During Wednesday’s violent insurrection against the United States Congress (incited by the President of the United States and his rich cronies), a Capitol Police officer shot and killed a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, Ashli Babbitt, as she tried to force her way through what one independent journalist called “a vital and final door leading to Congresspeople.”
In their profile, Who Was Ashli Babbitt?, the New York Times reports that Ms. Babbitt’s “social media feed was a torrent of messages celebrating President Trump; QAnon conspiracy theories; and tirades against immigration, drugs and Democratic leaders in California.”
Ironically, as a member of the Air Force Reserve, Ms. Babbitt was a member of the Capital Guardians, the only branch of the National Guard responsible for protecting the national government (the others protect the various states), and whose mission includes defending the U.S.’s capital city against “civil disturbances.”
In one of her last tweets, Ms. Babbitt wrote about the upcoming rally for the President: “Nothing will stop us. They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours …. dark to light!”
Many are, if not celebrating, at least not feeling any remorse for the death of Ms. Babbitt, and I can appreciate that sentiment.
She did as she planned to do: She stormed the United States Capitol with every intent of violently overturning the results of a relatively free and fair election and installing Donald J. Trump as an illegitimate President of the United States.
When she tried to breach the security force’s last line of defense, an officer chose to defend the heart of our Capitol building and the Congresspeople inside by shooting her in the neck. She later died of the gunshot wound.
To some, Ms. Babbitt’s punishment fits the crime of insurrection. U.S. Code § 2383, however, defines the penalty for insurrection as either a fine or ten years in jail, plus the loss of the right to hold any office under the United States.
Unlike treason, which generally means the accused betrayed the country by acting on behalf of a foreign government, the crime of insurrection, which generally means committing a violent act against the country or its officers, does not result in a penalty of death.
(Unlike the insurrectionists, President Trump should probably be charged with sedition, “which is the organized incitement to rebellion or civil disorder against the authority of the state.”)
It is true that Ms. Babbitt was in the vanguard of an unruly mob whose actions resulted in the death of at least one police officer, and thus it makes sense for the officer responsible for the shooting to have feared for his life in the face of her rage.
It is also true that she was warned to get back before being shot.
It is also true that Vice President Pence was inside the building, and government security forces generally don’t take kindly to those who threaten the safety of presidents and vice presidents.
But according to a report in the Washington Post, it may also be true that Ms. Babbitt was unarmed during the insurrection.
And according to video footage of the incident, at least four armed police officers were standing behind her. They weren’t trying to drag her away from the “vital and final door.” They weren’t yelling at her to get down or put her hands behind her back. They stood calmly, talking with the insurrectionists who milled about around them. In the footage where the camera’s perspective is about six or eight feet behind Ms. Babbitt, it seems as if the officers have no real issue with the insurrectionists, making the sound of the gunshot that much more surprising.
The footage seems to confirm that the life of Ms. Babbitt need not to have been snuffed out. The officer who felt threatened could have grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her through the door, and restrained her while calling for support from the four officers standing peacefully among the crowd.
She could have been arrested, charged, found guilty, fined, and imprisoned. She did not have to die.
Throughout the Spring and Summer, we saw the nation’s police respond to BLM protestors with violent impunity. Those of us with any conscience condemned the police’s violence and cheered on those who pushed back against it. Many of us (myself included) defended the property damage that seemed to incense so many on the right (unlike the extrajudicial murders of black bodies, which the right didn’t seem to mind as much).
I have a similar response to Ms. Babbitt’s death. She wasn’t armed. She wasn’t trying to wrestle a gun away from an officer. She wasn’t brandishing a knife or even a pellet gun. The officer could have tased her or sprayed her with pepper spray or, as I suggested above, pulled her to the ground and restrained her while calling for help from the four other officers standing six to eight feet behind her.
Ms. Babbitt was a criminal, an insurrectionist, and a traitor to our democracy. But she didn’t have to die.
