Definition of Insurrection: a violent uprising against an authority or government.
Definition of Uprising: an act of resistance or rebellion.
Insurrection: a violent act of resistance or rebellion against an authority or government.
The key word is violent. What activity rises to the level of violent?
Definition of Violent: using or involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.
There’s no doubt on 6 January 21 that “physical force intending to damage something” happened. Windows were broken and doors forced in order for protesters to enter the Capitol Building. This action took place against government authority. I feel like it’s a stretch, but technically the incident that happened on 6 January 21 could correctly be labeled an Insurrection.
But based on this same logic/definition, every riot that occurred in 2020 could be considered an insurrection because they were violent acts of resistance against government authority.
The 6 January 21 riot or insurrection took one life, injured 140 police officers, and caused $1.4 million in damage.
The 2020 riots or insurrections took 25 lives, injured 2000 police officers and caused over $2 billion in damage.
So which of these “insurrections caused more damage to the country?
The historical use of the word insurrection always involves the use of the word “armed” and the goal of the group is to forcibly seize a portion of the government to make change in some policy
The “armed” portion of historical use of the word “insurrection” is missing from the 6 Jan scenario. The far Right groups and White Supremacists groups that Liberals claim made up the majority of the 6 Jan protestors believe everyone should own ten guns including AR15’s with 30 round magazines. Yet zero firearms were found among the 6 January 21 protestors. The only use of a firearm on 6 Jan was by a Capitol Police Officer when he shot an unarmed, female Air Force veteran who later died.
The 6 January 21 protestors did use force to enter the Capitol Building, but they did not “seize or occupy” the building. They left by the end of the day and did not try to take over any aspect of the operation of the government. They shut down Congressional operations for a day, but so does a bad snowstorm and COVID-19.
Some of the 6 January 21 protesters became rioters when they forced their way through police lines. They became criminals when the broke into the locked Capitol Building, guilty of breaking and entering and criminal trespass. Others that took things were guilty of theft. These actions were the exact same actions carried out by protesters/rioters in the 2020 riots, the main difference being nobody tried to burn down the Capitol Building. If they had set the Capitol on fire would CNN have called it a “most peaceful protest”?
To say 6 January 21 protest was an insurrection is ludicrous. There was no organization of the protestors. There were no designated leaders. There was no widespread conspiracy to break into the Capitol Building. It was spur of the moment action by protestors turned rioters, caught up in the heat of the moment. And possibly egged on by undercover FBI agents (still yet to be proven or disproved). There was no one designated to be in charge once the building was occupied. And saying it was occupied is a stretch because basically, a bunch of people who didn’t know each other were wandering around the building sightseeing.
No one tried to “seize the government” or perform any government actions after they occupied the building. Does anyone believe that the buffalo-horn hat wearing Shaman could have picked up Nancy Pelosi’s phone, called the Justice Department and said, “I’m in charge now, free all Federal prisoners” and they would have done it? They had no means to force anyone in the government to do anything. As previously stated, none of the occupiers were armed. They had no way to force their will on anyone. They had no way to hold the space they occupied once an armed response force showed up.
By dictionary definition, the 6 January 21 protest could be called an insurrection. By historical use of the word insurrection, the 6 January 21 protest was in no way an insurrection. It was a protest that morphed into a riot by some of the participants. Much like the many protests/riots of the Summer of 2020 with the main difference being the scale of destruction, injury and loss of life was so much greater.
You could make a better case that the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), also called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, WA was an insurrection. Protesters violently seized a six block area including a police station. Roads entering the zone were barricaded to keep legitimate authorities out. Occupiers governed the area for nearly a month making all decisions for the area previously made by the local government. The legal government representatives were evicted. The protestors became rioters who became insurrectionists when they took over control of the zone. Sounds like an insurrection.
ALLAN L. PERKINS, Sergeant Major, U.S. Army (Retired)