Yet another arrest has been made amid the ongoing efforts by federal authorities to hold those accountable who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Now,
Texas resident Robert Wayne Dennis has been arrested and charged with federal offenses relating to an assault that he perpetrated against officers at the Capitol on that fateful day. His charges include civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, both of which appear to be felony offenses, with years (rather than mere weeks or months) in prison possible for the defendant.
As summarized by a press release from the Justice Department, Dennis “was captured on video on Jan. 6 near the stairs to the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol,” where “Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department formed a police line to act as a barrier against the crowd.” On the scene, as “law enforcement officers were attempting to control the crowd, numerous people began charging and striking them, including Dennis,” the press release adds. Amid the fighting, Dennis brought an officer to the ground “after a violent struggle in which he threw punches at the officer,” the Justice Department says. What exactly did Dennis think was going to happen after perpetrating such an attack on a law enforcement officer?
Dennis is one of over 650 Trump supporters who have been hauled in by federal authorities in connection to the Capitol riot, with most (although not all) defendants in these cases still awaiting their final consequences. Over 190 of those charged have been accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement at the Capitol. Evidently, the right-wing obsession with making a show of supporting cops only goes so far. At the Capitol that day, the assaults on law enforcement were savage — one frenzied rioter even hit police with an aluminum baseball bat 16 times. That rioter, Edward Lang, also “Kicked a sergeant five times as he and another rioter pushed a door against the trapped officer’s head,” as summarized by the NYC-area publication known as the Times-Herald Record.
These brutal assaults on police are what Republican leaders are tacitly endorsing when they attempt to gloss over the reality of what happened. Just this week, Trump publicly insisted (in reference to his false claims of election fraud) that the “insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!” Beating police until they’re bloodied and unconscious is what Donald Trump is describing as a mere “protest.” These people mustn’t be allowed to escape scrutiny for their utter lie of pretending to be against violence and for “law and order.”
