Posted on 01/07/2021 1:05:01 PM PST by hemogoblin
I began my day around 8 a.m. at the rally/protest between the Washington Monument and the Ellipse, in a sea of flags and people. The crowd most definitely looked like America, and I was struck by how incredibly many women were there. There were also black faces and absolutely scores of Asians. Judging from their signs and flags a large number of these were Chinese and Vietnamese Americans, who have a much fresher and more personal impression of communism than the rest of us.
At least one other account I have read describes a feeling of menace in the air. Back between Constitution Avenue and the Washington Monument, where I was, on muddy lawn, this was not apparent to me.
There were families with little kids, old couples, college-age young guys in blazers and scarves, nerds, neckbeards, teens, lots of middle-agers (like me), guys wearing hoodies with roofing and plumbing company logos, ladies with big hats, leashed dogs, a fair number of men with helmets, light body armor and various quasi-military insignia. Trump regalia and various flags and signs were everywhere, many homemade. A giant, swimming-pool sized Trump flag was spread on the ground with people signing their names to it with Sharpies. Another enormous flag, this one the Stars and Stripes, was being paraded around the crowd.
Politeness abounded. I dropped a glove once and handwarmer once, fumbling with my video camera as I interviewed people; both times I didn't have time to pick them up before someone did and handed them to me with a smile. There were a lot of smiles, back here. Everyone knew they were among friends.
Trump was exactly an hour late speaking and went on curiously long, reciting the laundry list of election irregularities we are all so used to, state by state. He mentioned that Pence was "listening to some bad people" or some such, which sounded ominous. He stated clearly he was not going to be conceding. He also said we would all be going to the Capitol, along Pennsylvania Avenue, and said clearly that he would be going too.
I was starting to worry that the proceedings in the House would start before we could get over there, and before the end of the hourlong speech people were already starting to move eastward toward the Mall and/or presumably Pennsylvania Avenue. When he finished the exodus began in earnest, and I chose to walk via the Mall because it might be less crowded, which it was.
As we neared the Capitol it was clear that many people were already there, clustered up around the scaffolding set up for the inauguration. As the crowd thickened and walked quicker we heard some booms and started looking at one another. Not many booms, about one every three minutes. A growing din could be heard ahead, and from our left another roar was rising as the Pennsylvania Avenue stream converged with us on the Capitol.
The excitement built with the sense of an inexorable wave about to meet with something definitely being defended. Yes, this was huge.
I went left around the Reflecting Pool, thinking I might try to get to the other side of the Capitol near the Supreme Court, but ended up to the left of the inauguration setup. Ascending the hill toward the foot of the Capitol the first flashbangs went off nearby and the crowd became packed and slow-moving. Yellow irritant dust blew over the crowd and there was a lot of coughing. "Move forward, keep moving" was the constant shout, but it was only possible in fits and starts. There was a lot of laughter and excitement, and some people reclined in inauguration folding chairs like they were settling in for the show.
Huge cheers erupted when someone scaled the scaffold and unfurled a flag. Barricades were removed and set up as ladders to the steps leading up to the veranda, but trapped in the crowd I thought I would never get that far. More cheers burst out when the riot-suited Capitol Police retreated up the stairs and the people surged up behind them.
People around me reported news from their phones. "They've breached the building." "They're in the Senate chamber!" "emergency recess!" Everything added to the urgency to keep moving forward.
By luck I was able to shift right, get into the scaffolding and actually climb through it over the advancing crowd. Why? Because we had made it this far. Might as well try to get as close to that phony counting-show as possible! The music from Les Miserables was going through my head:
"Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people Who will not be slaves again ... "
At the top things opened up again. Capitol police were standing at a distance. People had already breached a door, and I saw a few spider-cracked but not broken windows. I saw no violence directed at the officers, but a lot of people were yelling at them, calling them traitors or even just trying to converse with them, with some succeeding.
There was an air of triumph -- we had made it onto the hill. People relaxed, took pictures, chanted with the goal of being heard inside. STOP THE STEAL, WE THE PEOPLE, LET US IN, U.S.A., etc.
