Honoring the Constitution means honoring the innocent.

Photo Mike Haupt on Unsplash

We are now a year away from a series of illegal and deadly events that happened on January 6, 2021. Ashli Babbitt, Roseanne Boyland, Kevin Greeson, and Benjamin Phillips all died on a single afternoon. Yet, we are still light-years away from a full accounting of the deaths of four American citizens.

Millions of Americans hoped that a non-partisan investigation would identify both the criminal actors in the crowd while also giving attention to credible accusations of police brutality. Sadly, those reasonable hopes have gone unaddressed.

Instead, irresponsible journalists and politicians—including our own Representative, Liz Cheney—hastily attributed motives and crimes to individuals that they could not possibly know. Only shameless posturing would presume to ascribe motive and intent to millions of individual citizens that you have neither interviewed nor even met. It has now been revealed that Cheney hysterically declared her final judgement while the events were still unfolding and has not budged from this prejudice.

Re. Liz Cheney

Undoubtedly some went to protest, but which ones? Some went to be part of history. Some went out of curiosity. Some went to cause trouble. Some died on the wrong side of a police line. But death renders them incapable of telling you why they were there. 

Clearly, there were some who criminally breached police lines by force. Others crossed the same line, hours later, without even knowing that it had once been a police line. Some entered the Capitol through a broken window. Others were ushered into the rotunda by smiling police officers. Some found themselves trapped by the crowd in places they did not want to be. Others took an active part in agitating that same crowd.

Justice requires knowing the difference and judging accordingly. Anything less means to lose the stories and lives of four innocent Americans in partisan cacophony. This is disgraceful.

The cornerstone of American justice is that all people are innocent until proven guilty. Reputable media establishments used to be so diligent in the application of this principle that even the most serious crimes, with the most overwhelming evidence, would be called, “alleged.” Until a defendant has had the opportunity to defend himself in open court, he is truly innocent.

The presumption of innocence is no mere formality. It fundamentally keeps a constitutional republic from becoming a banana republic. Those who act otherwise destroy both our Constitution and their fellow citizens. 

While this is true of all people, it is especially true when judging the dead. The living can testify and call witnesses in their own defense; the dead are not so privileged. Unfounded accusations leveled at these four Americans leave them libeled with no way to defend themselves. 

To defend their names is not to defend every action that happened that day, nor is it to defend any politician associated with them. Rather, to defend these Americans is to defend the Constitution itself. No one can wrap herself in the Constitution who refuses to do so.

Ashli Babbitt (left), Michael Byrd (right)

While the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt was the news that stopped most Americans in their tracks, she was not the first to die. Before that thunderclap, three others were already dead. Statistically speaking, these deaths should have set off alarm klaxons even if Lt. Michael Byrd had never fired his service pistol at the unarmed woman.

Nevertheless, the untimely deaths of three Americans barely made a blip on the national radar. Their cries were drowned out by shrill and inaccurate reporting about deaths that happened days, weeks and months later.

Most troubling was the death of Rosanne Boyland, 34, and the ever-shifting stories explaining it. Before leaving for Washington, D.C., she assured her sister, “I’m going to stand on the sidelines. I’m just going to show my support.” How she died in the Capitol Tunnel despite these intentions should be the subject of serious investigation. 

Instead, the New York Times published a false report on January 29 that “Capitol rioters trampled [her].” Two months later, the D. C. Medical Examiner claimed she died by “acute amphetamine intoxication.” Her body was cremated shortly thereafter, rendering an independent autopsy impossible.

In November, attorney Joseph McBride finally won his court battle to see hours of video footage that was hidden from the public. This footage tells an altogether different story. It shows merciless police brutality against unarmed people who were desperately trying to retreat from their assailants. 

Philip Anderson (left), Rosanne Boyland (right)

The video evidence is supported by two eyewitnesses who have come forward to tell their stories. Philip Anderson, a black Trump supporter, was holding Boyland’s hand as she died. His testimony contradicts both the NYT and the Medical Examiner. Victoria White was there as well. Her public testimony is utterly harrowing. But Cheney’s J-6 Committee has not asked to hear them.

The J-6 Committee has turned the first anniversary of J-6 into a partisan circus. That does not honor the four citizens who died there. Neither does it uphold the Constitutional principles that they are being denied in death. 

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, January 7, 2022.