Who were the rioters, what was their aim?
Amidst the wilding throng, a line of men moves up the Capitol building steps with discipline and seemingly distinct purpose.
They’re wearing combat helmets and tactical gear: body armour, black masks. Walking hand to shoulder of the person ahead, to avoid being separated, as captured on video.
Who are they? What was their intent when a mob ransacked the Capitol on Wednesday?
There are digital sleuths on the case, not limited to FBI investigators racing to identify particular individuals in what became a shocking insurrection in Washington. Was their aim to do actual physical harm to legislators, perhaps take hostages? Some among the rampaging horde had zip ties — a plastic version of handcuffs.
To capture? To kill? To put on showcase trial in a kangaroo court conducted by domestic terrorists? Those who had more serious business on their mind than trashing offices, lolling on the dais in the Senate chamber that had just been vacated by Vice- President Mike Pence and making off with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern.
No photos or video have yet surfaced to suggest that those with zip ties had the objective of snatching a politician. But it would be foolhardy to think none of the invaders had a more ominous agenda. And some in that swarm of rabble had the strategic knowledge for an even more ghastly outcome than what occurred.
The Washington Post reported investigators are pursuing the possibility that some who burst into the building may be current or former law enforcement officers, or current or former military personnel.
One such individual has been exposed, largely through the detecting efforts of John ScottRailton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School.
It was Scott- Railton who scrutinized video and still images, and then notified the FBI about his suspicion that a specific male, in tactical gear, was among a group which had made it deep into the building. That individual, who was carrying zip ties, appears at one point to be exiting Pelosi’s office. Scott- Railton used facial recognition and image enhancement, and homed in on military paraphernalia, including an insignia of the 706th Fighter Squadron and a Texas flag overlaid on the skull logo of the Punisher, a Marvel comic book character.
Ronan Farrow, in an online piece for the New Yorker, was the first to publicly identity that person as retired lieutenantcolonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr., a Texas- based combat veteran.
Ashli Babbitt, who died from a gunshot wound as she was clambering through a window on the west side of the building, was an air force vet, passionate supporter of President Donald Trump, and had travelled from San Diego, heeding the president’s summons for a full-throated rally in D. C.
Against the background of a drumbeat growing ever louder for Trump to either be removed from office under the 25th Amendment or impeached for a second time — because there’s zero possibility he’ll resign with 10 days left in his diabolical term — a steady stream of information is surfacing that this was no quasi-spontaneous eruption of choler from dead- enders who continue cleaving to Trump’s baseless insistence that the election was stolen. It wasn’t just heated rhetoric spewed on social media, segueing to inperson rioting. Instead, there has emerged a strong thread of pre- planning, deliberation and preparation.
An Alabama man, Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 70, was arrested on Saturday, charged with unlawful possession of a destructive device and carrying a pistol without a licence. Justice Department documents say a police sweep of the Capitol grounds spotted a firearm in the passenger seat of a pickup truck parked four blocks from Republican National Committee headquarters. The bomb squad, called in, found a 9- mm handgun, an M4 Carbine assault rifle, ammunition magazines and components for the construction of 11 Molotov cocktails — an explosive mixture of melted Styrofoam and gasoline. In Mason jars.
An armed rioter, arrested, was found with texts on his phone of alleged plans to execute Pelosi. Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr. He arrived in the capital with several firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to the information document filed by investigators. The texts assert that he was considering “putting a bullet in ( Pelosi’s) noggin on live TV,” and that he had a “s- ton of armor- piercing ammo.” Further, he allegedly wanted to run the Speaker over. Agents who searched his hotel room, as well as his truck and trailer outside, found three guns, including an assault rifle and a Glock.
AReuters photographer who was on scene tweeted he’d overheard at least three people saying they hoped to find Pence — now viewed as a traitor to Trump for refusing to overturn the election outcome in Wednesday’s confirmation of the electoral votes — and hang him from a Capitol Hill tree. In new footage released over the weekend, rioters can be heard chanting: “Where’s Mike Pence?” as they rushed through the building, while others demanded “heads on pikes!”
