US Capitol
breach
Baked Alaska, the QAnon Shaman … who led the
storming of the Capitol?
Collection of far-right activists and groups came to
Washington DC to enact a familiar playbook
Jake
Angeli, also known as QAnon Shaman, outside the Capitol building. Photograph:
Amy Harris/REX/Shutterstock
Rory
Carroll
@rorycarroll72
Thu 7 Jan
2021 17.35 GMT
A neo-Nazi
conspiracist called Baked Alaska. A rightwing troll formerly known as Ali
Akbar. A part-time actor with a horned furry hat who goes by the name QAnon
Shaman.
These are
some of the Donald Trump supporters who incited and led the storming of the US
Capitol on Wednesday.
Their
pseudonyms and eclectic backgrounds and the chaotic scenes suggested a
disorganised rabble but this was an insurrection foretold.
The same
far-right activists and groups that have spent the past four years marching,
protesting and trolling on behalf of the president came to Washington DC to
enact a familiar playbook – except this time on the biggest stage of all.
The flags
and insignias advertised who they were: the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three
Percenters, QAnon, once shadowy groups that now rallied in broad daylight,
their assault on democracy performed as public spectacle for a world that
watched in horror.
Others brandished
banners with more recent monikers, such as Stop the Steal, an umbrella term for
those who believe Trump won the election and that Joe Biden is a usurper.
“Make
America great again,” declared one flag. “Liberty or death: don’t tread on me,”
said another, brandished alongside the confederate symbol. “Trump 2020: Fuck
your feelings,” said the fastest-selling T-shirt. Some messages were pithier:
“Fuck Biden.”
The
gathering of extremists in the cradle of American democracy was hardly
clandestine. Trump, after all, summoned them. “Big protest in D.C. on January
6th,” he tweeted on 19 December. “Be there, will be wild!”
On 1
January he tweeted: “The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C. will take place
at 11:00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!”
Thousands
responded, young and old, travelling from across the US to form a river of
people in downtown Washington. Many were ordinary people who believe baseless
claims about electoral fraud. Others were rightwing social media celebrities
and members of quasi-militia groups.
Between
2,000 and 2,500 were members of the Proud Boys, according to Enrique Tarrio, a
leader of the violent group that has repeatedly clashed with leftwing
activists. Tarrio was arrested on Monday, two days before the riot, for the
burning of a Black Lives Matter banner during a pro-Trump rally in Washington
last month.
While
Congress prepared to declare Biden the winner on Wednesday, Trump urged his
agitated supporters to march from the White House along the national mall to
the Capitol to “save our democracy”.
Go
“peacefully and patriotically”, he told the crowd. And then mayhem erupted.
A minority
of the crowd, perhaps several hundred, brushed past a meagre police presence
and stormed into the marbled halls of Congress. Senators and staffers fled
while the invaders roamed and ransacked the republic’s inner sanctum.
Why
security was so feeble and unprepared is unclear – an extraordinary lapse – but
there is little mystery about Trump’s raiders. Since his election in 2016,
white supremacists and other militants have staged protests-cum-riots, notably
in Michigan, and advertised their activities on social media.
Since
Trump’s defeat in last November’s election the protests have multiplied and
intensified in places such as Oklahoma, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Washington
state.
Some groups
planned the Washington DC rally on Facebook. Others used more freewheeling
social media platforms such as Parler and Gab popular with the right. A
repurposed quote from the thinker Thomas Sowell foreshadowed what was to come:
“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilisation, then be prepared
to accept barbarism.” Others on the platforms vowed to occupy the Capitol and
posted pictures of guns they planned to bring.
Before and
during the mayhem Gab and Parler were reportedly used to share tips on routes
to avoid police, and the best tools to pry open doors.
Some users
posted pictures of guns carried into the Capitol. A mob chased a lone black
police officer up the stairs. Others seemed content to take selfies as they
roamed the corridors and offices.
Anthime
“Tim” Gionet, a libertarian-turned neo-Nazi conspiracist better known as Baked
Alaska, livestreamed the tumult and occupied the office of the House speaker,
Nancy Pelosi.
Jake
Angeli, an actor and voiceover artist from Arizona who goes by the name QAnon
Shaman, cut a surreal sight with a horned hat, a painted face and a bare,
tattooed chest.
A regular
sight at protests, he takes his adopted name from QAnon, a baseless internet
conspiracy theory that has festered on the far-right fringe for years and
mushroomed during the coronavirus pandemic and Trump’s efforts to overturn the
election.
A woman
shot and killed by police during the storming of the Capitol was named as Ashli
Babbitt, 35, a Trump-supporting air force veteran who had travelled from San
Diego. Three other people died from “medical emergencies” during the siege.
Inciting
the crowd outside was Ali Alexander, a rightwing troll formerly known as Ali
Akbar who is a prominent voice in the Stop the Steal movement. He led chants of
“victory or death”.
The US was
astonished last May when armed anti-lockdown protesters tried to enter the
legislative chamber of Michigan’s state capitol. “These are very good people,”
Trump said.
Storming a
chamber of democracy seemed a shocking breach of political norms, a freak
one-off. But it was just a warm-up.
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