Violence At the U.S. Capitol … This Is Not Who We Are

Violence At the Capitol – This Is Not Who We Are

By TLB Contributing Writer: Terri LaPoint

History books will record January 6, 2021, as a day unlike any other before or since. I was there, in Washington DC. I heard President Donald J. Trump’s speech, and I walked to the Capitol with throngs of people. At the time, many of us were unaware that this was any more than another march or patriotic rally. Like the rest of the world, I was horrified later at the news that there was violence at the Capitol resulting in injuries and death.

That was not why I went to DC. Nor was it the reason that any other person that I personally know went. I went there as a journalist to document the historic support of President Trump and the multitude of people who believe there is ample evidence that the election was stolen. Many of us went to pray for our nation. Millions of others who did not go were also praying for America. This is about much more than the man Donald Trump. We have prayed for fair elections, for fraud and corruption to be exposed, and for God to turn our country back to Himself. That is not incitement to violence; that’s integrity.

I joined hundreds of thousands of people who answered President Trump’s call to come to Washington, D.C. What unfolded that day shocked us as much as it did people around the globe as one of the most secure buildings in the world was breached and our Congressmen and women were forced to evacuate.

While the media and many politicians were quick to blame the President for “inciting violence,” painting his supporters as a violent mob, a different story is told by many of the people who were there as witness to the events of the day. Indeed, the people that I have talked to were quite surprised at the turn of events. The stories are very different from what has been reported by the mainstream media. The violent actions that occurred that day do not represent the vast majority of the people who were present in Washington DC that day.

What happened on January 6 “was nothing like what they [the media and legislators] said, according to Connie Reguli, a Tennessee attorney and advocate for family rights. She has attended several Trump rallies and events in Washington DC in recent months. Even with many thousands of people in the crowds, there have never been any problems at those events. “Not one. Not one act of violence.” From her vantage point some distance from the Capitol building itself, this is mostly what she witnessed again on January 6. She reported seeing a couple of people this time who were “pushy,” but “it was such a small group of people.”

Mark Ludwig, executive director at Americans for Equal Shared Parenting, flew in to DC from Missouri to attend the President’s rally and other patriotic events that were scheduled for January 5 and 6.

According to Mark,

Trump in no way incited violence. Matter of fact, he literally said we need to go peaceably to the capitol and make our voices heard. Now how is that any different than any other rally that’s ever happened at the Capitol? Why do you go to the Capitol? To make your voices heard.

He explains what he understood that to mean:

For the majority of Trump people, when we’re thinking ‘Let our voices be heard,’ we’re thinking you stand at the Capitol, and the fact that there’s a lot of people out there, people understand and have respect that just by being there, your voices are going to be heard.

His perspective is shared by millions of Americans who support the Constitution and patriotic American values. People came to DC that week by caravan, busloads, planes, and cars, expecting to hear the president speak at the Ellipse, then marching peacefully to the Capitol. There were slates of speakers scheduled at both locations. At least 15 groups had permits for events around the area that day.

It has become clear in hindsight that the violence that occurred had been planned out in advance by someone or some groups of people, but most of us had no expectation of violence. I was in DC that day and have put together a timeline of events based on what I saw as well as video and testimony from witnesses.

Unfortunately many of the videos that I watched and took notes on to use as references have been removed by the social media censors who seem intent on scrubbing all video documentation that does not match the approved mainstream narrative. The truth, whether popular with media propagandists or not, deserves to be heard.

Timeline of Events

At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, I boarded one of two buses that left from Jasper, Alabama, for an all-night ride to Washington, DC. Before we left the parking lot, a local pastor on our bus led us in prayer for America and for President Trump. That evening on the bus, one of the ladies put a prayer conference call over the speaker.

Another ministry leader led us in prayer as we arrived in DC the morning of the 6th. We saw posts on social media warning that Antifa and BLM people were planning to infiltrate the rallies and would be wearing MAGA hats and Trump gear to blend in with the crowd. We were cautioned to be careful.

It was clear to all that we were in a crucial moment in our nation’s history. People across the U.S. and around the world texted, tweeted, and posted prayers for God to help us and restore America to the purposes that He has for her, recognizing that what happens in the United States impacts and affects people all over the globe.

Crowds began gathering at the Ellipse park by the White House in the early hours of the morning. Connie Reguli braved the freezing temperatures to join a group of friends in the security line shortly after 5 a.m.

Just after 9 a.m. our bus parked just outside the city, and we took the metro into the city. We had a sense of anticipation about the Electoral Vote count taking place in Congress that day, and many were hopeful that VP Mike Pence would intervene. People were excited to hear President Trump speak.

