Everyone should be able to identify with this scenario. You are 18 years old and with four friends who get carried away and commit a crime. You were there but not really on board and didn’t fully participate. Perhaps, there was some stealing, some destruction of property, some bullying, maybe even a rape. Were you, as part of the group, guilty? The answer is yes. Perhaps not as guilty as the one who pulled the trigger but there is the concept of being an “accessory” to a crime.
I’m astonished to hear these grown-ups reacting with shock and frustration to find out that their participation and attendance at an attempted insurrection will result in indelible changes to these people’s lives. Just as a sex crime follows people forever, the participation in a terrorist event will mark these people for life and they will lose their rights such as the right to fly and to all sorts of careers. The guy whining at the airport that people were “wrecking his life” be treating him as a terrorist …. #nosympathyforterrorits
Now, where does participation in the crime make a person an accessory?
If they came to Washington following the call to try to change the election. Was that a crime? I think maybe it is not.
What if they came to Washington as part of an organization and that organization has officially talked about violence and they were aware of it? Are they guilty? In this case, through RICO, I think they are part of a conspiracy and implicated in illegal activities. Guilty!
What if they came equipped with military hardware and as a part of a militia or an organization in which explicit references were made to violent acts that they planned on? Can they still claim that they didn’t understand and say that they were just playing dress-up and cosplay? I think not, I’d find for guilty.
Of course, if they actually set foot across police barriers, the degree of guilt grows dramatically since they participated in breaking into the capital.
Last question, all those pictures and videos, aren’t they evidence so that destroying it, or not volunteering it, is with-holding evidence and a crime?
