The GOP has announced that they will finally release the 44,000 hours of video of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, but only after blurring the faces of the insurrectionists, to “protect them” from possible retribution if they were to be identified. This attacks the very fundamentals of our democracy. They also have said that some blurring would be necessary to protect certain security measures that need to be protected. To be absolutely clear, any footage that contains security measures that might pose a security risk if they were made public should be redacted in some way, but only for that very specific purpose.
The GOP proposal violates the 1st Amendment right to a free press and free expression. The very basis for the 1st Amendment is that the people have the right to know. Redacting people’s faces is stripping that right away. We have an absolute right to know exactly who was invading our National Capitol and assaulting the law officers who were pledged to protect and defend it. The fact that this is the 1st Amendment, should give us some insight as to just how important our founding fathers felt this was. It was certainly not something to be cast aside just because it is convenient for a political party.
Let’s make one thing very clear. When you are in a public place, there is practically no guarantee of photographic privacy. There are limitations on using a person’s photo for financial gain, but as records of a newsworthy event, it is pretty much wide open. Look at all the people lining the streets of Dallas when JFK was shot. The Zapruder film has been shown thousands of times with absolutely no effort made to conceal the identity of the spectators. Any of those spectators could have been the real shooter, so any of them could have been subjected to retribution by some conspiracy nut with an axe to grind. Yet the film was shown in its entirety, for years. There are literally thousands of other examples.
While it would be great for the GOP to finally allow Americans see the footage of the very newsworthy storming of the Capitol, and the assault of the defenders there, there is no justifiable excuse to protect the identity of the criminals who were involved. Every American has the right to see and identify every single one of these treasonous lawbreakers.
To add perspective, the crowd that invaded the Capitol grounds was estimated at about 10,000. At least 2,000 actually entered the Capitol building. To date, only about 1,100 people have been identified and charged in the event. In addition to the assaults on police officers, there was almost $3 million in physical damage to the building and grounds, including defacing and destroying a number of priceless artworks and historic monuments. If any more of these people can be identified, then our nation deserves every chance at doing so, and any and all identifications should be forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for proper action. The FBI has still not identified the person who allegedly planted pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC that day. Nor have they been able to identify some 350 people known to have caused damage inside the Capitol, and 250 people known to have assaulted police officers. The best hope for finding these remaining criminals lies in making the footage public so they can be identified.
When John Q. Sleazebag holds up the local Speedee-Mart, the police are never shy about posting security video of the event and asking for the public’s help in identifying the criminal. Why should this be any different? Isn’t there a chance that someone might recognize the criminal at the Quick-Mart and speak out against him? Isn’t there a chance the husband of the terrified clerk at the store might even look for the criminal and dish out some justice of his own?
What is so unique about the insurrectionists at the Capitol that they should be granted special protection? Does anyone really believe there are armed militia groups who would seek out these people to exact revenge? Those are the very people who were attacking the Capitol. Surely the insurrectionists don’t need to worry about their own brothers in arms coming after them. I think most LAW ABIDING Americans, those who would not even think of breaching the Capitol, would also never think of seeking out these miscreants to deal out some kind of vigilante justice. The people who would be prone to doing that, were the very people breaking windows and trashing the Capitol on Jan 6th.
The answer is actually plain and simple. The GOP is doing everything they can to continue to protect their extremist base. Some have managed to avoid identification, even after over 30 months of investigation, and the GOP is doing everything they can to protect the 15,000+ who have not been identified yet.
Considering this is the party which frequently uses doctored videos and photos to support their wild conspiracy claims, why should anyone believe that what they will share with us will not be doctored to not only shield the identity of the perpetrators, but to modify their actions and minimize the damage they did to one of the central monuments to our democracy?
Hold the GOP accountable. Make them turn over the footage with only the security concerns redacted and show America what happened on Jan 6th, and who is really responsible for it.