Elected officials exploiting death

In less than three months, Jan. 6 will be upon us again. You remember Jan. 6, the day the news media report as the deadliest insurrection since the Civil War, don’t you? The insurrection that resulted in the arrest of hundreds of protesters to be charged with attempting to overthrow the government. The same insurrection that resulted in the death of five people.

If you Google, “How many protesters from Jan. 6 are being charged with insurrection?” you will be rewarded with the fact that 671 people have been charged with crimes and many remain in jail today. Most of them, including one Texas family, have been charged with crimes that included:

• Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority;

• Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds;

• Disorderly conduct in a capitol building;

• Parading, demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building.

Why haven’t any of these folks been charged with insurrection? Evidently, they weren’t insurrecting.

News media continue to publish articles that imply the protests were a direct cause of the five deaths that occurred on Jan. 6 or shortly thereafter. In point of fact no deaths were caused by the protesters. The only person to have been killed with a firearm was unarmed Air Force Veteran Ashli Babbitt. Babbitt was shot by a panicky Capitol police officer, who now claims hero status for saving members of Congress from the unarmed hoards.

Of the remaining four, one died of a stroke, a second died of a heart attack and a third of an overdose of amphetamines. Which brings us to the fourth and last death, that of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.

Sicknick was reported by the New York Times of having been bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher by protesters, causing his death. A report from the D.C. medical examiner’s office indicates that Sicknick died of natural causes, notably a stroke.

Sicknick’s death resulted in one of the cruelest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American public and on military veterans buried in Arlington Cemetery. — Brian Sicknick’s remains were laid in the Capitol Rotunda and interred in Arlington Cemetery. Take time to review the video of elected officials including the president, speaker of the House, leaders of the Senate and many others who moved through the rotunda to pontificate on the heroism of the deceased.

For elected officials to knowingly exploit the tragic death of a good man, using this public display, and to further have him buried in hallowed ground reserved for others as they did, is diabolic evil.

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

[email protected]