More graphic body camera footage from January 6th insurrection released last week made clear again the degree of violence present in the assault on the Capitol.
“You’re gonna die tonight!” one rioter screamed at police defending a doorway. Another clip shows rioters dragging an officer who had fallen into the mob amid hand-to-hand combat.
The Washington Post Editorial Board agrees that emerging video shows that the assault was “better planned and more dangerous than it seemed” in news footage shot from a distance that day:
The Justice Department announced this week that law enforcement authorities have arrested more than 535 people, an average of about three every day since Jan. 6. The rioters did $1.5 million of damage to the Capitol building. The insurrectionists allegedly assaulted some 140 police officers. So far, authorities have charged 50 people with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. But far more appear to have been involved: The FBI is still trying to identify more than 300 people investigators believe committed violent acts, including more than 200 believed to have assaulted police officers. These were not tourists.
Looking at you, Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.).*
Nearly 150 Capitol and D.C. Metro police were injured in the mayhem. One died, along with several rioters. Those included Ashli Babbitt, famously shot by a Capitol security officer. The former president, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and Republican politicians such as Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona are trying to martyr-ize Babbitt into an American Horst Wessel, argues Matthew Rozsa at Salon.
Prosecutors also argue that the havoc was far from spontaneous, assembling evidence that far-right activists planned for violence, even preparing a “quick reaction force” site. Testimony from alleged participants suggests that members of the Oath Keepers stashed guns in a Virginia hotel, brought paramilitary gear, used military-style formations to assault the Capitol, conducted tactical training meetings in advance of Jan. 6 and moved to erase what they described as “all signal comms about the op” afterward.
Because Republican senators rejected a Jan. 6 commission, some questions about the assault might never be answered definitively, such as exactly what Mr. Trump did and did not do while insurrectionists attacked lawmakers. But prosecutors are showing that this was not some run-of-the-mill riot; it was a violent incursion into the nation’s seat of government conducted by dangerous extremists and encouraged by the president, who asked them to descend on Washington. This should not be another issue for partisan disagreement. No American should minimize or forget the horror of Jan. 6.
This was not a boat accident, nor a “normal tourist visit.” It was an insurrection.
* It just occured to me that Andy Clyde was the name of an early 20th century comic actor bset known from “Hopalong Cassidy” films and as Grandpa McCoy’s pal in “The Real McCoys.”