For the first time in a very long time, no one is second-guessing the decision by a police officer to use deadly force against an unarmed woman. Why?
The storming of the Capitol was criminal and a disgrace. Assaults upon our democratic institutions, whether from the Right or the Left, should never be tolerated. At a minimum, former President Trump is morally liable for the violence that occurred and quite possibly legally liable as well. We may never know for sure because the Democratically-controlled House chose to impeach him for political gain rather than seek a criminal indictment against him as a now-private citizen. Of course, a criminal trial in a court of law is a more onerous and ponderous task that would preclude high drama and theatrics, but the point of the impeachment was never for justice to be served anyway. That Mr. Trump narcissistically misled and fooled so many for so long is a great tragedy and that he is gone from power is a good thing, but it should not blur our vision to what else is happening.
It was a clean kill. A single bullet to the neck. Probably an intended head shot. It wasn’t a big deal. We should all just move on. It wasn’t as if she were a social-justice activist, benignly lugging home a 60-inch flatscreen TV from a burnt-out department store. She was little more than a rabid animal needing to be “put down,” at least according to Wisconsin state legislator, Jonathan Brostoff. And she bled out like a diseased dog on the pristine, sacred, sinless marble floor of our Capitol. “A Trump terrorist,” Mr. Brostoff further explained, who was shot by a law enforcement officer who was just doing “his duty to protect democracy.” Really, time to move on. Nothing much here to see. Neither her white privilege nor her 14 years of honorable military service could protect her from that bullet. The sad irony that she, like the police officer, was trying to “protect democracy” in her own confused, criminal manner is lost on most of us.
There will be no elegiac memorializing for this piece of terrorist trash. No write-ups in the mainstream newspapers about how she was trying to get her life back in order, no testimonials about what a kind, sweet person she might have been, very little talk about the possible hardships she had endured. No. That would be “abhorrent” to use Disney’s new catchphrase. She was from the Right and so she was nothing. Nothing to think twice about. Instead, we have our new Unifier-in-Chief helpfully commenting that “no one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters… that they wouldn’t have been treated very differently.” I’m uncertain about the accuracy of that comment: It seems that the police were equally ineffective and courageous against rioters this summer and rioters on January 6, but I am certain his comment will serve only further to divide and alienate Americans from one another. And whatever the treatment by the police, the treatment by the media has been markedly different. We have, for example, the Washington Post blithely and churlishly referring to her military service as “long but undistinguished.”
It is, however, a genuinely good thing that the police officer is being presumed innocent by the Left and the media. When, after all, was the last time any cop anywhere was presumed innocent after killing an unarmed civilian? When was the last time no one raised the possibility that the cop was perhaps a little trigger happy? When was the last time no one asked about less drastic measures: Why didn’t he fire a warning shot into the ceiling? Why did he go for a head shot? Why not aim lower? Try a leg shot, perhaps? Why is no one asking about his record? Has he ever shot someone before? Has he ever been disciplined before? Why doesn’t anyone yet know his name? There are probably good answers to all these questions; at least I choose to believe so. I have already noted, but it bears repeating, that it is remarkable that for the first time in a very long time no one is second-guessing the decision by a police officer to use deadly force against an unarmed woman.
And what about that Wisconsin legislator? Perhaps we should take President Biden at his word and seriously examine what would happen to any legislator who implicitly characterized the killing of any BLM activist/rioter as merely an animal needing to be “put down”? Where is the outcry against him? Why hasn’t he been compelled to vacate his seat? Where are all the petitions demanding his ouster and where are the op-eds demanding that this sort of nastiness stop on both sides in order to heal our nation? Any healing, if it is even possible at this point, should have begun at least with the ancient admonition: De mortius nihil nisi bonum.
If a woman falls in a forest and no one cares to hear her, does she still cry in pain?
Yet, for the most part, from the media’s perspective at least, her death is a nonevent. The silence of the mainstream media is deafening; the hypocrisy fills the country like the stench from an open whited sepulcher. She was on the wrong side of history and that’s pretty much the end of the story. No one is going to say her name. For now. We will see what the future may bring as our nation tears itself further and further asunder. Will this callous killing just go down the memory hole of our newly-emerging Libertopia or will it be a catalyst to even darker forebodings in the future? Will she or some other broken, confused rightwing martyr be the next Horst Wessel for an increasingly embittered and expanding extremism that feels betrayed, and whose pains and fears and ideals are marginalized by the ever-righteous media?
Editor’s Note: Ashli Babbitt of San Diego, California, died on January 6, 2021, due to wounds caused by a single gunshot fired by a Capitol Hill police officer. Requiescat in pace.
