U.S. Capitol police recently arrested Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was fatally shot two years ago by Capitol police officer Michael Byrd during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
On Jan. 6, 2023, the anniversary of Ashli’s death.
Yet Byrd, the Capitol police officer who murdered Ashli-- a diminutive, unarmed veteran posing no danger to anyone-- was never charged, his actions never investigated. Despite the fact that he has a documented history of mishandling firearms. (For example, accidentally leaving a loaded handgun in a Capitol bathroom.)
Witthoeft was part of a small group peacefully protesting Ashli’s death while walking down the side of a street. Police claim they were blocking traffic. Video footage shows a police officer telling them to move to the sidewalk or they would be arrested. Witthoeft then turned her back to police and was promptly handcuffed and arrested, essentially for jaywalking. The same police force that murdered her daughter arrested her for jaywalking…on the anniversary of her daughter’s death that she was protesting.
If Ashli Babbitt’s mother had donned Atifa attire and burned down a Target, she would have been O.K. In fact, liberals like Kamala Harris would have given her moral—and probably financial—support. Had Ashli herself simply robbed a Walgreen’s or threatened a conservative justice of the Supreme Court, she would still be alive.
This is beyond disgusting, beyond repulsive, beyond sickening. It is sheer in-your-face evil, the state bludgeoning those it rules over because it can—and desires to intimidate anyone thinking of disobeying it in the future. Killing a petite, unarmed, female veteran? That’s okay if she was a Trump supporter and you are protecting the establishment. Guilty of “wrong-think?” Then you must pay the price.