Joe Biden has the people who took over the Capitol on Jan. 6 figured out. In just two days, he had them pegged for “a bunch of thugs, insurrectionists, white supremacists, and anti-Semites, and it’s not enough.” Not enough? He also said they were “domestic terrorists.” Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsay Graham, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, “Squad” leader Cori Bush and plenty of others agreed that they were domestic terrorists. Even the mayor of Orlando says so, and DC mayor Muriel Bowser called the occupation “textbook terrorism” so that clinches it.
Curiously, there is a federal definition of domestic terrorism, but it isn’t a crime. There is now tremendous pressure to change that, and depending on what kind of law takes shape, there could be huge implications for dissidents.
For now, this definition from 18 U.S. Code § 2331 is worth studying:
(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that — (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended — (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
Does this apply to the Capitol takeover? Domestic terrorism must be an illegal act “dangerous to human life” and meant to influence policy. The Trump supporters wanted to influence policy alright, but what does “dangerous to human life” mean? The Michigan Penal Code says it is “that which causes a substantial likelihood of death or serious injury.”
That wouldn’t include trespassing, breaking and entering, or even scuffling with the police. Anyone who may have killed Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick would meet the definition of a “domestic terrorist,” but the circumstances of his death are still not clear. It may be there wasn’t a single “textbook” domestic terrorist at the Capitol that day. Lefties are gloating over the death of Ashli Babbitt, but the only thing she did that was “dangerous to human life” was stop a bullet.
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