The Trump/QAnon cult is a national contagion, an immoral panic, a mass insanity. The woman shot and killed by Capitol police Wednesday when pro-Trump extremists overran the U.S. Capitol was a QAnon cultist from San Diego.
But Washington, D.C. was not the only place Trump’s insurrection manifested on Wednesday. Incidents took place in Washington, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Texas:
From Atlanta to Salem, Oregon, and points in between, Trump backers repeated the outgoing president’s false claims that his victory was stolen by massive voter fraud, officials and local media reported.
In Oregon’s capital, where crowds protesting in favor of Trump and against state COVID-19 restrictions burned an effigy of the Democratic governor, Kate Brown, police declared an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to disperse. Oregon state police reported at least one person was arrested in Salem on suspicion of harassment and disorderly conduct.
There were no immediate reports of serious violence, although a news photographer was sprayed with mace or pepper spray at a rally in Salt Lake City, Utah’s capital, police said.
Protesters entered the Kansas statehouse in Topeka and assembled inside the first floor of the Capitol rotunda, though they remained orderly, television station KSNT reported. State police later said the demonstrators had obtained a permit in advance.
In Denver, the Colorado capital, Mayor Michael Hancock instructed city agencies to close early “out of an abundance of caution” after about 700 demonstrators gathered at the statehouse.
In Georgia, a major courthouse complex and two other government buildings in Atlanta were ordered closed due to protests near the statehouse. Among those disrupted were aides to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican election official pressured by Trump in a weekend telephone call to “find” enough additional votes for Trump to win the state.
There’s more, of course:
Trump supporters and members of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys rioted outside the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, clashing with Black Lives Matter protestors, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Hundreds of Trump supporters protested outside the Michigan State Capitol on Wednesday, the Detroit Free Press reported. The demonstrations have been peaceful, Michigan State Police said.
And still more. New Mexico, Wyoming and Texas closed their state capitol buildings, NBC reported. Some evacuated employees. Texas closed its state Capitol grounds in Austin Wednesday afternoon “out of an abundance of caution.”
The bulk of the violence occurred in Washington, D.C., closest to its source: Donald J. Trump.
One legislator estimated perhaps a thousand rioters breached the Capitol, yet authorities arrested barely 50 insurrectionists Wednesday, and those mostly for curfew violations. Four were arrested on firearms-related charges.
Investigations and prosecutions must follow. We have discussed here how allowing high officials walk away from crimes committed in office has contributed not only to the distrust of government but the downward spiral in official corruption. Arresting and prosecuting violent extrmists should be the easy part, right?
The FBI is seeking your help in doing that.