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While I agree with your article here about a Conservative woman not being given attention by the media (shame on them) for being shot while unarmed, nevertheless, I Completely disagree with your assessment of the blaming of this riot on the President and that he, “at a minimum…..is morally liable for the violence”. If that is the case, then all 43 republican senators are equally as egregious. If that is the case, why didn’t the [Democrats] introduce and show the evidence where Trump supposedly urged the “storming of the Bastille”? Answer: there is no evidence! You do a great disservice in denigrating the only President in recent memory that both protects life and met at the March for Life let alone stood up for religious freedom and protection for the Little Sisters of the Poor, Jack the cake-baker, hospital nurses with Christian consciences, etc. I ask that you reconsider.
My sentiments exactly. Except for the first paragraph is was a wonderful article.
Since you have inferred yourself as a legal scholar in stating, “ At a minimum, former President Trump is morally liable for the violence that occurred and quite possibly legally liable as well. ”, I would be curious as the the specific charges you charge President Trump, and then provide a credible source of evidence supporting such a prosecution. (Sorry, media narratives would not be accepted as “evidence,”
I’m aware of the mob mentality in a few well-videographed incidences, but I also observed selfies being taken with law enforcement, relatively little violence against officers or property of value other than pushing and breaking objects to gain access. Where is the premeditation and aggressive violence meant to do serious harm that would indict Trump for insurrection?
I’ve enjoyed and admired much of what you have written in the past on T.I.C. Here, but starting your essay with anti-Trump rhetoric comes across as a veiled attempt of a quasi-anti-trumper to redirect some of the responsibility onto Trump for this overuse of power (conveniently filmed by an allegedly anti-Trump activist in just the right place).
Hopefully, you will be so kind to provide me with some credible evidence against Trump. It would serve as a banner event for me personally to persuade me that there is at least some level of coherency behind the propaganda narrative against him. I’m truly curious.
Well met CT and totally agree. Luckily I pushed through that first paragraph and enjoyed the rest of the article.
Mr. Mussomeli, your silence speaks louder than your words.
I should like to add that rather than equating Ms. Babbitt with the Nazi Wessel, you’d be better with the example of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinus_van_der_Lubbe in which those same Nazis framed for the Reichstag arson that brought Hitler to power.
After giving your essay more fair consideration, I realized that, not only did you begin your essay with anti-trump rhetoric, but you attempt to portray anyone moving forward in opposition to tyranny with Nazi antagonists and brutal defenders of an out of control regime. Perhaps, in the future, you will take more time to examine your metaphors so that you can have a more accurate foreboding of what is to come.
My God you were brave to write this……my heart has been broken, torn apart this political year. maybe it is PTST a flash backs from my youth, the protests and killings that happened so long ago. I will quote Bill Barr, “History is written by the victors”……I am glad I am old now, my heart is tired. I believe this country is filled with good people,, I lived in many places including Turkey and Venezuela…everyday people just want a home a job and to provide for their family. Why are our current leaders of my generation, Polosi and Biden are so past their prime, listening to them speak is painful almost incoherent. There is no grace, I pray for wisdom, not greed. I pray for term limits. I pray for this country. I pray for every policeman and their family that were killed this past year and the teenager that was killed in Seattle. I disagree on one point, I don’t hold Trump responsible.
Hear, Hear! Miles Schmidt.
While I totally disagree with Mr. Mussomeli’s characterization of President Trump I do appreciate the fact that he lays out a wonderful case for the extensive and omnipresent media bias regarding the reportage of events which unceasingly adhere to the Left’s socialist narrative and agenda. Also, I appreciated the reference to Horst Wessel. I was previously unaware of the interesting history surrounding his murder and the way his death became a propaganda tool for the Nazi regime.
Great article, spoiled somewhat by the obligatory anti-Trump comments at the beginning. However, high praise for the main points in the article. This gentleman is one of the few with the courage to point them out and I agree with them wholeheartedly.
How sad that out society and media has come to this point. This life was just a valuable as any other life (of any race or political persuasion).
The hue and cry needs to be heard loud and clear.
We need justice in America not just About social justice.
How on earth can the protests of January 6th be characterised as an assault on America’s democratic institutions when the whole point of the legitimate protest was to support the “democracy” that had been had been denied by a fraudulent Presidential election?
It has been a generation or more that the politics of personal destruction has been the special of the day. And about 2 generations since the whole edifice of education, both public and private, has been hollowed out. It is little wonder that a life has no value to those on the left. The life of an infant in vitro has been stripped of all value ( except as a source of spare parts ) since 1973. We have gone from abortion in rare circumstances to abortion on demand and infanticide. Any religious objection or qualms of conscience is mocked. Indeed this is the Age of Mockery. And Unreason.. Any life is expendable for the sake of ” democracy “, which no longer means what the Greeks considered the demos, but a collection of rabble governed by the lowest form of demagogue, who praises a killing and condemns as foul any assault on the corruption of true democratic rule. Caesarism is alive & well in Washington and, apparently, in Wisconsin.
I sought to write a comment regarding the death of this woman. Reading the comments of others who are opposed to the writer’s characterization of Donald Trump as responsible for this attack on our democracy sent me in another direction. Especially in regard to the life and death of Horst Wessel. I urge everyone to read the Wikipedia article on the deluded Herr Wessel. Try to find the parallels in his world and in ours without choosing which side you’d expect to be on. Ashli Babbitt’s death is a tragedy and there has been plenty written about it. Whether is the shot was aimed or jostled or on target or not is a question that I am sure is being reviewed cautiously. But like Horst, Ashli was led to her death by her common adherence to the beliefs of the commenters here that Trump was worthy of following, even as he sought to put himself above our democracy.
My original point was this: If we all agreed not to repeat the craziness of state legislators from any party or group we could all have a much saner world.
Thank you Joseph for a well thought out article and thank you keeping Mrs. Babbit’ memory alive. One can only imagine what her husband must be going through. There will be no justice for them in this world. We must assume that justice in this country has been all but eliminated for such as these. Thank you again.
When the proper investigation of the January 6 event at the Capitol is completed, the results will shock a few never-Trumpers who insist on holding President Trump responsible for the riot. Already, it has been divulged that John Sullivan, an Antifa member, received over $70,000 from CNN and other networks for his videos taken at the event, which include close-ups of the shooting of Ashley Babbitt, a patriot martyr.
I note that this essay contains ad hominen attacks on the only President in memory who has kept all the promises he made to the American people during his campaign, in spite of non-stop and unfounded attacks on his person, his family, his work. President Trump’s Pro-Life stance should give him privileged standing in Catholic circles. And he has done so much to uphold the Constitution and empower the American People. What the Election has done is to unmask the corruption underlying the politics of the last 5 decades. President Trump’s greatest contribution may turn out to be the exposure of the Deep State and the Cabal and the Bi-Partisan corruption that has plagued our country for many years.
Thanks very much for this. I’ve been wondering for weeks why I’d not seen or heard anything about this woman or her death than its announcement the day of the riot. Because I do not scour the mainstream media for news, do not have a television, and as a hermit do not communicate on a regular basis with my fellow Amerikans, I was still surprised not to find any mention of her since the “insurrection” in the few headlines skimmed or in the few articles read in a handful of more or less trusted journals. Deafening is the exact word. I thought that in my old age I must have missed something important that was resolved within a day or two of the shooting, that she had a reputation as a terrorist or was a foreign agent or some confusion similar to the policeman who was alternately murdered at the scene of the riot or died later of a stroke. Ignoring any serious mention of this woman & her killing without raising grave questions is an unconscionable dereliction of duty on the part of our busybody mediocre media.
Knowing what I now know my sympathy for her is all the more awakened because I do not believe the storming of the Capitol was either criminal or disgraceful; it is neither temple nor the Holy of Holies. I say that as a Christian pacifist & Christian anarchist who loathes violence & mobs & especially any use or threat of weaponry; but who does believe in civil disobedience & that God will do what he needs to get our arrogant attention. I say it also as a person who dislikes & distrusts Trump & what I call his Cult of Poisonality; I find him a self-serving politician like most, a hypocrite & liar like the media he detests, too vulgar & bumptious in attitude to appear more than a petty tyrant or overheated drama queen; someone who was his own worst enemy & enemy of the voters he betrayed. Impeaching him was silly & too late, though he is not above criminal charges, not least for dereliction of his duty. Yet I strongly believe he was what this country thoroughly & richly deserved. It seems to me the Capitol got the apocalyptic moment it has long earned, though I doubt our numbskull pharisaical lawmakers have or will learn anything from their experience: a wake-up call not unlike our blessed Lord’s overturning the money tables & excoriating the moneychangers in his Father’s House is probably beyond their imagination. Not only Locke & Jefferson advocated a natural right of revolution but so did Aquinas, and we seem to have arrived at this point; if not that of civil war.
