Reporter | Tian Siqi
On Wednesday (January 6), local time, the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C., was breached again after 200 years. Unlike the last time it was burned down by British troops, the Capitol this time faces attackers who are supporters of incumbent President Donald Trump and fans of social media conspiracy theories.
As Trump encouraged supporters to protest a joint session earlier Wednesday, hundreds of people subsequently climbed over the outer walls of the Capitol and broke into Senate and House offices. The process for authenticating Biden was briefly suspended. Photos circulating online showed many participants gleefully posing inside the Capitol to take photos and record videos, dressed in strange costumes to attract media attention.
The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police said it arrested a total of 68 people on Wednesday on charges including violating curfews and illegally breaking into the Capitol building and illegally possessing firearms or other weapons.
Many other interlopers were not caught, including Richard Barnett from Arkansas. He sat at the desk of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, triumphantly drawing his feet up to the world's attention.
The self-employed man from southern Arkansas has not yet been arrested and bragged to cameras after leaving the Capitol that he was "escorted out." He runs a company in the small town of Gravitte, which has 2,300 people, but is in financial trouble from the covid-19 pandemic.
In another photo that went viral online, Adam Christian Johnson smiles and waves to the camera wearing a pro-Trump hat, his arm between the podiums that belong to Pelosi. Facebook sources show that he is a 36-year-old Republican voter from Florida, and his wife, Suzanne, who is a family doctor, has five children and lives in a 4,000-square-foot house in southwest Florida.
Some participants were desperate for attention, such as Jack Anglia, an Arizona resident with a topless body, fur, horns on his hat and painted face inside the Capitol. He is a proponent of the conspiracy theory QAnon, dressed unusually to attract attention and facilitate the dissemination of his views on QAnon to the public. The conspiracy theory, which preaches that Trump will save America from Satan-worshipping and child-raping Democrats, has recently been to overturn the election results and block Biden's presidency.
There are also people who carefully hide their identities. In an interview with The New York Times, a construction worker from Indianapolis said: "We want to show these politicians that it is we, not them, who are in power. He also revealed that his name was "Aaron," 40, but did not say his last name: "I'm not that stupid." ”
At least two riot participants have been fired: Goosehead Insurance confirmed on Twitter on Thursday that it was no longer hiring deputy general counsel Paul Davis, who filmed a video outside the Capitol building complaining about being hit by tear gas, according to U.S. media outlet VOX. Another company, Navistar Direct Marketing, also announced the dismissal of Nicholas Rodin, who wears a clearly visible badge in photos of the scene of the riots.
So far, a total of 4 people have been killed in the riots. According to the police, 3 of them had an "emergency medical accident" at the scene. Kevin Gleason of Alabama suffered a heart attack at the scene, and the other two dead were Benjamin Phillips of Pennsylvania and Roshan Boyland of Georgia, the specific cause of which is unknown. Another was shot and killed by police while trying to break through a barricade into the House of Representatives. The deceased was U.S. Air Force veteran Ashley Babbitt, 35, a fervent supporter of Trump.
Acting federal prosecutor Michael Schöwen in Washington said Thursday that there are currently 15 criminal proceedings related to the unrest, and that the 15 charges are "good start" but not the end. He added that the higher court also received 40 lawsuits, including allegations of illegal entry into certain areas of the Capitol.
The FBI and Washington police have called on americans to help them identify those involved in Wednesday's capitol riots. An Instagram account used to identify riot participants has garnered 230,000 followers.
Mary McCord, legal director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University in Washington, warned in an interview with USA Today that the riots in the Capitol would not be the last violence unleashed by far-right activists. They may also have used the high-profile attack to recruit members.
When asked at the scene by CNN why the Capitol was attacked, one of the women involved in the incident was angry, claiming that there was no attack, that the attack was just a "media narrative" and that the participants simply wanted to make their voices heard. As soon as the words stopped, the woman continued to climb over a wall.