DOJ Plows Toward 1,000 Arrests, 500 Convictions for Capitol Insurrection

     Whether for misdemeanor or felony charges, the arrests for the Capitol insurrection never get less disturbing as the months go on, even if the more high-profile arrests have already been made. The overwhelming majority of these people were affiliated with or sympathetic toward extremist groups like the Proud Boys and fringe ideologies like the QAnon conspiracy theory, a disproportionate number were former military and law enforcement, most had some history of crime or financial difficulties, and they all believed that the 2020 election was stolen. The "ordinary people caught up in the moment and deceived by the president" narrative doesn't sit well with me, although that doesn't negate the former president's legal and moral responsibility for what happened that day.

     Just in the past few weeks, for example, the arrests have included:

1. Bernard Sirr, a nuclear worker from Rhode Island who was involved with the crowd interfering with and assaulting law enforcement officers in the Lower West Terrace.
2. Hatchet Speed, a Navy reservist from Virginia who was an admirer of the Unabomber and the Olympic Park Bomber, supported the efforts of jihadists to "wipe out" Jews from the face of the Earth, rode to D.C. with friends who were associated with the Proud Boys, and stockpiled dozens of firearms worth an estimated $50,000 after the Capitol insurrection.
3. Luke Lints, a gardener from Michigan who abandoned his mom in the middle of a health emergency to join others like Sirr in attacking the police defending the Capitol.
4. Lilith Saer, a transgender, Satanic software developer from Portland who dropped out of Harvard, became a prominent Twitter poster of QAnon and anti-vax conspiracy theories as well as anti-Semitic content, and joined others (including Alan Swinney) in taking a leading role in the violence in Portland between 2018 and 2021.
5. John Gordon, a West Virginia man who threw a weighted ball at a Capitol window that law enforcement was protecting on the other side.
6. Tyler Ethridge, a Colorado youth pastor who posted video of himself being shot in the knee by a Capitol police officer and was identified and fired soon after the insurrection.
7. Dova Winegeart, an Oklahoma bakery owner who used a pole to destroy a window at the Capitol and has bragged about her participation since then.
8. William Mellors, a Texas man who admitted bringing bear spray to D.C. in an FBI interview and allegedly used it against officers, ironically while wearing a "Fuck Around and Find Out" hat.

     I have started a project called Insurrection Detection because I believe that every arrest matters. So far, nearly 900 arrests have resulted in more than 350 convictions on charges ranging from picketing, parading, or demonstrating in the Capitol to seditious conspiracy. Each of these arrests makes our democracy just a little bit healthier by taking an insurrectionist off the streets, keeping this story in the headlines, and potentially deterring others who might think they can avoid criminal responsibility for their actions. At the end of the day, it was estimated that around 2,500 people broke the law on January 6th, 2021, and it will take years to attempt to track down as near to all of these violent marauders as we can. At the end of the day, the good news is that hundreds more insurrectionists who have yet to be arrested have been identified. Every day, the DOJ plows toward 1,000 arrests and 500 convictions for the January 6th insurrection.