As of Saturday, according to Justice Department documents, 43 people had been charged, 17 on federal cases and 26 on D. C. ( state) cases; 51 for illegal entry on “designated grounds”; three firearmsrelated; two for theft; one for threats.
Among those charged: Adam Christian Johnson, 36, taken into custody on the weekend by federal marshals in Florida. The stay- at- home dad, married to a physician, as reported by the Bradenton Herald, is alleged to be the person who absconded with Pelosi’s lectern, waving to the camera.
Doug Jensen, arrested in Des Moines, alleged to be the man wearing a QAnon conspiracy theory shirt at the forefront of a pack that initially broke into the Capitol and made its way to the Senate chamber. A clip posted by reporter Igor Bobic shows an officer struggling in vain with his baton to prevent the infiltrators from gaining entry, then turning and running up the marble stairs, the mob a few steps behind him. Jensen, 41, posted a photo of himself on Twitter: “You like my shirt?”
Richard Barnett, 60, the man photographed lounging with his foot on Pelosi’s desk, was arrested in Arkansas. Nick Ochs, a U. S. marines combat veteran and co- founder of the Hawaii Proud Boys, was arrested as he landed in Honolulu. Jacob Anthony Chansley, a. k. a. Jake Angeli, a. k. a. “QAnon Shaman” — the idiot in the buffalo horns, pelt, wielding a six- foot spear (“unique attire and extensive tattoos covering his arms and left side of his torso,” as describing in the charging information) — turned himself in to authorities, but not before he gave interviews to journalists. Chansley gloated to NBC: “The fact that we had a bunch of our traitors hunker down, put on their gas masks and retreat to their underground bunker, I consider that a win.”
The charges, said FBI director Christopher Wray, “are just the beginning of the FBI’s ongoing efforts to hold those responsible for the criminal acts of violence and destruction that unfolded during the U. S. Capitol building breach … To be clear, what took place that day was not First Amendment-protected activity, but rather an affront to our democracy.”
Apart from boastfulness, many of the violators are a dim- witted bunch, their social media posts and audiences with journalists making it easy for them to be identified and tracked. Doubtless there will be scores more arrests to come, as more evidence surfaces. On Sunday, a video obtained by CNN showed an officer set upon by the mob, dragged and brutally stomped.
It’s dismaying, however, that law enforcement was taken by surprise, caught flat- footed and undermanned by the riot, given how explicitly and transparently they’d telegraphed their intentions, touted online as a revolution. “Get the firing squads ready, Pence goes first,” a pro- Trump lawyer wrote on Parler, the social network app since booted by Apple, Google and Amazon. Suspended. “Execute the traitors, I wanna see executions!” “We will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents and demand a recount. Trump or war.”
It was a plan of action, branded “Storm the Capitol” by radical right- wingers on social media tom- toms. Advance Democracy tracked 1,480 violencerelated QAnon Twitter posts, just since Jan. 1. On TikTok, videos promoting violence were viewed 279,000 times by Thursday. One of the main “Stop the Steal” organizers, Ali Alexander, told his followers he and three congressmen were planning “something big.”
AWest Virginia state lawmaker, Republican Derrick Evans, in fact was among the herd, livestreaming himself with rioters.
ABaptist pastor, a fireman, the founder of a group called Baby Lives Matter, a former Texas mayoral candidate, the chairwoman of Young Republicans of Oregon, a man paroled after serving eight years for attempted murder, the CEO of a data marketing firm.
Americans. MAGA conscripts.
Unashamed and apparently undaunted by the events of Jan. 6.
Social media is replete with call- outs for more shows of insurrection force in the days leading up to the inauguration of president- elect Joe Biden next week.
“Round Two on January 20th.”
“I don’t even care about keeping Trump in power, I care about war.”
“It’s our last chance.”
There has emerged a strong thread of pre- planning, deliberation and preparation