January 6 – Law Officer

January 6th was not an insurrection.

It was a riot.

Full of both assholes and tourists.

Those who assaulted/battered police officers should be arrested and prosecuted.

Those who walked around the Capitol like they were on a lazy tour of DC should be left alone.

Both groups were there.

It is ok to be honest about that.

It is bone-chilling to watch a US president brag about locking up huge numbers of peaceful protestors.

And Biden is simultaneously asking you to believe that *he* is the only hope for “saving democracy.” pic.twitter.com/UiAC3LaUVB

— System Update (@SystemUpdate_) January 6, 2024

Here’s why:

The idea that a few thousand unarmed idiots that had zero plan and no military support – were somehow going to overthrow the most powerful country on the planet is laughable.

The “insurrectionists” did assault and batter police officers – but they did not kill anyone.

Did some of these idiots honestly believe that their unorganized actions could slow down, postpone, or stop the certification of the 2020 election? Probably. I’m sure a lot of those people held a lot of bad/odd ideas. Even if some of them identified as “insurrectionists” – that does not change the biology of brutal reality.

History will certainly classify January 6th based on more robust factors than simply the most outrageous ideas from the lowest IQ participants.

Ashli Babbitt OIS

Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd shot and killed Ashli Babbitt (for a full case breakdown check out our prior article.)

Two things can be true:

1. Ashli should not have rioted, trespassed, and caused property damage.
2. Ashli posed no imminent deadly threat at the time she was killed by Lt. Byrd.

There is not a single Use of Force expert that can credibly articulate the deadly threat that Ashli posed at the time that deadly force was used.

Ashli Babbitt’s shooting was reviewed on a different (lesser) legal standard because the politicians who manage law enforcement agencies hate her politics.

Disagree? – Change my mind.

Also, once the riot started Trump should have been quicker to publicly denounce it.

Like with most issues surrounding Trump – the reality is skewed through the lens of exaggeration on both sides.

When police officers in Austin, Tx responded to hundreds of BLM rioters in 2020 destroying the city – they used less lethal munitions and over 20 officers were prosecuted. Contrast that with Lt. Byrd who used deadly force on an unarmed female rioter and was wholly cleared and faced zero administrative or legal sanctions.

This obvious hypocrisy forces even those who truly believe in our justice system to question.

Might as well be senior citizens on a DC tour.

Those who watch is Newsmax – will only see orderly filings of elderly tourists on 1/6. And there was a ton of that.

Objectively, we know that both groups of people were present at the Capitol on 1/6.

The nonnegotiable concept of “equal protection under the law” demands that individuals are arrested and prosecuted based on their actions – and not the ideas or political ideologies that they hold.

This article originally appeared at Police Law Newsletter.