Attack on Congress: “Who the f**ck do you think you are?!?”, Part II

I wrote a few weeks ago about a very minor run-in I had with some bumptious Trumpkins in one of their mobile “Stolen Election” caravan protests. I could see the aggressiveness of these people. They had an edge.

So I was not that surprised by the attack on the Capitol Building four days ago, although I was surprised at the audacity in targeting almost the most important few hundred yards of political territory in the nation while Senators were deliberating on whether to certify the election of Joe Biden as President or not. It still takes my breath away. It still angers me.

Who the f**ck do these people think they are?!?

But there has been a lot of this sort of angry mob business going on for months now.

Ashli Babbit, one of those who stormed Congress, was shot and killed by U.S. Capitol Police. I saw protestors decry the “shooting of an unarmed protester” by police. She is supposedly a victim, a martyr. 

Nonsense.

Should they have shot many more of these insurrectionists? Would that have prevented the penetration of the Capitol Building? Or would it have led to even greater bloodshed and loss of life?

That’s a hard question.

But if you let any mob attack and occupy government installations — the Capitol Building, of all places — then you are close to anarchy. What comes next?

They should have shot more of those individuals incited by Donald Trump to attack the Capitol Building. Shoot a few of them to send a message to thousands of others. And if more than a few Trumpkins want to die trying to storm Congress, shoot more than a few of them. That is my opinion right after the incident. It is my opinion four days later. 

I have read critics complaining about police shootings as “executions by armed representatives of the state.” Whether a police shooting is appropriate or not depends entirely on the circumstances. Most police shootings, as I have seen them, are reasonable under the circumstances. One took place almost right in front of me two months ago, and it was a completely justified shooting from all the available information. The City of San Buenaventura got good value from the approximately $1.15 in jacketed hollow-point handgun rounds that the shooting cost. Dollar for dollar, cent for cent, the purchase of that ammunition was among the best money spent by the city in 2020, in my opinion.

Whether it was these “protests” by Trumpkins in Washington D.C. or the others by Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, and elsewhere, these past ten months have been quite the civics lessons in terms of the 1st Amendment and protests. Almost every American respects the right of aggrieved citizens to march peacefully for redress, according to the First Amendment. But aggrieved protesters —whether in Black Lives Matters, or in the “stolen election” pro-Trump-types — have too often devolved into vandalism, rioting, and violence, in my opinion. Not only in Washington D.C. but in many other locales in the past ten months, anarchy or something close to it has reigned.

But let’s look at the lady killed by a plainclothes police officer inside the Capitol Building last Wednesday.

Ashli Babbitt flew from San Diego, CA to Washington DC — in the middle of a deadly pandemic, no less — to stand tall with Trump against those who supposedly stole the election from him. Trump made a speech to supporters at a rally near the White House on January 6, 2021 where he said:

“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It’s like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we’re going to have to fight much harder. …

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

https://youtu.be/1OXFmnTtO6s?t=720

Ashli’s president seemed to call for action, and she and many others answered the call. And here we are. 

After having looked at Donald Trump’s words in this speech, and the horrible actions afterwards, and having thought about it carefully, this is what I think at this point: impeach the mofo. Seriously. At the VERY LEAST formally censure him. I read that many voters went for Trump in 2016 for the same reason they voted for Obama back in 2008: he was a newcomer on the political scene, a fresh face, someone different, somebody untainted by “business as usual” practices in Washington DC. Why not take a risk and go for Trump the outsider? Vote for “change”? But to that Trump voter I ask you four years later the following: How’s that working out for ya’ now? Look at the mess we have at this moment. Jeez.

But back to the sad story of Ashli Babbitt: A cursory visit to her Twitter account shows Ashli’s descent over time into far-right politics and conspiracy theories of the QAnon batshit-crazy sort. Ashli drank deeply of the toxic Trump Kool-Aid, and then she chose to be part of a mob that stormed the Capitol Building when Senators and the Vice President were deciding to certify the election for Joe Biden. Is this not “showing strength” and “taking back our country”? There were pipe bombs and guns stored outside, and police were beat with pipes by the protesters in front of and inside the building. United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died after being beaten with a fire extinguisher, Ashli Babbitt was shot by police, another was reportedly stomped to death, and one died from a heart attack and another from a stroke in all the chaos. President Trump encouraged these persons to confront Congress, or at the VERY LEAST he indirectly encouraged them to do so, and here we are — you can watch Ashli’s death right here:

I am sorry Ashli chose to partake in this action, but I am not unhappy she was shot as a result. I wish more of them had been shot, and the breach been prevented. It would have been best to have been better prepared with many more police and to have stopped an attack without having to resort to deadly force, but as it was the Capitol Police were overwhelmed and failed in their duty to secure the building. They should have shot some more of them.

