If they had found a senior official I don’t think they would have been safe.
How many guns, bombs and zip ties? Was it even enough protestors to be called a minority who bought bombs? The press would love a few photos of people with guns storming the capital, because those that I've seen look like very poorly behaved tourists with souvenirs and selfies. Gallows happen to be a traditional prop at protests (eg, [0]).
> If they had found a senior official I don’t think they would have been safe.
Nobody feels safe when a protest gets out of hand, but that doesn't make it a fact that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the chain of command of the United states of America were about to be injured. It is entirely plausible that the mob would have screamed at them then been broken up. That is the most likely scenario.
[0] https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tommy-robinson-leads-...
Stop and take a second to listen to yourself. Is there an acceptable numbers of guns, bombs, and zip ties that are intended to be used on the leaders of this country?
Lone wolves and troublemakers out to get Congresspeople exist. There might be a few in the mob. But the mob itself isn't made up of people like that. This is the same logic that was being applied to protestors all through 2020. It is hard to get away from the BLM protests being peaceful even with burning buildings in the background.
No one is saying that every member of that mob had intentions to kill. There is no doubt that some people in the mob did and they got shockingly close to having the opportunity to do it.
[1] - https://twitter.com/CalebJHull/status/1348334770103660553
There are no pipe bombs. No guns. They do not deploy zip ties.
But I found one [0] leaves me comfortable in assuming a similar scene happened at some point over the week in Minneapolis. It would have ben a very scary time to be a police officer, the burning of the vehicles from 2:28 to 4:00 for example looks a lot like a threat of violence. Those protesters wanted to hurt the police.
The US has a pretty high tolerance for violence in its protests. If anything, I'd guess that rather than attitudes of the protestors the lack of police deaths in the BLM protests were because the police knew that they were going to be targeted with violence, and it caught them off guard coming from Trump supporters.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCPzQg3668g
PS. Also your video is a bit indistinct, I'm not sure it does show them beating a police officer who is on the ground
>PS. Also your video is a bit indistinct, I'm not sure it does show them beating a police officer who is on the ground
You can see them drag someone down the stairs in the first few seconds of the video and then you see them beating someone on the ground. One man is literally beating an officer with an American flag if you are one for symbolism. The next tweet in that thread shows a photo from above in which you can see the officer down on the steps and there is a reply that has video from a different angle.
It looks to me more like flag-holding-man throws it away to help someone get up, who then joins the protestors. The police officer in the yellow vest is under the arch on the right on the start, away from where the protestors are doing whatever they are doing. When a bloke in black gets up off the ground he joins the protestors too.
I don't think that is a video of protestors beating a policeman. If they were the video would probably have been more violent. I think the protestors might be helping the bloke in the blue jacket stand up at the start.
The intent of the mob is entirely comparable, at any rate. Protestors hurling stuff at police vs. protestors igniting stuff.
But that, at best, upgrades the scene from a mostly peaceful protest torching vehicles to a violent clash with the police officer. Violent protests are not unheard of. It doesn't justify the idea that anyone was trying to irreversibly stain American history with the blood of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the chain of command of the United states of America.
I mean, the fundamental argument here is that we shouldn't mix the actions of the people on the stairwell facing the police with the rest of the protest. That line of thinking applied to protests was roundly debunked in 2020.
Good question. We don’t know the answer because federal authorities have not held a press briefing on this incident.
> those that I've seen look like very poorly behaved tourists with souvenirs and selfies
Perhaps you should watch this:
> what is the evidence for this?
>
> ...this is a not a mob out for literal blood.
There's video of a large crowd of the rioters chanting "hang Mike Pence!" They erected a gallows with a noose outside the Capitol. There's video of people yelling that they came to get Pence and Pelosi. Squads of milita wore tactical armor and helmets, and carried not just assault rifles and handguns, but also flexcuffs. You don't get that stuff in the spur of the moment. They came prepared. Other rioters were carrying lead pipes and wooden rods. There was even one rioter caught on video carrying a literal pitchfork.
They beat one police officer to death with a fire extinguisher and injured more than 50 others. That is clearly a mob out for blood.
As for more evidence, for months in advance, Trump supporters filled Parler, Gab, Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, and many other social media outlets with detailed detailed discussions of plans to commit violence and in many cases murder at this event. NYPD and the FBI received a ton of reports from concerned citizens who saw this social media chatter. The insurrectionists talked about what weapons to bring, which politicians to target in order of priority, and so much more. It was reported that they had maps with them of the tunnels under the Capitol building so that they could cut off escape routes.
Freshman lawmaker Lauren Boebert tweeted Speaker Pelosi's whereabouts multiple times during the riot. She did not tweet anything which indicated any degree of surprise that the riot was occurring.
Jim Clyburn has two offices in the Capitol, one right next to the front doors and one way up on the third floor. It was reported that the rioters ignored Clyburn's obvious office next to the doors and instead made a beeline for the more secluded office on the third floor.
100%? Literally all of them? Every one?
I'm not looking for a metaphorical response here. Which parts of your response are backed actual evidence and which parts are assumptions based on your instincts and filling in blanks?
No one can take part in a group action and then claim they're not responsible for what the group has done. When people act as a group they have to accept responsibility for the group's actions.
actually, you're probably thinking of the four rioters who died. all of their deaths were linked to pre-existing medical conditions. but you were replying to remarks about the police officer who was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher. being bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher is not a pre-existing condition.
Let me ask for a quick accounting here - what is the evidence for this? My understanding is 100% of the gun deaths were from guns in the hands of law enforcement officers who were perfectly capable of defending themselves when pushed. There are a bunch of instantly iconic photos [0] with basically no weapons in the hands of protestors. They clearly didn't plan on breaching the Capitol or they'd have realised that they were all about to go to jail forever.
This is a not a mob out for literal blood.
[0] https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/capitol-mob-deaths/ind...