Much sympathy have I also with some of the grievances of those on the Right, though none with their love of guns & knives or ways of life, specifically what seems to be tendencies toward bigotry & obdurate parochialism. If they are outraged about abortion & gender or identity politics, about bureaucratic encroachments into family & religious life, about rampant hypocrisy & PC moralism or legalism, about this country being as much a Plutocracy & Oligarchy as it is a Dumbocracy, I am largely with them; yet I do have deep sympathies with much on the Left regarding ecology & the environment & the wretched treatment of our fellow creatures as well as the horrendous conditions the poor & homeless are subjected to in this Land of Plenty. My concerns, however, are primarily anti-political and more involved with cultural, ethical, philosophical, & theological matters. Though much of our politics & economics are indeed riven with injustices, their moral & spiritual roots seem to me deeper and if not confronted & dealt with first & foremost there is little chance of resolving the more superficial problems. Meaninglessness, purposelessness, & despair are the deeper pandemics this country has created for itself; they will not be solved at the level of laws that are mostly lies, or at best mere temporary expedients. Our very humanity is gravely in question & at stake and neither the authoritarianism of the Right nor the totalitarianism of the Left are in any position to adequately & genuinely confront these critically existential issues. A phony oratorical “unity” pronounced from on high is not going to dissolve division & divisiveness, any more than will secular education & its pathetic sentimentalities.
Let us include Ashli Babbitt among those killed this year on public property, with honor for her bravery as a citizen exercising her conscience. RIP.
I would appreciate evidence and instances in which President Trump acted like “a self-serving politician like most, a hypocrite & liar like the media he detests, too vulgar & bumptious in attitude to appear more than a petty tyrant or overheated drama queen; someone who was his own worst enemy & enemy of the voters he betrayed.” So, if he betrayed the voters, “Traitor ” could be added to the list of flaws enumerated in the sentence I quote from the article. May I ask: Which of President Trump’s Executive Orders advanced his own personal “agenda?” What lies did he advance for his own selfish reasons? In which instances did President Trump by-pass the Constitution to govern like a “petty tyrant?” When did he show lack of restraint in dealing with the hundreds of antagonistic and downright hostile journalists bent on trapping him in their verbal nets? The media gave him extremely unfavorable press even when he deserved accolades. If he spoke of accomplishments, it was because the media ignored them and even twisted them in order to eliminate any credit due him. “Drama queen?” Hardly! He suffered slings and arrows for the American People! I believe that President Trump’s Tweets will someday be published as examples of brilliant uses of words to bring back transparency to leadership. Accusing him of betraying the People of America is a serious matter; no one forced the many hundreds of thousands of citizens to attend his positive, uplifting, clean Rallies nor did anyone coerce them to shout out in unison “We love you!” Let’s give the American people a little credit for knowing a leader who works to restore their power and their due position!
I also completely disagree with the opening anti-Trump narrative., and was on the verge deleting the article. But I have read no serious discussion of the Babbitt killing. I have seen the video taken by.Sullivan that included the scene.
An investigation is in order of the shooting. It is very clear from the video that the killer was hiding on the left side of the double door leading to an empty hallway. The killer’s hand holding a pistol is shown reaching out pointed in the direction of the right side door while the windows in the doors are being smashed. The killer, on the secured side of the door, makes no visible attempt to warn the intruders. He remains hidden while Babbitt begins to climb through the broken window in the right side door. As she begins to push herself through the narrow opening the killer moves forward, partially exposing himself to view on the left. He reaches out and fires at near blank range, and she falls back onto the floor. The killer withdraws out of sight while security officers on the intruder’s side of the door attempt to assist Babbitt who was shot in the neck, and later dies.
Why was the door “defended” by one hidden armed person, while several other security officers were on the side of the door with the intruders? Why didn’t those officers engage the intruders? How is lethal force justified when the killer was under no bodily threat from an unarmed female intruder climbing through a window? It appears the only killing that occurred on Jan 6 was a premeditated misuse of lethal force by a Capitol Police officer who is not being held accountable.
President Trump is not responsible for anything that happened at the Capitol Building on Jan 6th. He gave a speech and asked his supporters to go to the Capitol Building. He in no way incited anything…. May Ashli Babbitt rest in peace. Whoever shot her should be prosecuted!
Perhaps waiting for the conclusion of court cases in at least what appears to be a very questionable election that has to this point not been investigated, would have been prudent before writing such a piece. It has been amazing to me to watch seemingly intelligent people make pronouncements on what happened without the least inclination to wait for a determination.
I think that we need to have extensive discussions about what is going on in this country; “A Quiet Killing” is such an example. The tragedy of the many deaths and civil disobedience that we have experienced over the past year is totally the opposite of what our country was founded for.
