# Rioter, thanks for getting that tattoo **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 20, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369 "2021-02-20T23:25:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/41 "2021-02-22T14:22:13Z")
To be Devil’s Advocate here, I don’t think most of the rioters actually planned to storm the Capital. Sure, they made noise about doing it, but there was no coordinated plan of attack. They got caught up in the mob mentality and chaos ensued. It never occurred to them that the cameras recording their actions would be a _bad_ thing. I remember when my school’s basketball team won the NCAA basketball tournament, and I joined my fellow bar patrons to take to the streets and fuck shit up. We broke into buildings and stole furniture to burn in a massive bonfire on the main street. No one was calling the shots, and no one thought about potential body identifiers. I threw beer bottles around and broke them on the sidewalk until I lobbed one right in front of 4 cops. Luckily, they just told me to go home. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/42 "2021-02-22T14:57:12Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > To be Devil’s Advocate here, I don’t think most of the rioters actually planned to storm the Capital. Have you been hiding under a rock for the past month and a half? > **[A Small Group of Militants’ Outsize Role in the Capitol Attack (Published 2021)](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/21/us/capitol-riot-attack-militants.html)** > > Prosecutors have highlighted two militant groups — the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys — as being the most organized in last month’s assault. > **[As Trump trial opens, evidence mounts Capitol attack was planned - France 24](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210209-as-trump-trial-opens-evidence-mounts-capitol-attack-was-planned)** > > As Trump trial opens, evidence mounts Capitol attack was planned > **[‘Be ready to fight’: FBI probe of U.S. Capitol riot finds evidence detailing...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/fbi-capitol-riot-coordination-planning/2021/01/30/c5ef346e-6258-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html)** > > Agents are probing interactions between on-the-ground instigators and the leaders of national extremist groups. > **[Trump lawyer: Capitol rioters planned the attack BEFORE Trump's speech](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9218801/Trump-impeachment-Lawyer-argue-Capitol-rioters-planned-attack-Trumps-speech.html)** > > David Schoen, the Atlanta-based lawyer appointed by Trump on Sunday, will defend the former president next week in his historic second impeachment trial in the Senate. That was just a cursory, 30-second Google search. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/43 "2021-02-22T16:27:52Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > To be Devil’s Advocate here, I don’t think most of the rioters actually planned to storm the Capital. Sure, they made noise about doing it, but there was no coordinated plan of attack. They got caught up in the mob mentality and chaos ensued. It never occurred to them that the cameras recording their actions would be a _bad_ thing. One article I read and can’t find right now estimated there were about two or three dozen with a definite agenda in mind – the ones with radios and zip-cuffs, a couple hundred in tacticool gear – who figured the police would be on their side, and thousands milling around who figured they were saving the country and Dear Leader was marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with them. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/44 "2021-02-22T16:55:42Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > I once saw a prisoner with a life-sized scorpion tattooed on his face and I was thinking “Once you decided to become a criminal, you were always one line-up away from going to prison.” > > Pity. One of my favorite tattoos from [Science Ink](https://carlzimmer.com/books/science-ink-tattoos-of-the-science-obsessed/) is a tattoo of a scorpion done in UV reflective ink. You can’t see it without a black light. If he had only known. But we have no idea what @Little_Nemo’s prisoner looked like in black light. The visible scorpion could be the very least of his artwork ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2021, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/45 "2021-02-23T02:05:58Z")
Disapointed you didn’t post it first? ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2021, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/46 "2021-02-23T03:39:08Z")
Thank you, but people in this thread were mocking the rioters for not planning ahead and wearing incriminating clothing and tattoos. My point was that their lack of foresight could be attributed to a spontaneous decision to riot. I based that opinion on my own rioting experience. Dick. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2021, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/47 "2021-02-23T10:21:15Z")
I think it was a mix of people - a bunch of people stood outside the whole time and probably didn’t break any laws. Another bunch of people followed the crowd inside and could be described as spur-of-the-moment rioters. Another group, though, seems to have been planning in advance for mayhem… and I expect the people who did cover up thoroughly to be in that group, although they aren’t the whole of that group. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2021, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/48 "2021-02-23T12:50:17Z")
Personally I believe, and I think the evidence shows this, that there were three categories of people in the crowd that invaded the Capitol: (1) a small hardcore group of true insurrectionists, numbering in the low hundreds at most, who had been consciously planning to disrupt the government, up to and including using murderous violence, and were coordinating their efforts to that end; (2) a somewhat larger group of people, maybe up to a quarter of the mob, who weren’t included in that planning and weren’t enacting a step-by-step strategic operation like the first group, but they _hoped_ something big would happen and cheerfully joined to assist when the shit went down; and (3) the remainder of the crowd, agitated and excited in a general way, but otherwise just mindless sheep following the flow. The people in (1) are the ringleaders, who, if they are identified, are charged with and prosecuted for insurrection and conspiracy. The people in (2) get more of a patchwork of charges, depending on the degree to which they collaborated and cooperated with the ringleaders once things got rolling. The people in (3) get the generic trespass charges, if they’re charged at all, unless they can be identified on video doing something particularly heinous. But this hierarchy of criminal offense shouldn’t overlook one key fact: The active and deliberate insurrectionists in (1) may be, in the abstract sense, the most dangerous group, but they are able to be dangerous _specifically because_ they have the backup bodies in (2) and the camouflage of (3). In other words, the people in (3) may not be consciously engaging in an insurrection attempt, but their presence _en masse_ is what enabled the core group to act, and constitutes a danger of its own. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369/49 "2021-02-23T13:06:54Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > mrmrmrmrmr for reasons of their own is fucking with y’all. He’s not doing anything from the news from the last six months. He’s a tiresome “gotcha libs” troll like Shodan, but he uses news of the weird as his comedic prop. Keep an eye out for the T-Shirt that says “libs don’t get satire.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rioter-thanks-for-getting-that-tattoo/933369.md?page=2)