Following the events of January 6th at the U.S. Capitol, the government (here’s the link to the cases being pursued by the Department of Justice) and especially the media have sought to frame what happened in the most hysterical terms. There have been claims that the entire seat of government was in danger, that there was a plot to murder the Congress, that Mike Pence was going to be hung, and that what happened amounted to an “insurrection” fueled by the actions of people committing “sedition.”
That narrative has gone far and wide, including becoming the default position pushed in the press. But while public perception is one thing, what can be proven in a court of law is another.
On that front, it appears that most of the cases being prosecuted, regardless of how many buzzwords like “sedition” get thrown in, are simply adding up to trespassing.
Dave Reaboi dropped a thread pointing out the absurdities.
In service of a partisan Democrat and media information war, the government had overcharged these defendants in order to hype the severity of what is actually a phantom menace.
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) March 30, 2021
Big defeat for the action-figure-collecting, superhero-movie-watching set—they melted down on Jan 6th, just like the media told them to.
They beat their little chests and couldn’t wait to go to war against the big, bad “insurrectionists” the media told them about.
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) March 30, 2021
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) March 30, 2021
We have the dumbest government. Really, we do. At least your average third-world country has the excuse of being a third-world country. The United States is supposed to be the shining beacon on the hill. Instead, we have a DOJ and FBI running around pushing political narratives and proclaiming “sedition” instead of just prosecuting what is in front of them, and to be sure, there are cases to prosecuted in front of them.
There are people from January 6th who deserved to be arrested for their criminality. You can’t just trespass into the Capitol, fight with cops, and destroy federal property while causing a massive lockdown of elected officials without repercussions (unless you live in Portland). We are, ostensibly, a nation of laws. But taking what mostly amounted to people walking around taking selfies and trespassing and trying to turn that into a world-shaking insurrection was a massive stretch, in my opinion. It was also a blatantly political ploy by people who wanted to use what happened as a partisan cudgel. That’s how we got the theater of fortifying the Capitol for three months.
None of this should be read as an excuse for what happened on January 6th because I know the social media sites are just waiting to flag this article, but my belief is that those who broke the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Yet, what happened at the Capitol is not an excuse to throw out all objective fairness that is supposed to be present within our justice system. The overcharging of so many from January 6th makes our government look dumb, unprofessional, and incapable. It may help advance a short-term political narrative on CNN, but it is harmful to trust in our institutions over the long-term. The DOJ should be better than this.
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