capitol-building-top.jpeg
Getty Image
Viral

A Rally In Support Of The Jan. 6 Rioters Drew So Few People That They Were Outnumbered By Law Enforcement And Reporters

What could have been a second Jan. 6 turned out to be nothing much at all. According to The Washington Post, a rally entitled “Justice for J6,” in support of the more than 500 people (among them “QAnon Shaman”) charged in connection with the Capitol riot that put a disgraceful end to Donald Trump’s presidency, drew only a few hundred participants. The ones that showed up were outnumbered by law enforcement as well as reporters ready to capture an event that never took off.

There’s a chance the rally was simply doomed from the start. Police were thin on the ground on January 6, when Trump supporters forced their way into the Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the certification of the 2020 election. This time they were ready. Law enforcement was everywhere, in anticipation of violence that never came. There were no clashes between Trumpists and counterprotesters, who held their own event about a mile away and drew about the same numbers.

Trump supporters may have simply been scared off. As per WaPo:

The rally’s poor attendance comes as no surprise. Organizers said they expected about 700 attendees, but many influential figures on the far right actually discouraged their followers from showing up, asserting the event was a trap. Baseless rumors have ricocheted through social media to the effect that the federal government was attempting to lure demonstrators to Washington to arrest them, and that left-wing activists disguised themselves as Trump supporters would deliberately cause trouble.

Even the Proud Boys, the violent, far-right men’s group, reportedly discouraged their members from attending.

And so instead of nightmarish, Boschian images of Trump supporters climbing all over the Capitol building, violently attacking police officers, photographers could only show sparse crowds, where most were either police or journalists. People marveled at how few people showed up.

While noticing that there were tons of reporters.

There were jokes.

And calls for actual justice.

Well, at least batman showed up.

(Via The Post)

×