I’m not saying the insurrection wasn’t violent with five dead, but I have to ask it. Why wasn’t there more shooting? These guys brought guns in their cars, more than was found, I’m sure.
I mean, there’s footage of some thug saying, “Next time, we’re coming for (Nancy Pelosi) and we’re bringing weapons.” So, you’re just playing this time? You warn them you’re coming back? You’re actually planning on coming back?
Still, with this crowd, I’m surprised the guns didn’t come out first. I’m relieved, of course. But why didn’t they start shooting their way in?
Because the coup was as disorganized as his administration was over the past 4 years. No real leadership or planning, just winging it. That’s pretty much the Trump signature and how we know he was behind it, because it was yet another failure in his classic style.
I would think that, in part, who’da thunk that police exercising restraint actually works in tempering escalation to violence. The fact that said restraint was due to white privilege is besides the point.
I think also they were kind of surprised they were actually able to make it into the capitol building and then some of them almost seemed to be acting more like tourists, walking around taking selfies. I don’t think they expected to actually make it that far.
Because the vast majority of Trump fans are weak and stupid. They were looking for someone to lead them, tell them what to do. And without that, the emergent wisdom of that crowd involved milling around and looking at desks for incriminating paperwork.
It’s what happens when the police are most interested in de-escalating and preserving life rather than most interested in being obeyed.
If you’re a lone, unarmed old man disobeying a police order, you get put in the hospital.
If you’re a violent armed young-ish man backed up by 1,000 other violent young-ish men , disobeying an order is met with a howdy as you pass by.
I think that as most of them define themselves “patriot” it is possible that really being inside the Capitol building had a sort of intimidating effect on them
The one thing the capitol police did do well was keeping the Congresspeople hidden and secure. I have no doubt that if they had actually gotten to them it would’ve become extremely violent.
As we learn more, this is very clearly false and it’s a dangerous narrative to continue to propagate. It was organized. It was premeditated. It was aided and abetted from within.
It wasn’t more violent largely because the defense forces were told to stand down or were not deployed. The small handful of Capitol Police there were either openly complicit or backed down pretty much immediately. If not for the Secret Service, it would have been bloody. The goal wasn’t wanton death and destruction. They didn’t want to kill the police and they didn’t want to raze the building. They wanted to kill and capture the Congressman, but they were evacuated quickly enough to avoid catastrophe. Had they not been, you’d have had your bloodbath.
There were people in that mob who had specific objectives over and above the disruption of the electoral process. As I’ve said, you don’t build a gallows to showcase your carpentry skills.
Correct. While there were assuredly useful idiots in that crowd being ginned up by Trump and Hawley, within that mob were a bunch of active agents with an agenda and violent plans.
Agreed that the reason it wasn’t more violent is that the police managed to keep Congress separate. The small number of people with specific violent intentions didn’t manage to get close enough to any of Congress to carry them out. They could have tried to open fire on the cops beforehand, but that wouldn’t have worked. The cops would have returned fire and 99% of the rioters would have bolted because they were there as part of a mob not as actual combatants.
Although this contradicts the views I expressed in a post I made in a previous thread, I think it may have been due to the very strong gun regulations in DC.
As DrDeth said there were two classes of protestors. There were those who had planned before hand to attack the capitol and then a much larger group who didn’t start the morning intending to storm the capitol but were just caught.
For this second group there was no reason to bring a weapon with them and risk getting arrested.
For the first group they may have realized going in that there was a high probability that they could be arrested and didn’t want to add a weapons charge. It may also be the case that they thought that they wouldn’t need them since the police would be on their side.
It’s a variant of US foreign policy:
IRAQ: If they have oil, send weapons of mass destruction
DPRNK: If they have weapons of mass destruction; send oil.
part of it seems to be the fact that DC has strict gun control. You can’t march into the building with shotguns and semi auto rifles like the right wingers did in places like Michigan. You’ll be arrested if you are seen walking down the street carrying a firearm, and DC doesn’t recognize other states carry permits. Open carry is banned too.
So thats one big reason too. Yeah some brought their guns, but to avoid being arrested they left their guns in their cars.
Also while some people got caught up in the mob, I’m sure most knew that theres a world of difference between trespassing and murder.