It's the fifth anniversary of the January 6 Insurrection of 2021. I'm not sure that's how they've named it, but that's what it was.

I remember writing about this after watching it in real time, but I can't find where I put it. I didn't post it on this blog. Maybe I was chatting with people at work. I'll recap a little here.

I don't remember why I was watching, but Trump was on the television giving a talk to a massive crowd, spouting about the stolen election and how the turnover wasn't right. In the speech, he called on his masses to storm the Capitol and stop the procedural certifying of the votes. He promised to join them shortly, which I knew wouldn't happen. I shook my head thinking these schmucks couldn't possibly believe that would do anything to keep him in office.

But they did! They did wander down. The news kept on the crowd. Mayhem ensued.

It started as a chanting protest. I've only been to DC once, but remember it felt like everything was kind of "right there," but also kind of spread out. It didn't take them long to walk from the rally to the Capitol. They yelled. They chanted. They knocked down police and tore down barriers and stormed the steps. What the hell? They climbed the walls and attacked the police keeping the inner barriers standing, forcing them back. They pressed all the way to the doors, where the police had been able to barricade or enter. Then they started breaking windows and bashing in doors, and rioting!

The news was everywhere, catching the more peaceful, maybe even unaware protesters standing away from the throngs. They also caught people in the middle, still yelling and chanting. And they were on the pressing edges, catching the people as the fought with the police and broke into the building. There were even press, and live-streaming shared video from protesters, inside the building. To some degree, many were just excited to be involved and inside, and largely kept it to "just a slightly violent" protest.

At one point, I remember seeing a wave of protesters pressing a guard as he backed slowly away from them. They mock charged a few times, chest thumping, as he simply held his hands out trying to calm them from about ten feet ahead, as he continued backing up stairs and down halls. At the time I thought both "what can he do?" and "why doesn't he push back?" really wanting him to get some support. After the protest, it was revealed that he was putting himself in danger as he lured them deeper down hallways away from the chambers where the representatives had barricaded themselves in. Good on ya, deceitful guard!

Over the next couple hours, there were first no messages, then confusing "we love you," and finally "go home" messages from the President. 

Over the next few days and months, the internal actions were revealed and damage reports shared what happened. Deaths and injuries were revealed. Offices were broken into and vandalized. Artifacts were stolen and damaged.  Many people were identified, tried, and convicted of participating in the insurrection. Jobs were lost, and justice seemed to be being served.

Then Trump won election after Biden's term ended. He almost immediately pardoned and commuted sentences for the insurrectionists. Many of them have been convicted of other crimes. Others are back in spotlights causing trouble.

There have been many mentions of the day in the last five years. A couple of documentaries have come out to keep it in people's minds. They're mostly on the side of seeing it as an attempt to overthrow the government, at least enough to disrupt a generally benign procedural event that most of us didn't even know happened with every election.

In the last few days, a little bit of focus on the fifth anniversary has been in the news. It'll be interesting to see the take on the day in retrospectives today. I'm sure Trump and crew will be trying to keep the lid on it, as they have been trying to spin it as a move supporting the legitimate government and recognition of the injustice of the election theft. There was no election theft. That has been disproved repeatedly in the last few years, even though it's still called out by Trump and his supporters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack