nope. I love my wife.youthathletics wrote: ↑Fri Jul 30, 2021 9:21 amDid you report him to the authorities, since you question his story?MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:23 pm
My brother-in-law (according to him) never went through any broken doors or windows, never entered the Capitol building, knew that would be illegal, and when he learned what had gone down (claims he didn't know at the time despite being on the Capitol steps) he was horrified that people violently fought the police, breached the Capitol, threatened those inside. And he didn't brag about it on social media.
That said, he did enter the grounds and IMO is therefore guilty of criminal trespass. Still thinks the election was rigged.
Not sure how much I believe of his story, could he really have been so naive? Maybe.
I'm all aboard on differential penalties...Which means that these guys definitely deserve punishment, the only question, Salty, is how much. IMO, definitely felony level.
I think he's genuinely chagrined to have been associated with what he'd assumed would simply be a protest, not violence much less an insurrection. He didn't make it to the rally so didn't hear the rhetoric; His expectation on the walk to the Capitol was not that they would stop the process but rather that some of the politicians would come out to speak, that they would be 'heard'. He was at the tail end of that march, so not on the front lines of the violence. He did make his way to the steps, did experience tear gas three times...so, I find it hard to believe that he was truly oblivious to the violence, given so much of it all around the building...he says he thinks that's because he was lower than where that was occurring...well, maybe, but still feels sketchy to me. Whatever else he may be, delusional etc, he tends to be very straight on honesty.
That said, I think there were probably multiple thousands there who were similar to him in that they did not come expecting, much less prepared for violence, nor participated in violence. However, I do think most of them genuinely wanted the process to stop and for the election to be recounted, rerun, whatever...they really did buy the Big Lie, really did believe "their President" won...for that I mostly blame Trump and all the a-holes who encouraged that Big Lie. Not that my brother-in-law and those like him aren't culpable, but the most serious criminals are Trump and his bootlickers. We see zero remorse from these fascists.
Out of the nearly 10,000 there, it's easy to imagine that half or even more weren't participants in the actual violence or breach of the building. However, their presence gave enormous weight to the threat the police felt. The police had no idea how much of that crowd was actually armed and violent, all they could see was a veritable sea of anger and violence, and they knew the overall magnitude of the crowd. That provided an umbrella to the most violent insurrectionists.