Reconsidering 1/6

The day after the incursion into the U.S. Capitol, I wrote in these pages that the events that day were not part of my conservative movement. Breaking into a federal building and fighting with police is not something that our set does. I was, and I remain, appalled at what I saw. 

I remain convinced there were agents provocateur present and egging folks on who otherwise would not do such things. We now suspect there were many types of them there that day, including not just Antifa but also men working with the FBI.

There was a scene in the basement of the Capitol where masked young men had surrounded Capitol Police. They bounced around like rabbits, coming at the police from this side and then another and then bouncing back. They were always bouncing. I have spent the last few years, especially last summer, watching footage of Antifa on the attack, and this approach is right out of their standard playbook. They surround, bounce back and forth, in and out, so that the target does not know where the attack is coming from or how to defend himself. 

Regarding the FBI, they have become almost completely discredited in my eyes. Given how they have behaved these past few years, I would put absolutely nothing past them, including infiltrating patriot groups and leading men to break laws they wouldn’t otherwise break. 

Two aspects have given me great pause in considering the events of that day: the language used to describe it, and what they have done to the men and women who were arrested. 

The Left tells us this was an act of sedition, an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. They continue to refer to it as an “armed insurrection.” They say this was the most dangerous assault on our government since the war of 1812 or the Civil War or whatever. Witnesses this week at the faux hearing on Capitol Hill called participants “terrorists.” Of course, none of this is true; it is not even remotely true. Any fifth grader can rattle off various attacks on the Capitol building that were exponentially worse than what happened that day.

And then there is what happened to the men and women arrested that day. The FBI has spent months doing a national manhunt for men and women who did bad things, certainly, but also men and women who did nothing more than wander into the building, or did nothing more than walk onto the Capitol grounds—grounds that are usually open every day throughout the year. Folks run their dogs on those grounds, they picnic on those grounds, children sled on those grounds. Once the flimsy fence was down, how was anyone to know they were not allowed there? 

Now, I draw a distinction between those who merely walked onto the property and those who entered with criminal intent, but I must believe that even those folks did not go there to create havoc. They were caught up in a dangerous moment fomented by others, who we do not know. As Nashville news anchor Brian Wilson said that day, it was a small group of very determined people who decided they were going inside the Capitol.

The problem is that the Justice Department does not draw that distinction. They are treating grandmas who did nothing more than wander into the building in the same way they are treating men who fought with police and committed acts of vandalism. And they are all in jail; for months they have been in jail. They are not being released on bail even if they have never had a run-in with the law. Murderers are treated better than these people who are being kept in the most horrific conditions, solitary confinement in the Washington, D.C., jail. According to heroic reporter Julie Kelly, you can hear them sing the national anthem every night at 9 p.m. 

What we see at work are political prosecutions, political persecution. After all, we watched a federal courthouse under assault last summer in Portland. Is there a nationwide manhunt for those folks? No. We watched a police station torched. Nothing. No manhunt. We saw hundreds attempted to breach the White House where it got so bad that Trump and his family were evacuated to a safe bunker on the grounds. Was there a manhunt? No. There was laughter. Hah-hah, Trump ran and hid. 

Some will call this “whataboutism,” and it is. Whataboutism is nothing more than a call for equal treatment under the law. Whataboutism is a call for justice. But what we are seeing in this country is a two-tier system of justice. If you are on the Left, you can do practically anything and the Soros prosecutors won’t do a thing, neither will the FBI or the Justice Department. The system seems utterly rigged and as a result is undermining public trust. It is certainly undermining my trust. 

The clown-show this week in the U.S. Congress did not help. It was not a search for the truth. It was all about messaging and tears. I do not believe the witnesses. I simply do not. I think they lied right through their tears. Consider that we are still told ad nauseum that Officer Sicknick was murdered by protestors. If they would lie about this man’s death, why wouldn’t these Left-wing cops lie about what they saw and heard that day? 

All of this has made me reconsider the events of January 6th. And by the way, who shot Ashli Babbit? 

[Photo Credit: Brent Stirton/Getty Images]