment. It also seems to rhetorically get BLM/Antifa off the hook, as if the billions in property damage, the lost lives, and the stupidity of their activities were mere protests or maybe rioting-lite.
I have unfollowed dozens of newspapers and people in the last 2 days. I can’t stand it. It’s too stupid.
What a surprise. Mayor Bowser is usually a strategic mastermind about most issues.
I surmise she feared that cops and armed right-wingers in camo might spontaneously join forces and attack minorities and LGBTQXYZ people with those machine guns they buy at gun shows and country feed stores in red states. Better to stand them all down and rely on Pelosi’s flying monkeys and sleep spells.
There’s a real possibility that DC police were ordered off high alert to enable just such a PR disaster for Republicans. It should be clear by now that Democrats, media, and protest groups coordinate.
That said, major media were apparently not tipped to the event because they were not present when the mob pushed in.
On the other hand, mob participants were recorded with Antifa-like shields and helmets, indicating preparations for some kind of conflict.
It is indeed shocking to most people. Republicans, conservatives are not known for rioting. They are known for being polite and cleaning up their messes. Something new is happening, and whatever it is, its shocking.
I think it is because those who did the pushing in and destruction were NOT conservative, Republican, polite, [actual peaceful] protesting people. They had the gear, they had the disguises. Their mugs are in many of the photographs of Antifa
riotsmostly peaceful protests.The doors of the capitol building are guarded by armed men-really big “arms”–rifles, military style. I was just there two summers ago, and you cannot get into that building in a casual way. You have to go past a lot of firepower.
If this was not rigged and arranged then I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. On Mark Levin’s radio show this afternoon, (as I drove to the store) I heard him speak to at least four people who were there in the [actual peaceful] protest, who didn’t even know that Trump would be speaking. And who also had NO violent plans whatsoever. The idea was to show up en masse to let the Congress know that there was another opinion out there in the country.
There were also people posting photos of stockpiled riot supplies, another BLM/Antifa specialty.
Were the Capitol police outnumbered because those in charge were told to limit their presence? Have they been defunded? It seems there were very few on the inside manning the doors especially of the chamber. This is ridiculous. I agree that this is what people across the country suffered at the hands of BLM and Antifa and Congress got a taste of it. It’s still deeply wrong, but I believe they infiltrated and caused the destruction – at least pushed the crowd to commit the lawlessness we saw. With countless Trump rallies for years with no trouble caused by them, I don’t think they went there to cause trouble. I hope they find out who was behind it and it gets reported. To name a plaza in DC after BLM was appalling – what’s next CHAZ Square?
Those in charge at every level allowed the youth of this country to see that there are no boundaries, no respect for law and order, no lessons to be learned from history, no consequences for actions. This affects all political parties and our future – teaching youth that this is how you solve frustration is the result of the double standard of what constitutes right and wrong.
Spot on. Great observation.
These weren’t Republicans or conservatives. They were Trump disciples, and no, I don’t expect them to be polite and clean. And yes, I voted for the guy, though I now regret it.
I didn’t hear that they left a mess.
I did hear that at the Capitol there were anti-fa in the mix and, following anti-fa doctrine that they have posted on-line, they led the protesters in. At the invitation, believe it or not, of the police. Nobody broke into the Capitol.
I wonder if that evidence will make it into court?
I’m not sure courts use evidence anymore. But I hope they will.
Something standing, something laches.
The only laches they care about are the latches on the Iron Maiden.
One difference between the Capitol Hill riot and all of the BLM riots is that no one’s buying guns to protect themselves from viking hat guy.
Rules that do not apply:
Applicable rules:
Ricochetti should be disallowed from participating in social media because a zoon in a viking outfit broke into the Capitol and we are linked to him solely by a common antipathy to Democrats.
Anybody seen a crowd estimate? Not me. I checked the Park Service website.
Oh well. I officially left twitter anyway. I’d leave facebook, too, but I haven’t figured out how to do it yet.
That’s why people sell “delete my facebook account” KITS on ebay etc. They make it very difficult, on purpose. If you even start the “delete my account” action and then in a couple weeks or so, try to login to see if it’s been deleted, that action alone stops the delete.
Scale is as follows: Right-to-Life /Tea Party/etc cannot be estimated above 20,000 even if that is wrong by multiples; Anti-Bush/Anti-Trump/Occupy Wall Street/ BLM cannot be less than 50,000.