Protesters recall lack of police at rally

By Doug Fraser

Published Jan 8, 2021 

The demonstration, which turned into a riot, was originally billed online as a “Stop the Steal” rally. The kind of gathering routinely held in other states after the Presidential election and leading up to the Jan. 6 Congressional certification of Electoral College votes.

Interviews with Cape and Massachusetts Trump supporters who attended the rally, revealed that many of those in Washington Wednesday were unaware of any plans to break into the Capitol building and interrupt the process of certifying Electoral College votes.

“People were determined to make their voices heard and their presence felt,” said Richard Howell, co-founder of the Pioneer Valley Tea Party and vice chairman of the Western Mass Republicans.

Howell was at the demonstration and there was no one saying "Let's storm the Capitol," he said.

“Most people were just taking it in,” Howell said.

Five people were killed when the mob of Trump supporters flooded into the U.S. Capitol, including Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, 42.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling issued a statement Thursday that said his office would prosecute “anyone who traveled from Massachusetts with the intent to commit” violent assaults on government institutions.

Legal experts said Lelling was referring to the prosecution of those who gathered in Massachusetts to draw up plans to commit a crime in another state. That could include the plan to carry a weapon to that state. Once they traveled to another state, that state would handle the prosecution of any crime committed there.

Following speeches by President Donald Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani at The Ellipse, a park adjacent to the Washington Monument, many just followed the crowd. Some headed back to their hotels, some to catch a bus or train out of town, but many followed Trump’s order to march to the Capitol building a short walk away.

Trump said he’d walk with them, but he went back to the White House and watched the ensuing mayhem on TV.As of Thursday, 82 people had been arrested in connection with breaking into the Capitol, battling with police, and vandalizing the Senate and House and Congressional offices, according to a U.S. Capitol Police report. Sixty-four of those were for curfew violations, 37 for unlawful entry and 17 for weapons violations, including four for possessing large-capacity ammunition feeding devices.