so you're proud of dude going to jail because he was so fired up that he brought an arsenal to D.C. and threatened to kill sitting congress people and the vice president, then went home and threatened his own family because of his bad decisions?
hap, There are all sorts of reasons which could explain why Reffitt wasn't charged with insurrection. High legal bar, for one. It doesn't follow that Jan. 6 wasn't an insurrection.
Don't forget we require links here to substantiate all non-original words. This could be the one you forgot ..
Yes, Jan. 6 Capitol assault was an “armed insurrection”
Ron Johnson stated on February 15, 2021 in a radio interview: Says Jan. 6 Capitol riot “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection.”
If Your Time is short
* Police stopped only a fraction of the violent protestors Jan. 6, but we still know of guns and explosives seized in and around the Capitol. And we know rioters brought knives, brass knuckles a stun gun and other weapons.
* Just as notable, video plainly shows the mob using all manner of makeshift weapons to attack police and force their way in, including hockey sticks, flagpoles, fire extinguishers and a police shield stolen from an officer.
Five people died Jan. 6, 2021, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, when a mob violently invaded the U.S. Capitol in protest of the November 2020 election results.
"The fact of the matter is this didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me. I mean armed, when you hear armed, don’t you think of firearms?" Johnson said. "Here’s the questions I would have liked to ask. How many firearms were confiscated? How many shots were fired? I’m only aware of one, and I’ll defend that law enforcement officer for taking that shot."
Johnson is couching this as an opinion, but he’s attempting to make a factual case that Jan. 6 wasn’t an "armed insurrection."
So let’s review the evidence on that point.
Breaking down the claim
Johnson prefaced this comment by claiming that Democrats are painting a picture of every Trump voter being a violent rioter. Certainly not everyone in the crowd was armed. And many clearly came intending only to peacefully protest.
But claiming this was not an armed insurrection goes well behind this line of thinking.
Many in the crowd attacking the Capitol have said their intent was to stop the vote confirmation and keep Trump in office despite the election results. That’s an insurrection.
[hap, Did you note on reading Johnson's tweet he didn't claim it was not an insurrection.]
That leaves us with his objection to the word "armed."
Yes, carrying a gun would constitute being armed. But the definition of the word is much more broad, referring simply to carrying a weapon. So the question is whether this insurrection involved people carrying weapons.
And it certainly did.
Reports detail an array of weapons, many makeshift
First off we’ll note that any reports of weapons at the Capitol will greatly understate the quantity that was likely there. Only 75 people were arrested that day, and police weren’t doing any widespread searches that would have identified weapons on others present, NBC News notes.
But news and official reports are filled with accounts of armed people at the Capitol.
Fourteen people tied to the Jan. 6 attack are facing federal charges related to bringing or using dangerous weapons inside the building and two are facing firearms-related charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
NBC News reported that within a week after the attack a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition had been found on seven people arrested before and after the Capitol riot.
In the trunk of Lonnie Coffman’s vehicle, police found an AR-15-style rifle, a shotgun, a crossbow, several machetes, smoke grenades and 11 Molotov cocktails, Reuters reported. Another man, Christopher Alberts of Maryland, was stopped as he left the Capitol grounds after a police officer spotted a loaded handgun on his hip.
Many more people armed themselves by more unorthodox means, causing damage and injury.
Robert Sanford, 55, of Pennsylvania, was allegedly caught on video throwing a fire extinguisher .. https://whyy.org/articles/retired-delco-firefighter-arrested-for-hurling-fire-extinguisher-at-capitol-police-during-riot/ .. at a group of police officers. David Blair, 26, was seen hitting officers with a lacrosse stick, NBC said. Others had pepper spray, brass knuckles, a pipe and pocket knives, and one man was carrying a "stinger whip," a tool with blunt and whip-like edges marketed for self-defense and escaping a locked vehicle.
Not to mention pipe bombs were found near the Capitol at Republican and Democratic party headquarters.
Johnson’s staff did not immediately return an email seeking evidence or explanation of his claim.
Our ruling
Johnson said the Jan. 6 Capitol riot "didn’t seem like an armed insurrection."
