What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol

I'm afraid I see it differently. After years of carefully watching the media, I've realized that they do not have the citizen's best interests at heart. Whatever they're pushing, I'm intensely suspicious of.

Here's an interesting thought experiment for you to conduct:

What if these incidiary figures committing violence, egging on fellow protestors and erecting guillotines at the Capitol were actually bad actors with a nefarious agenda.

The crazier the crowd looks, the easier it is to ram through legislation that curtails the right to dissent. Personally I find it completely believable and considering the events of the last couple years, likely.

You should look at the actual charges for the things you mention.

ZERO charges of rioting. ZERO charges of attempted kidnapping. ZERO charges of insurrection. ZERO charges related to congress-people in any way, shape or form.

Zip-tie guy (the retired Lt. Col) and other zip-tie guy: entering a restricted building, violent entry, and disorderly conduct. NOTHING about your kidnapping claims.

Likewise, Viking Dude, West Virginia Rep, confederate flag guy, Auschwitz guy Olympic Gold Medalist, and around 60 others: entering a restricted building, violent entry, and disorderly conduct. Sometimes restricted building charge is swapped for obstruction, picketing in the Capitol, trespassing, or dropped completely

Molotov guy: 16 DC unregistered weapon violations, 2 federal violations (probably Molotovs), but he wasn't actually in the Capitol as far as I can tell, so any mention of those completely lacks intent.

Other big weapon guy: Making threats and unlicensed weapons, but again, not actually charged for being near the Capitol.

Guy sitting in Pelosi's desk, fur coat guy, and podium guy: violent entry, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and theft of public money, property or records.

Police officers: not sure about charges, but claim the DC police let them in which would probably mean nothing sticks.

Another guy got a curfew and unlawful entry for standing in a parking lot. Got to pump up the numbers somehow.

Now, we DO have 1 murderer (killed police officer with fire extinguisher). We have around 18 people wanted for "assault" (which includes simply shoving an officer -- serious, but nothing unusual during protests). We have 7 other people wanted for a police beating that ARE serious.

Finally, we have a seemingly unrelated pipe bomber who was likely using the event for cover. He/She (unlike everyone at the Capitol) made sure to cover their face and targeted the DNC/RNC headquarters rather than being involved in the "stop the steal" protest.

That's at MOST 30 people who did anything more than wandering around the capitol. Notice also that they didn't even try to charge with rioting. That's three orders of magnitude LESS than a single percent of all protesters.

Meanwhile, Antifa was blowing up firework cannonballs in the faces of police in Oregon for MONTHS at a FEDERAL courthouse. They called to kill all kinds of people -- including the president and vice president. There's videos of them doing stuff like lying in wait with hammers until police tried to go through the door. They tried to block police inside a precinct and burn it down. They beat scores of police to a bloody pulp. I don't care how you try to paint it, that was a way worse event both by the percent of protesters involved in violence and by the raw numbers of hospitalizations, permanently disabled or dead people at their hands.

As to trampling, it's sad, but people have gotten trampled to death at all kinds of events and it doesn't really indicate very much. For example, in 2019, 3 people got trampled to death in a St. Patrick's Day line. Around 150 people got trampled to death in 2020, and that's just the ones recorded on Wikipedia. This isn't a good argument for anything and might have happened anyway.

I hold that all 30 of those people at the Capitol should be found, arrested, and charged. I don't agree that a couple hundred thousand other people should be tarred and feathered along with them. I especially dislike the hypocrisy that the worst political violence in the US since the Civil War should be labelled as perfectly acceptable just because you agree with their end goal because the end does NOT justify those means.

The FBI only lists around 30 people wanted on anything more serious than unlawful entry, violent entry, trespassing, or similar. They weren't even charged with rioting because (as these videos show), wandering around gawking at the Capitol building isn't rioting by any reasonable definition. That wandering also doesn't play well with the idea that they intended violence against the legislature.

Yes, they should probably be charged with something, but the punishment should fit the crime and I doubt most of those people will have anything super serious happen (even if the Judge is trying to send a message).

EDIT: as it seems unclear, these are people WANTED for crimes NOT people actually charged (that number is lower).

> The FBI only lists around 30 people wanted on anything more serious than unlawful entry, violent entry, trespassing, or similar.

That number is increasing daily. The easy charges come first, because the evidence needed to make them withstand a probable cause hearing is trivial.

> They weren't even charged with rioting because

...For the people (those charged only in D.C. Superior Court) for whom more serious charges weren't already clearly available, the unlawful entry charge is open and shut for arrest and extra charges while investigation continues as to the full set of charges each should face doesn't actually do anything. Also, riot in the D.C. code isn't a more serious offense than unlawful entry on public property.

While for those already charged in US District Court for US Code offenses, most of which are felonies, the D.C. Code misdemeanor for rioting is an irrelevancy.

> ZERO charges of rioting. ZERO charges of attempted kidnapping. ZERO charges of insurrection. ZERO charges related to congress-people in any way, shape or form.

The initial charges in any event like this are whatever is easiest to get to withstand a probable cause hearing. Serious charges that aren't immediately, trivially clear from the circumstances of arrest take more time (especially in the Federal system, where serious charges require indictment or the defense agreeing to proceed by information, which usually only happens with a plea bargain.)

Also, the District Court-charged unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds charges (which sound superficially similar to the D.C. Superior Court-charged unlawful entry on public property charges) are, actually, much more serious offenses about the more limited zones designated for the security of the President, Vice President, President-elect, VP-elect, and other Secret Service protectees.

> That’s at MOST 30 people

No, it’s AT LEAST 26 people, not AT MOST 30. There’s no upper bound provided by the currently identified perpetrators of violent acts.