Nearly 1 In 5 Defendants In Capitol Riot Cases Served In The Military

 

NPR (January 21, 2021) reported that Nearly 1 In 5 Defendants In Capitol Riot Cases Served In The Military. "As a violent mob descended on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, lawmakers and aides hid wherever they could, waiting for the military and police to arrive. But many of those who stormed the Capitol were military veterans themselves, who had once sworn to protect the Constitution. In fact, an NPR analysis has found that nearly 1 in 5 people charged over their alleged involvement in the attack on the U.S. Capitol appear to have a military history...

Federal prosecutors have also alleged that multiple members of the right-wing extremist group the Oath Keepers took part in the "incursion" at the Capitol. The group has been known to target and recruit active-duty members of the military and veterans, in part for their specialized skills...

Read the complete NPR article here.

According to the US Census Bureau, "roughly 18 million Americans, or about 7 percent of the adult population, were veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces in 2018. Ranging from 18 to over 100 years old, they served in conflicts as diverse as the Korean War and the Global War on Terrorism."

So, while only about 7 percent of the adult population are military veterans 20 percent (1 in 5) of the rioters arrested in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 were military veterans.

While Federal prosecutors have described the Oath Keepers as a "right-wing extremist group"; the Oath Keepers are seen by others as strict Constitutionalists, opposed to government over-reach and abuse of power, similar to The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA).

  
Wikipedia states: "Oath Keepers is an American far-right anti-government militia organization composed of current and former military, police, and first responders who pledge to fulfill the oath that all military and police take in order to "defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic". It encourages its members to not obey orders which they believe would violate the United States Constitution. The organization claims a membership of 35,000 as of 2016, though the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has estimated its membership at several thousand.

The group describes itself as non-partisan, though several organizations that monitor domestic terrorism and hate groups describe it as extremist or radical. Mark Pitcavage of the ADL describes the group as "heavily armed extremists with a conspiratorial and anti-government mindset looking for potential showdowns with the government." The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists the group's founder as a known extremist and describes his announced plans to create localized militia units as "frightening". According to the SPLC, the group espouses a number of conspiracy and legal theories associated with the sovereign citizen movement and the white supremacist posse comitatus movement."