If someone crashes into a streetlight, is that an offense against society? Obviously not.
> 25 people were killed in the riots and there was $2 billion in property damage.
In the entire country? And is there a source for it?
Sorry about your fro-yo and coffee. The places I know have long forgotten the 'riots'.
> private sector people were not at risk.
People died. Does it not matter because they worked for the government? How about the democracy and government of people in the private sector? I think boiling it down to property is much too convenient.
If you do it on purpose, yes.
> Sorry about your fro-yo and coffee. The places I know have long forgotten the 'riots'.
There’s tons of evidence that riots lead to long term depopulation of the neighborhoods where they happened.
> Does it not matter because they worked for the government?
Yes. This is America, not Europe: https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jeffers...
> If you do it on purpose, yes.
Well I guess "an offense against society" is undefined, but that is an extreme reaction. There are matters of degree in everything, and those degrees are everything. The state prosecutes lots of crimes, from shoplifting to mass murder - to call them all "an offense against society" becomes meaningless.
> > Does it not matter because they worked for the government?
> Yes.
Killing people doesn't matter if those people work for the government. Wow.
That’s literally what it is. That’s why the court case is styled State/Commonwealth/People v. Streetlightcrasher. You can quibble about whether the government “is” society but that argument makes you sound like a fringe libertarian.
offense: an illegal act; a crime
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/offen...
You didn’t see worse at the capitol, because that was a riot at a government building and private sector people were not at risk.