Pointing out one politician or one policeman or the actions that occurred in one day will not resolve the moral direction that our country seems to be headed in. Politicians and the media no longer display any respect for the truth or for opposing opinions. It is difficult to find well balanced truth, most of what is available is a long litany of condemning accusations.
We don’t hear about the vast (silent) majority of our citizens that help each other, every day with money, time, energy and countless good works. They set the example of mutual respect, tolerance and cooperation that makes the majority of country work. Leadership in our country should be a moral high ground, instead of the moral low ground that it has become.
The extreme right or extreme left is not the direction that the vast silent majority want to follow. What we want and need is the cooperation and loving charity that each of us is capable of.
I don’t understand his descriptions and judgements of the events of July 6, President Trump, the murdered women, and Trump loyalists as sardonic, ironic, or what he really is an his own belief is an accurate account of what happened that day. His bio leads me to believe he is a member of the establishment and a “Never Trumper”. He is correct to point out the double standard of how the journalists treat news events or worst fails to recognize or acknowledge these events.
Consider this, she was the only person there killed in anger. The other reported victims died of causes unrelated. The reported death of a police officer by a fire extinguisher was bogus.
It is a good thing Trump is gone? That suggests it is a good thing we have Biden. Really! Would his administration also brushed this incident under the rug?
Ashli Babbitt was a lovely, vibrant young women who happened to be the owner of my Pool Service here in San Diego. She attended a “peaceful demonstration” but was instead deliberately murdered by one of our Capital Police. Mr Mussomeli’s political persuasions are all too obvious and do not belong in “the Imaginative Conservative” format. May Ashli rest in peace.
another ‘never-Trumper’ having an amazing and excellent moment of clarity; unfortunately preaching to the choir. Let us pray the clarity is catching.
What is the source of Mr. Brostoff’s comments? I could not find them anywhere on the web, in mainstream media or in his Twitter account. Obviously these views would be reprehensible, but they are not at all the way the mainstream media has portrayed the death of Ms. Babbitt. The NYT and WP, which I read, have described her as passionate, outgoing, empathetic, but troubled, with challenges in her life in the military and as a civilian. Like a lot of Americans, apparently she was as staunchly pro-Obama as she was pro-Trump. Whether you think her anger and actions on Jan 6 were justified or delusional, her death is unquestionably tragic.
There is absolutely no comparison with nazis. While the political “martyrdom” (read testimony to his violent stupidity that he got himself killed) of Horst Wessel came to be celebrated in the well known collective selfsuicidal assault song, “Die Fane hoch die Reihen dicht gescloszen …” – there is still no comparison between national socialism and the Make American Great Again – because Ms. Ashli Babbitt was still unarmed. Actually, she did the right thing, and so did the policeman, as she served God and he the law. That is where the left as well as the nazis differ from M.A.G.A. Only the latter are both unarmed and respects the police. What happened was an accident by innocent clash of God and Caesar. To me, at least, she died a holy and true martyr. Perhaps she still got herself killed by the law, but sometimes non-violent struggle for truth and all human dignity demands being a little bit stupid.
“In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.”
And thanks to the author for remembering her! She and her friends had every God given right to civic disobedience – satyagraha and ahimsa – and the policeman had every right by the law too, so unfortunately, nobody is to blame, it was grace, and God’s unfathomable plan of salvation what happened, because the Capitol is still in mortal sin – you all know why (Roe vs. Wade) – and sometimes the people can peacefully claim God’s mercy for peaceful protest against the popular vote and electoral college alike, if there was a scandal, it was trying not to let them in. Certainly, the police had to try to keep them out, but it is my point of view that this was more God’s plan than mere tragic political violence. Nevermind, the author too has done a very fine piece, and people are allowed to disagree on it. Please have my apologies, if my other comment was distasteful by my awkward attempts to quote a bad nazi German song from memory. This was really a clash between Caesar and God, she died at the hands of the sword for God’s peaceful case, desperately trying her best to speak reason on behalf of an oppressed minority whom the Capitol by will of the popular as well as electoral majority has driven to desperation. Now, it is for the president to realize that she and her friends were no terrorists, and even if nobody can deserve mercy, let him grant them pardon, if he wishes to unify a still great nation. Nevermind my comments, it is only up to God. Despite different conclusions, still thanks to the author for writing this important piece of history
This is from a Slovenian with fond memories of the time when Mr. Mussomelli was the US ambassador to Slovenia. I find it almost unbelievable that despite the very different historical backgrounds the US has been recently divided along the very similar political faultline as Slovenia. I hope that both in US and in Slovenia the noble conservativism of people like Mr. Mussomeli will be able to prevail over populism and extremism.