Ashli Babbitt is the only insurrectionist who died at the hands of security forces on January 6, 2021. She was completely deluded, led into the mob by a flurry of lies. I’m sorry she was so gullible. I am sorry that she lost her life.
On the other hand, there’s an argument to be made that the security forces used too much restraint that day, imperiling Congress and vice-president Mike Pence, allowing for massive property damage and also a lot of unnecessary injuries and even deaths for the Capitol Police. I suppose things worked out in the end, since no elected officials were ultimately harmed and the transition of power took place, if a little behind schedule. But it could have been different, and there was certainly cause to use more force, even deadly force.
In truth, attempting a coup d’etat through mob violence is almost definitionally a provocation for deadly force. What other possible scenario could carry more justification? Even an attempted assassination of a president only threatens one person, not the entire constitutional order. No one would question the Secret Service for killing people who were trying to murder the president. If the Trump mob had faced live ammunition on January 6, it would have had it coming.
Assigning responsibility can be a thorny thing. A deluded mob is still a mob, and even stupid adults are still adults, responsible for their actions. The people who riled up the insurrectionists are the guiltiest parties, but that doesn’t mean the people who stormed the Capitol didn’t deserve whatever unfortunate repercussions came their way. If that meant losing a job, getting arrested, going to jail, or being shot and killed, these were foreseeable and reasonable consequences for using violence in an attempt to prevent the lawful transition of power.
If Ashli Babbitt was unlucky, the other mobsters were fortunate. They injured 140 police officers, killed one, and two more committed suicide as a direct result of their experiences that day. If anything similar happened in any other setting, the perpetrators would get no mercy and no sympathy, and certainly no one would suggest they were martyrs.
I don’t want to say that Babbitt deserved to die, but that’s because people are fallible and believing nonsense shouldn’t be a death sentence. No one, however, should think they’re so privileged that they can try to overturn a legitimate election through violence without putting their life on the line.
A lot of people can’t even drive a car without putting their life on the line.
Yes. 100% yes. Well said. “Unfortunate repercussions” were richly deserved.
I have watched a lot of insurrection video, and the only time I can remember seeing an image of a law enforcement officer brandishing a gun that day was just before AB was shot.
That right there speaks volumes to how the situation at that door was different from anywhere else in the building. (I assume it was different in that not only were members of congress being protected by the officer, but they had no escape route from the space they were in.)
So — AB got deep into the building without (presumably) seeing any officers brandishing guns. She encounters a very different situation where an officer is pointing a gun at her head, and yet she still tries to climb through the window. She was a 34 year old adult, who knew what she was doing.
I do feel sorry for her and her family, as well as the officer who shot her. (While the shooting was certainly justified, I cannot imagine how that officer feels.)
It was all so senseless.
I don’t feel sorry for her at all. She put herself in front of a gun, and refused to obey a lawful order, while trying to overthrow our government.
I’d no sooner feel sorry for a Nazi who got shot by a US soldier in WW2. Actually, I MIGHT feel sorry for the Nazi, if he was just some random Hans who got conscripted and had no choice. Ashliieey volunteered for this.
I remember these idiots — a husband and wife — bitching and moaning because the wife has sustained a minor injury when they stormed the Capital. They were interviewed by one of the late-night shows. Asked why they were there, they stated quite matter of factly to try to overturn the election. Talk about a sense of privilege.
I suppose it’s a form of white privilege but that moniker seems unfair because it wasn’t just about being white. Perhaps white Republican entitlement would be more accurate. “I can be a lout. I can commit crimes. And it’s all justified because I feel aggrieved. If I’m held accountable in any way, that’s more evidence of my victimization.”
She was ignorant and paid the ultimate price. She reaped what she sowed. So sad that there are so many like her. I don’t want them to “pay.” I want them to open their minds.
I know so many right wingers who feel that the level of fervency with which they hold a belief is directly proportional to the righteousness of their belief. Which is pretty much the way any fanatic feels. I’m sure those fighting under the ISIS flag feel the same way. This reality makes it impossible to reason with someone whose rationale is based solely on such a disjointed view of the world in which they reside. This delusion is fed and encouraged 24-7 by right wing media, the entirety of the GOP, and anyone who is still operating within the Trump orbit. I fear that we have not yet seen that worst of this. More will die, perhaps many more. And they will not all be from the ranks of the Trump cult. I think right now we are sort of in the uneasy eye of the storm, and as we get closer to 2022, and then to 2024, we are going to see a tremendous acceleration of violent threats, terrorism, and bloodshed. We are nowhere near peak insanity of the far right. We just don’t yet know the specific catalyst that will set things in motion. But it is almost certain that it is coming. The GOP is going to make certain of that, because it’s really all they have left. If they can’t have the house then they are content, and more than willing, to help burn it down.
I feel the same. I have some long time republican friends who seem to have been infected with a kind of insanity. They try hard to mock me but in the end they seem to know they are just nuts.
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