There was a strong sense of being a part of history that day, in a good way. There was no sense among anyone I spoke with of anticipation of violence or mob mentality.

By 11:00 a.m. our group walked past the Washington Monument to join the huge crowds of people who were between the monument and the Ellipse park in front of the White House. There were Trump flags and MAGA hats everywhere. Though the temperature was freezing, there was a warm sense of camaraderie among everyday Americans who love our country. We could hear the speakers clearly on the loudspeakers, but we were too far away to see the stage. There were people perched in the trees, reminiscent of Zacchaeus in the Bible, trying to see the speakers on the Jumbotrons.

12:00 noon – President Trump began speaking. LifeSite News transcribed his entire speech here. There were frequent chants of “USA” and “Stop the Steal” as the crowd cheered for the President.

1:11 p.m. – Trump ended his speech with these words:

My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children and for our beloved country, and I say this despite all that’s happened, the best is yet to come.

So we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give — the Democrats are hopeless, they’re never voting for anything. Not even one vote — but we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all.

God bless you. And God bless America. Thank you all for being here. This is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Our group started walking toward the Capitol shortly before the President stopped speaking. It is close to a 45 minute walk down Constitution Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol building. There were throngs of people before and after us.

Most of the people we saw at President Trump’s rally and on the street as we walked appeared to be Trump supporters. However, some have reported seeing people who seemed to be infiltrators or agitators along the walk.

Bethany Hatch, former Congressional candidate from Texas, marched with her friend. Along the way, a man dressed in black snatched her friend’s Trump hat and flag, then ran ahead. Once he was far enough away not to be caught, he put the hat on his head and carried the flag, blending in with the crowd going to the Capitol.

Around 1:20 p.m. Brian Lee, producer and host of Restoring Families Internet Radio, filmed a series of videos on the day’s events from both the east and west sides of the Capitol. (Those videos have since been scrubbed by Facebook, but some of them can be found on the RFIRN website.) Though President Trump had just minutes before stopped speaking, a crowd was starting to form on the east side of the Capitol. These could not have been the same people who were at the President’s rally. According to Brian, they were waiting to hear what Congress was doing inside with counting the electoral college votes.

He filmed a middle-aged lady sauntering past the crowd taking pictures. There was laughter from the crowd as someone asks, “How did she get past the barrier?” There appeared to be an attitude of civility as people chanted “USA.”

1:30 p.m. Brian Lee’s video shows that people were still behind the barriers shouting “Fight for Trump” and “Stop the steal.” About 11 minutes into the video, people could be seen coming through the barricades. They stopped on the stairs and turned around to the crowd behind them. At this point, things appeared to be relatively calm. A few minutes later, the crowd began pushing against the police line. An older woman on the stairs can be seen being shoved by the crowd, her glasses smashed sideways against her face.

1:45 p.m. Our group arrived near the Capitol on the West side. We passed numerous small groups of people passing out literature asking for help to stop the CCP – Chinese Communist Party. There were groups of people praying. One gentleman we passed was blowing a shofar.

As we walked past the Peace Monument, a man dressed in black shouted at those of us who were stopping, demanding that we press in closer to the Capitol. He yelled, “That’s what you’re here for! Don’t stop! Keep moving!” It felt like he was trying to herd us together. In hindsight, he probably was. We walked a few feet further and decided we were close enough. We tried to figure out where the speakers were going to be.

Periodically, the crowd would take up chants of “USA” or “Stop the steal.” At other times someone in the crowd would try to start a chant that was ugly or hateful. I spoke with several other people who were in different places around the Capitol that day. They noticed the same thing I did – the patriotic chants were quickly taken up by the crowd. The hateful chants often fell flat as Trump supporters refused to take them up and repeat them. That was not why we were there.

A man standing less than 5 feet from me yelled out loudly, “That’s OUR house! We’re taking it back!” The people around me looked at him like he was crazy. We were confused by what he was trying to say. Of course it is “our house” as American citizens, but there are protocols to how we treat our house. It is to be treated with honor and respect. There are boundaries. The local library also belongs to the people, but when the librarian tells us to “shush,” we lower our voices. When it closes, we leave.

In response to the man’s angry outburst, many around us started praying. Others who were closer to the building also noted many people who were praying at various times. Here is a small snippet of the prayer ascending on that day:

We had no idea what was happening on the other side of the Capitol building at the time. Some in our group were trying to pull up information about the electoral college votes but found that none of our phones were working.

1:45 to 2:00 p.m. News media began reporting that protesters were starting to storm the Capitol. By 2:00 there were people inside the building.

The barricades were ultimately breached on three sides of the Capitol, first on the East side, then the North, and finally on the West side.

