Real trouble

This isn’t shoplifting

SOMETHING tells us that the folks who were laughing as they ransacked the nation’s Capitol Building last week aren’t laughing today. Nor are they putting their shoes up, feeling comfortable about the future of things.

They are in real trouble. How much trouble depends on which agency goes after them.

As the riot broke up and the protesters disbursed, reporters spent the later part of the week talking to prosecutors: What now? they asked. Most of the prosecuting attorneys answered: criminal charges and trials.

The FBI is going through photographs and videos. It shouldn’t be hard to find most of these maskless people. We’ve already seen stories in which the feds are asking the public for help identifying certain faces. The FBI, it’s been said, does not have a sense of humor that it’s aware of.

Here’s what the papers say are possible charges:

Seditious conspiracy. Damage to federal property. Use of explosives. (A couple of pipe bombs were found.) Crossing state lines to commit crimes.

“The Department of Justice,” the Department of Justice said, “is committed to ensuring that those responsible for this attack on our Government and the rule of law face the full consequences of their actions under the law. Some participants in (the) violence will be charged today, and we will continue to methodically assess evidence, charge crimes and make arrests in the coming days . . . .”

They say “seditious conspiracy” is a rarely used statute in the United States. But its definition is the use of force “to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”

We’ve been studying the English language for a while now, and that definition sounds a lot like what we saw Wednesday.

The charge carries 20 years. Federal time. No parole.

Then again, depending on the agency involved, those rioters might get away with unlawful entry. Or they may have to plead down to it, to avoid the Big House. And hope a local jurisdiction takes over their case. The Washington, D.C., prosecutors have had poor results in such cases, according to the local paper, The Washington Post.

You might remember some of the protesters last year in places such as Washington state and Oregon. Prosecutors often went easy on those arrested in localized riots. State and local prosecutors have to look at local politics when deciding on how to charge people in those cases. But Washington, D.C., is not a state. Making this a whole new kettle of fish.

Also, once a body crosses a state line to commit a crime, the feds often get involved. For example, after the melee, the United States attorney from the northern district of Oklahoma tweeted that he’d prosecute anybody who traveled from his state to Washington, D.C., to participate in the violence: “We take an oath to protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.” On Wednesday night, other federal prosecutors publicly declared similar intentions.

Some of those who laid siege on the Capitol last week seemed to have enjoyed themselves. It was all a gas. Something tells us that today most are having regrets. And future regrets are likely.