Ashli Babbitt, it is your own damn fault.

I am not in favor of police shooting into crowds of protestors, even when they are unruly and provocative. I was often impressed with police over the summer who faced off across from Black Lives Matter protesters who were irate and screaming at them. They show their professionalism in this. But there is a spectrum between completely peaceful protestors to angry screaming/spitting protestors to arsonist rioters/looters dedicated to attacking police or burning down buildings. When a protest turns violent and it devolves into an “illegal assembly,” then their First Amendment protections go away. When a peaceful protest becomes an “illegal assembly,” when angry crowds turn destructive and/or violent, then all bets are off.

I have a liberal friend over the past summer who would look at rioters burning local businesses to the ground around Black Lives Matters protests, and he would say, “But they are angry. The George Floyd killing.” As if that were an excuse. I have heard a similar reasoning with these Trump protesters — “They feel there were election irregularities. They are angry.”

I don’t care.

Who the f**ck do you think you are?!?

It is true that most Black Lives Matter were peaceable and non-violent. They followed the rules and made their point; that is how it is supposed to work. Yet as Reason Magazine’s David Bernstein explains, “While the vast majority of demonstrations last summer were peaceful, the accompanying rioting across the country was incredibly destructive.” Significant numbers of protesters on both extremes of the political spectrum have taken advantage of a breakdown in public order recently to engage in vandalism, looting, arson, and even murder. The destruction and violence might have been political in origin, but it’s no less criminal for that. The damage is done.

And the police have often been overwhelmed and overly-lenient, in my opinion.

Many of the U.S. Capitol Police were clubbed or stampeded by Trump protesters rioting last Wednesday. They were overwhelmed by the number of protesters surging through the broken doors and windows and stood around nonplussed, even posing for photos with the assholes breaking in. The mayors of Portland and Seattle similarly allowed for week after week or rioters throwing petrol bombs or pointing lasers at police in federal buildings with local law enforcement undermined and penned in. Those areas became free-fire zones of anarchy where police did next to nothing, except perhaps defend themselves from yet another evening of attacks. “Don’t do much more than hang back and maybe defend yourselves,” the local politicians seemed to say, “otherwise you might make the protesters angry.” The Seattle mayor even allowed for a “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) as a no-go area for law enforcement which quickly became the site of at least four shootings and two deaths. What a surprise. The Los Angeles and San Francisco District Attorney’s Offices have promised not to prosecute persons arrested for a raft of misdemeanor crimes, from resisting arrest to drug possession to making criminal threats. The “defunding” of police departments is urged.

Enough.

In the wake of protests against police brutality our major cities have seen their murder rates rise hugely, as the police have pulled back and criminals filled the vacuum. The murder rate rose by 37% in American cities in 2020 — all in the context of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic which has made everything worse. Minneapolis, the site of the infamous killing of George Floyd by police, saw a police precinct building burned to the ground, along with many other local businesses. Minneapolis is haunted by the hulks of the 700 or so buildings that were damaged, burned, or destroyed in the riots, and the amount of murders there since has skyrocketed. The cops are demoralized and police budgets slashed. Is there any more miserable part of the United States than Minneapolis? Many might claim to be in similarly sad straits, like Cleveland — 

“Gunfire and Crashing Cars”
In Struggling Neighborhoods, ‘We’re Losing Our Grip’

Enough!

This pandemic will not last forever. Vaccines are being distributed throughout the country as I write this. There will be a new president next Wednesday. It is time to turn the corner on this unhappy period of American history and tighten things up.

To that thug driving around Cleveland (or wherever) at high-speed and shooting his gun off — to that Trumpkin promising to protest Joe Biden’s inauguration, and arrive at state capitols armed with an assault rifle and tactical gear — tread lightly, big guys. Be most careful. Everyone, time to tighten it up. 

And to those extremist protesters showing up at night to scream at or vandalize the homes of politicians they don’t like — to those Trump supporters heckling Congressmen like Lou Correa (Dem—CA) or Lindsey Graham (Rep—SC) in airports this weekend — “Who the f**ck do you think you are?!?”

To the police: do your job. Keep the peace.

They are plenty of Americans who back you.

And if things go south and protesters become violent, follow the law and clear the streets.

There is a reason society gave you a badge and gun. It might be ugly, but it’s not unlawful. 

Call out the National Guard or whoever, if necessary. Be prepared. You have a job to do. Don’t sit back while stores are looted and the city burns — or Congress is attacked.

In the next few weeks and months, hopefully we will have better political leadership which will help the country to move forward, not backward.

Hopefully.

If it’s even possible, with so many aggrieved on both ends of the political spectrum in this country right now holding so much sway.

---

---