1st Breach – East Side – Mark Ludwig reports that he was trying to find the stage for the event with speakers and happened to be on the East side when the first breach occurred. He was one of 40 people who filmed the breaches on all three sides and was later able to provide the FBI with his video footage and photos.

In one of the first videos, Ludwig can be heard saying, “They are storming the Capitol. I am not in favor of this.” He noted that there did not appear to be enough police present.

He saw people who seemed intent on agitating and stirring up the crowd. There were also people in the crowd who tried to stop the violence.

I saw a bunch of people, including myself, that were trying to get those people to stop, that were all yelling, ‘Hey, hey! This isn’t us! This is not what we do! No, No! Somebody stop them!‘ There were dozens of people yelling, trying to get them to stop.

There is no doubt there were some of these people dressed in camo that absolutely were not patriots.

2nd Breach – North Side – Mark Ludwig was disturbed by what he saw and walked around to the North side of the Capitol building just in time to see people break a window.

There was a guy who literally took one of those barricades, the steel barricades and lifted it up and was breaking one of the windows. … The crowd in my video, you can hear the crowd saying, ‘Hey! This isn’t us! Stop him! Stop him! Somebody needs to stop [him].’

There were “at least 3 Antifa people” who were egging the man on, encouraging him to break the window and enter the building. Yet, Mark noted, they themselves did not go in.

3rd Breach – West Side – Kash Jackson with Veteran Liberty News witnessed the 3rd breach. In the now-removed Facebook videos by Brian Lee of RFIRN, Kash reported that they had been near the front of the action as independent journalists. He said there were a mix of people involved in the vandalism, but when things started getting broken, the crowd shouted, “No, no, no! Don’t break it!” He reports seeing veterans, who honor the Constitution as a whole, trying to hold people back from committing acts of violence and vandalism. He said he did not want to see violence.

In one of his Facebook Live videos, Mark Ludwig addressed the viral videos of police opening up the barricades and letting people in:

When you see pictures on TV of the police going on and opening up the barricades, guys, by that time there were probably 200 people inside the Capitol building. The perimeter had been broken all around [on the East and North sides] – so opening up the gates over here wasn’t going to do anything.

He notes that the police by the West side barricades were “totally out numbered.” It was around this time “they finally started really bringing in all the guard members and the Capitol police.” More groups of Antifa people and agitators were coming in by that point as well, reports Ludwig.

Though our group was unaware of what was happening closer to the Capitol, we could sense that the mood was shifting. We decided that it was time to leave. As we made our way out of the crowd, we saw more people coming in who were dressed very differently than the crowd we had seen at the Ellipse. One man had a gas mask, and another man ran by from the direction of the Capitol building saying that they were spraying tear gas. As we left the area, a caravan of police vehicles began arriving. It was apparent that things were not going the way any of our group expected.

Mark Ludwig shares that sentiment:

By this point most of the people like myself that are more of the law and order people had started veering away and saying, ‘You know what. This is just ridiculous. We don’t stand for this kind of stuff. We are here to protest election fraud, but we are NOT here to siege the Capitol.

It was only after we left the area and again had cell phone signal that we realized that there had been violence at the Capitol. People started calling and texting to check on us because they were watching the news. What they were seeing and what we had seen were very different.

Message Lost in the Chaos

From the reports of many witnesses who were there, the barricades and Capitol building were stormed or breached by a mix of people, both agitators and patriots. The majority of the people present, however, did not go to DC for the purpose of any violence or mayhem. The very message that most intended to communicate got lost in the chaos.

There were states whose legislators wanted the opportunity to reexamine their election results, believing that they were certified prematurely under false pretenses.

Connie Reguli told Real News Spark:

We were there because we believe there is a problem.

In Tennessee, both senators said they would object to the electors. Trump worked very hard for both of them. After what happened on the 6th, they and many other Congressmen backed down.

My heartbreak is that my senators did not put on the [Congressional] record that thousands of American citizen voters had come to DC in support of Trump, believing that there was not a fair and honest election. For us to not allow that process to be completed is cheating the constituents.

This article is an effort to set the record straight. On that day there were hundreds of thousands of American people from all walks of life who love this country and want what is just and right. We went to Washington DC hoping to be heard, peacefully, assembling together to rally and march in support of Constitutional American values including truth, justice, and integrity.

There were actions taken by a small group of people on January 6, 2021, which were reprehensible and inexcusable. However, they do not represent the rest of us. That is not who we are.

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About the Author: Terri LaPoint is an avid researcher and a Contributing writer for TLB Project and we are much better off as a result. Her website is a gem of … a literal “Must See”. TLB Highly Recommends you visit Terri at REAL NEWS SPARK.

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Real News Spark – Real News that sparks people to Make a Difference!

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