You've got to be kidding me. Whatever the people arrested on 20 January 2017 were doing it wasn't anywhere close to what the people who invaded the Capitol did on 6 January 2021. The fact I have to type that out is a bit staggering to me.
Violently invading the Capitol isn't a protected First Amendment activity, they were actively trying to interefere with the constitutional duties being undertaken by our elected government. They did so with the stated intention and performed the actions of trying to undermine our government by force, and unlike any other protest or riot in modern US history they succeeded even if it was for just a few short hours.
So no, not even fucking close. With the death of a police officer, the injury of more than a score of others along with the unprecendented takeover of the Capitol Buidling there has been no indication, on the part of the DOJ or the judges who have heard the charges so far, to take this lightly.
A fantastic example of willful ignorance.
You wrote "They did so with the stated intention and performed the actions of trying to undermine our government
by force..." But refuse to actually read and comprehend the words..."There has been a lot of talk of peaceful transition of power as being a core element in a democracy and we want to reject that entirely and
really undermine the peaceful transition..." written by others. Do tell...what is the difference?
I do not want to put words in your mouth but you appear to imply that a building is in fact our government when the US Capitol is just a structure and the people in it just servants to the electorate. Had the 9/11 attack actually hit the dome (as planned) would America have collapsed? Nope. The rioters of January 6 stopped nothing just as the rioters of January 20, 2017 stopped nothing. The rioters of January 6 DID NOT take over the building, they got inside. Moreover, dirty deeds in that building are hardly
unprecedented - the place has suffered three bombings and two shootings in the 20th Century alone. The process survived because the process is stronger than any riot. But the fact is a riot to disrupt the peaceful transition of power is exactly like a riot to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. So, what is your metric? One dead cop...how about hundreds injured? How many private businesses have to be destoryed to make it "equal to" broken windows and a few missing signs on federal property?
Again...I have ZERO sympathy for any person that destroys property.
Again...I posit that justice isn't simply blind...it is REQUIRED to be blind.
So, bottom line, totally fucking close. Indeed, "shack," "spot on," "direct hit," completely close.