Again I was struck by how many women were up here too. It seemed like the crowd was maybe forty percent women.
I went ahead into the Capitol building. Broken glass and benches littered the floor and the air made you cough. I walked around for about twenty minutes taking video, police standing around watching all of us, and people still talked to them and were well-behaved. People sang the National Anthem. Some upset-looking supervisory officials with radios, running. An FBI jacket. I saw no damage other than to windows and doors, though some people gleefully lit up cigarettes and smoked. It was clear we were being contained, with some passageways guarded by five or six officers and some left unguarded.
The only weapons I saw this entire time were a sawed-off baseball bat sticking out of someone's backpack and a guy holding a claw hammer, which maybe had been used on the windows.
I exited and went around to the Northern entrance where people were trying to enter a smaller doorway and getting pushed back by police and clouds of irritant cough powder. They made repeated attempts but the stuff came out in clouds and people came back by me with their hats and coats splattered with orange pepper spray. Nobody was in severe distress but there was a lot of eye-rinsing.
The crowd was loud, excited, insistent and boisterous but incredibly polite. Helping tired and overwhelmed people get away, watching out for each other, sharing water, lots of laughing and carrying on. It was weird to be in the middle of people screaming F--- ANTIFA!, F--- THE POLICE! and F---ING TRAITORS!, but if someone happened to step on your foot they were all "Oh pardon me I'm so sorry!"
Again, SURPRISING numbers of women. Also teens, college-age clean cut types, nerds, old people, guys wearing coats and ties, a little goth girl with pink eyeshadow, guy in a skull mask, lots of gas masks, some helmets.
There were some rough guys with helmets and tattoos and body armor, but I never once thought "Antifa." I assumed they were ex-military or "pedes" from thedonald.win. Nor did I see any blows against police officers. It was more like a human wave, pushing and re-pushing like people trying to get into a concert.
If I had seen anyone actively try to harm a police officer, I would have thought "antifa," but I did not see this at all. Yes this is only me talking, but I believe I was pretty close to the action.
After about thirty minutes here, the police began their charge. They swept around the veranda in a solid wall and the batons started to fly, there was a semi-stampede and a guy with a big video camera was pushed off a ledge (by police) and crashed onto the stone steps about three feet below. Mobile phones were dropped and trampled. Flashbangs going off.
Less than a minute later a flashbang went off about eight feet from me and a piece smacked me in the thigh (ouch). It went instantly numb like getting hit with a squash ball and I decided it was time to go, I had enough video to justify my trip up here.
I was quickly away from the crowd, and did not learn of the fatal shooting until I was back at my hotel near the State Department after a thirty- to forty-minute walk.
After learning of this and watching the various videos of it, I knew that no act of violence I saw that day came remotely close to the fatal shooting of an unarmed woman, wearing a flag, who was climbing through a broken inner window. Why didn't they just pepper spray her as well? Beanbags? Tasers?
With that question I conclude.
If not, it was a set-up, to make everyone look like rioters and insurrectionists, a staged Reichstag Fire for the eager media.
Looked to me like they just let the crowd in- and called over the photographers.
But I wasn't there, so ...?
I was right there with you brother, same location,Washington monument grass, same time. Only difference is, when I hiked to the capital,I didn’t enter the building. 3 guys were talking excitedly as I approached the lawn. They had just fought 6 to 8 antifukks who were breaking in, popo arrived and sprayed the 3 Patriots, they were tactically retreating and told anyone who would listen that it was a setup. They gathered their crew and departed. This was about 1330L.
thanks for the post.
bookmarki
When I saw pic of police with guns drawn & pointed at people trying to get in to Capitol, I thought....do not recall police pointing guns at Antifa or BLM in Portland or other cities where they rioted.
Very valuable insights. Thank you.
I know. You know if is demon driven nonsense when motor controlled police point guns at PEACEFUL conservatives, but standd down when VIOLENT DANGEROUS bkm and antifa are destroying the nation.
The hypocrisy and outright bs from the left, excuse my swearing, is outrageous.
Justice and civi,ity is losing ground to the evilness on the left
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