That’s ridiculous revisionist history.
Overwhelmed police arrested and had direct contact with only a fraction of the mob that day, but we still can identify accounts of numerous weapons found in and around the Capitol, brought there in some cases by people who saw themselves as soldiers in a war. And many other rioters used whatever hard objects they could find to attack police and force their way into the Capitol.
A majority of senators, through the impeachment vote, put the blame on Trump for stirring up the riot, though others debate the "why" question for the events of Jan. 6. But the "what" question shouldn't be debated. It was an armed insurrection.
It is quite likely that retired Army Colonel Scott Hooper is mistaken in his contention, offered without any reference to the law, that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, did not constitute an insurrection. Time and the evidence will tell.
Instead of citing the law, Colonel Hooper supports his view by saying that the use of the term insurrection has “driven him crazy.” that it is a “false narrative.” and that Americans are also traumatized during home invasions and riots. Thus, he says, the “attack on the Capitol was … not an insurrection.”
Insurrection is a specific crime under federal law,and we must refer to the law and the facts to determine whether or not an insurrection took place. We cannot refer to our feelings or general opinions on unrelated events. We are a nation of laws, not of men, and careful, fair application of the law is critical to the survival of our democracy.
There is ample, weighty and growing evidence that in fact, an insurrection took place in our nation’s capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Consider these facts:
1. Federal law, 18 U.S. Code 2383 - Rebellion or Insurrection .. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-1999-title18-section2383&num=0&edition=1999 .. states “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
2. Congressional Representative Elizabeth Cheney, vice chair of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, stated publicly that the event was an insurrection .. https://nypost.com/2022/01/06/liz-cheney-says-jan-6-was-an-insurrection-not-a-protest/ . Cheney is an attorney who is carefully examining the massive and growing amount of evidence the committee has collected, most of which we are not yet privy to. Her opinion is significant.
4. A bipartisan majority of the Senate voted to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection .. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-02-13/senate-acquits-trump-of-incitement-of-insurrection-in-impeachment-trial .. ,” 57-43. Seven Republicans voted to convict. The vote failed only because a supermajority of 67 is required. This is the closest any president has ever come to conviction and removal. That a bipartisan majority of the Senate voted to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection” is another important indication that this was, in fact, an insurrection.
5. On Dec. 23, 2021, three legal scholars, Professor Laurence Tribe, former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer, and former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled “Will Donald Trump Get Away With Inciting an Insurrection .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/opinion/trump-capitol-riot-january-6th.html?searchResultPosition=1 ?” Professor Tribe has argued 35 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning every case with a record of 35-0. Donald Ayer was named U.S. attorney general by Ronald Reagan and served as deputy attorney general under President George H.W. Bush. Dennis Aftergut has argued and won cases before the Supreme Court.
Democracy cannot survive without the rule of law.Abiding by the rule of law means carefully considering any potential crime in light of the black-and-white language of the law and the facts, not in relation to our feelings and opinions about unrelated matters. If we lose the rule of law, we lose our democracy.
Lastly, Colonel Hooper is offended by Vice President Harris mentioning Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks in her comments during yesterday’s remembrance. He states that “anyone who has fought for our country … must be truly disappointed by these remarks.”
I deeply appreciate Colonel Hooper’s service to our country. Three of my four immediate family members have served or are serving. My father fought fascism in World War II as a member of the U.S. Army Air Force. My great-uncle, First Lieutenant, US Army, William H. Jones died on October 27, 1918, 15 days before the end of World War I. He is interred at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, France. My father was named after him when he was born eight months later.
Personally, I would not dream of trying to speak on behalf of all my fellow veterans. I know from my service days and my interactions with them while volunteering at the local Reno VA Hospital that they are a diverse group.
Different things will offend different people. What is supremely important is that we abide by the rule of law, and that in our political discourse we find compromise so that we can govern this great country fairly and effectively, without resorting to violence against fellow Americans.
On that matter, I think Colonel Hooper and I can agree.
Bill Haug is a former U.S. Navy pilot and a Reno resident.
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