Comparing 'insurrections': J6 vs. George Floyd riots
By David Boyajian
Corporate media describe the Jan. 6, 2021, ("J6") assault on the U.S. Capitol – sparked by claims of fraud in 2020's presidential election – as an insurrection. But was it?
Yet they never describe 2020 riots – sparked mainly by the Minneapolis police's killing of George Floyd – as insurrections. Then again, they should.
Though insurrection is defined nowhere in the U.S. Code, it's a federal crime (18 U.S. Code §2383):
"Whoever incites … assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against ... the U.S. or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined … or imprisoned … and shall be incapable of holding any office under the U.S."
Interestingly, Special Counsel Jack Smith hasn't charged former President Trump or any J6 participant with insurrection.
J6, consequently, wasn't an insurrection.
The Constitution's 14th Amendment, Section 3, is similar to federal law. But it bars only past/present officials who've committed insurrection – possibly including presidents – from occupying any federal/state/city public office.
Colorado and Illinois courts and a Maine official cited that section in seeking to dump Donald Trump from their states' GOP primaries.
On March 4, the U.S. Supreme Court shot them down: States cannot use Section 3 to disqualify federal candidates.
As to whether Trump had perpetrated insurrection, SCOTUS was silent.
The 2020 insurrections
Webster's defines insurrection as "an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government." Others say an insurrection must involve violence.
Regardless, given their countless thousands of anti-government acts/instances, 2020's coast-to-coast, typically left-of-center George Floyd and similar riots qualify as insurrections:
Assaults on police and others, property and business destruction, vandalism, looting, arson, firebombings, laser attacks, blockades, occupations, shootings, and homicides.
Among the targets: The White House and other federal buildings.
Bloodbaths aptly describes 2020's clashes.
In 1992, then-Attorney General Bill Barr used the Insurrection Act and National Guard to quell riots that followed Rodney King's beating by L.A. police. If those were insurrections, so were 2020's riots.
Though the 2020 uprisings occurred chiefly from May 26 through early June, sporadic violence persisted for months. Most George Floyd protesters, nevertheless, were nonviolent.
So were the vast majority of J6 protesters.
2020 versus January 6
While J6's losses topped out at $2.7 million, 2020's toll rivals that of a war: $1-2 billion.
2020's mega-mayhem also eclipsed J6's invasion as measured by the numbers of violent individuals, arrests, injuries and deaths.
Comparing 2020 to J6, RealClearInvestigations found "15 times more injured police officers, 19 times as many arrests."
Yet, "authorities have pursued … Capitol [J6] rioters with substantially more vigor than [ 2020 rioters]."
Moreover, "In most of a dozen major jurisdictions, 90%+ of [2020's] citations/charges" were dropped/dismissed/not filed.
New York and other cities allowed hundreds of 2020's alleged looters/lawbreakers to escape prosecution.
In contrast, more than three years later, the feds remain consumed with hunting down J6 lawbreakers.
Why hasn't Jack Smith prosecuted J6 persons for insurrection?
One possibility: The feds and even states might then feel compelled to slap insurrection charges on 2020's lawbreakers.
That would trigger meltdowns among the rioters' media backers and, possibly, more bloodbaths.
Our politically venomous justice system resembles that of a third-world you-know-what.
Giving aid and comfort
Those who equipped the 2020 insurrectionists with bricks, bats, bottles, bolt cutters, blinding lasers and Molotov cocktails unequivocally gave them "aid or comfort."
Among others vulnerable to the same charge:
- DAs who rapidly and recklessly released arrestees back onto the streets.
- Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. She hailed the illegal, destructive CHAZ/CHOP occupation of the city's Capitol Hill as a "Summer of Love" and "block party" and let it remain.
- Massachusetts attorney general, now Gov. Maura Healey. The day after Boston's riots, she seemingly encouraged more lawlessness: "Yes, America is burning, but that's how forests grow."
U.S. Code or the 14th Amendment would bar such individuals, if convicted, from holding federal, state, and/or city offices.
But didn't J6 spring from appalling election lies whereas 2020 was prompted by police brutality against, and social justice for, blacks?
Questioning is not a crime
Activists in 2020 were entitled to be angered by images of Officer Chauvin's knee on George Floyd's neck. Indeed, a jury convicted Chauvin of murder in 2021.
Objective observers also know that police abuse, crime, coverups and corruption occur too often.
J6 demonstrators and many Americans were similarly entitled to believe that 2020's presidential election and race were marred by extensive fraud and government misconduct. Just ask Hillary Clinton and Georgia's Stacey Abrams about their own election critiques.
Electoral mischief is, after all, an American tradition. And voter rolls are intentionally out-of-date and thus illegal.
Some states rushed to adopt mail-in ballots during the COVID scare. That added to the skepticism. 2005's Jimmy Carter-James Baker Commission had cautioned about mail-in voting.
J6 protesters were trying to pressure Vice President Pence to decline certifying Joe Biden's win. Suppose Pence had done so.
The inauguration was just 14 days away, and incontrovertible evidence of a Trump win was seemingly lacking. Congress or SCOTUS would undoubtedly have intervened and affirmed Biden's win.
True, the Oath Keepers and some others were convicted of trying to overthrow the election and government on J6.
They were going to hold off the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, National Guard, Homeland Security, Marshals Service, ATF, FBI, and police? Impossible.
More differences
J6 was confined to one day and one locale. And it copied a mere snippet from 2020's encyclopedia of lawlessness.
But aside from peaceful protests and, perhaps, targeting law enforcement, 2020's nationwide attacks, arson, looting, destruction of minority businesses and deaths were simply criminal anarchy. These bore no rational relation to Floyd's murder or social justice.
The Senate held hearings for SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh from Sept. 4-7, 2018.
Backed by feminist and progressive organizations, women repeatedly entered the hearing. They interrupted it with shouts and other unruly activity.
One leader's goal: "For this nomination not to go through." Sounds a bit like January 6.
Another leader declared: "I came to put my body on the line." Like J6 protesters?
It's difficult to know the final disposition of the Kavanaugh hearing's 227-plus arrests.
But most were charged with "disorderly conduct, crowding or obstructing," reported NPR. They paid $35 or $50 fines.
It seems unfair, therefore, that many J6 participants received harsher sentences for similar charges of Obstruction of an Official Proceeding and/or Disorderly/Disruptive Conduct.
So was the action of Jan. 6, 2021, an insurrection? Only if corporate media and their allies describe 2020's riots that way, which they'll never do.
David Boyajian's usual focus in the Caucasus. His work can be found at https://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/David_Boyajian.
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