Jan. 6 was as bad as it looked

Don't make excuses for lawless mob

I was at work at the Post-Star two years ago on Jan. 6 when the newsroom TV showed people streaming into the Capitol. It was funny at first, because velvet ropes were set up in the rotunda and the intruders were staying in between them, even though they had forced their way into the building illegally.

“Oh my gosh! Look at that!” I said.

But the scene quickly became anything but funny.

The chaos and violence was astonishing — the smashing of windows and barricades, assault on police officers, vandalism of one of the country’s most beautiful and important buildings, defecation in the hallowed halls of the nation.

Who would do that? The answer — angry supporters of then-President Donald Trump — is even more shocking than their shocking acts. American citizens desecrating the heart of the government is something I had never expected to see.

Like Dec. 7, Jan. 6 is, also, a day that should live in infamy, when the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by a lawless mob.

As with Sept. 11, the country should commemorate Jan. 6 and honor the police officers who sacrificed their health, their careers and, in a few cases, their lives in defense of our country.

Brian  Sicknick died of multiple strokes suffered hours after his confrontation with the mob. Two other officers died by suicide within four days of the attack, and two more died by suicide several months later. 

The trauma of being stomped and beaten by criminals claiming to be patriots overwhelmed these officers. Imagine the pride they took in protecting the Capitol and then getting clubbed into unconsciousness by citizens wielding poles meant to carry the American flag.

We have not processed the trauma of the Capitol attack. Honoring the men and women who defended the Capitol, as President Biden did on Friday, is a start. Sending the attackers to prison helps, too, and 900 have been arrested, with many already convicted and sentenced. But too many of us feel ambivalent about these insurrectionists and unwilling to call them what they defined themselves as through their behavior — enemies of the United States.

The only Jan. 6 story on the front page of the Washington Post on Friday carried this headline: “Supporters raise millions to rebrand Jan. 6 rioters as ‘patriots,’” and this subhead: “Right-wing supporters of the ‘Jan. Sixers’ cast them as valiant political prisoners — and brush aside powerful evidence to the contrary.”

Powerful evidence?

Let's call the video of the attack what it is — reality. Powerful reality.

No excuse justifies what they did, not that they were misled by disinformation nor under the sway of the president at the time, Donald Trump.

Every one of them is responsible for their own actions. 

Immense efforts were made, and in some cases still are being made, to whitewash the horrors of slavery that led to the Civil War. Politicians, historians and lots of regular people have participated in an attempt to blame the war on something else — some sort of vague but intractable political or economic or social difference between the north and the south.

Similar efforts are underway to whitewash the attack on the Capitol as well-meaning, or misguided but not malevolent or, somehow, courageous. 

It was treasonous in conception and execution. It was cowardly in its attacks of the many against a few. It was brutal and, in its ignorant desecration of a revered national site, it was barbaric.

Let’s remember Jan. 6 always for the infamous event it was.