WorldNetDaily’s continuing campaign to whitewash the crimes of Capitol rioters continued in a Jan. 22 article by Alicia Powe — a former WND writer who mostly works these days for the discredited Gateway Pundit — that hid information in order to portray a rioter as a victim:
Demonstrators begged police to do something, anything, after watching a man shot in the face by cops, inflicting a wound on his mouth that would disfigure him for life, at the Jan. 6, 2021 “Stop The Steal” rally. It’s just one more of a seemingly unending stream of “what really happened on Jan. 6” stories now coming to light in videos from that day.
While fellow protesters rendered what aid they could to the man after police wounded him, law enforcement just stood idle, watching the injured man’s blood spill to the ground.
“Hospital! Anybody?” a protester screamed moments after a bullet pierced the upper lip of a man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
It wasn’t until the 28th paragraph of her article that Powe finally got around to mentioning that the man — who she similarly waited to identify as Michael Dickinson — was hit by a rubber bullet, not a real one, meaning he wasn’t injured as badly as Powe wants you to believe. She also offered no evidence that law enforcement is obligated to offer medical aid to criminals actively taking part in a riot. And she did ultimately concede that Dickinson provoked the confrontation when he “threw a bucket of water and a paper cup on police.”
“Powe went on to whine: Distinguishable by a light-gray hoodie with a green shamrock, Dickinson was identified by Sedition Hunters, a leftwing activist group devoted to scouring through Jan. 6 footage to identify protesters they refer to as ‘chuds’ to the FBI to expand the bureau’s Most Wanted List of Trump supporters.” Powe didn’t explain why it was a bad thing for civilians to help law enforcement identify criminals — especially people like Dickinson whose clothing was so “distinguishable.” She then tried whataboutism to distract from the fact that Dickinson pleaded guilty to charges:
He pleaded guilty on Sept. 6, 2022, and was sentenced by U.S. District John Bates to 20 months incarceration, plus 3 years’ probation and was fined $2,000 restitution.
Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter and Antifa activists have sued and been awarded millions of dollars over skirmishes with officers who allegedly used excessive force.
Powe identified no case of a BLM or Antifa activist who was found to have engaged in “skirmishes with officers” and then “awarded millions of dollars.” In fact, those receiving monetary settlements were involved in “skirmishes” — they were nonviolent protesters of overaggressive policing.
Bob Unruh did more whitewashing in a Jan. 25 article, insisting that the riot could not have been an insurrection because there was no elaborate plan beforehand:
Remember the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was, in fact, a riot by a few hundred people.
They broke windows and doors and certainly insulted members of Congress by propping feet up on their desks.
And while Democrats have claimed from the start it was all an “insurrection” launched by President Trump at a rally that day, there’s been literally no evidence of a true intent for insurrection.
That would include a plan to take over the government, the military, the economy, international relations, the works.
But you apparently should not go suggesting to those “neutral” Washington, D.C., juries that it was only a riot.
This lecture was a prelude to Unruh hyping “a polling reported in the Epoch Times reveals that nearly half of potential D.C. jurors would be happy to see those protesters sent to prison for life – or executed.”
A Jan. 29 article by Unruh included more lecturing and whitewashing:
The prosecution of those people who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 is, by now, completely political.
There’s little argument those who did vandalism should be prosecuted, but there have been people convicted for offenses related to that day who didn’t go into the building, and weren’t even in Washington at the time.
But Unruh’s insistence that prosecution of Capitol rioters is “completely political” undermines his claim that “There’s little argument those who did vandalism should be prosecuted” — it’s clear that he is very much arguing that. His little lecture set up a complaint that federal prosecutors are allegedly overusing a charge of “obstructing an official proceeding” — even though one goal of the riot was to, in fact, obstruct the federal proceeding of counting electoral votes for president. Unruh touted the case of one rioter, Alexander Sheppard, in support of his claims, citing a Washington Times article:
The report said, “The Fischer case underscores how broadly the government applied the charge to demonstrators who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. Mr. Fischer, a former police officer in Pennsylvania, attended President Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021. He did not immediately join the demonstration-turned-riot at the Capitol or enter the Capitol building.
”He and a companion left town briefly but later returned to the Capitol grounds and entered the building, though after the electoral vote count in Congress had been suspended. Mr. Fischer was inside the Capitol for about four minutes, according to court records.”
In fact, according to law enforcement officials, Sheppard did much more than that:
According to evidence introduced at trial, Sheppard was among the first rioters to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and joined others in overrunning multiple police lines established to stop the mob’s spread. Inside the Crypt, he and fellow rioters were captured on video as they pushed through a police line designed to prevent the mob from moving towards the House Chamber where members of Congress were present. He then recorded a video of himself proudly proclaiming: “I’m here with some goddamn heroes, and we just shut down Congress! They called an emergency session, they said we’re too scared, they’ve shut down Congress. Let’s fucking go!”
Additional video showed Sheppard running to the Speaker’s Lobby doors and screaming at the U.S. Capitol Police officers who stood guard there while House members and staff prepared to evacuate behind them. Sheppard captured video of fleeing members of congress and looked on as other rioters violently punched out the windows of the doors— just inches away from the officers’ heads. Sheppard left only after witnessing another rioter get shot by law enforcement after attempting to climb through the broken windows of the same doors.
In the days following the breach, Sheppard posted threatening statements on social media directed towards the Vice President. On Jan. 9, 2021, Sheppard posted on Parler, “[w]e shouldn’t hang Mike Pence. Firing squad!”
Sounds like a guy who did a lot more than “obstruction.” Too bad Unruh doesn’t think you need to know all the relevant facts.