The mob made me do it: US Capitol rioters declare Jan 6 crowd at fault

Written by Michael Tarm and Jacques Billeaud
Christopher Grider mentioned he got here to Washington on January 6 with no intention of rioting. But he received caught up within the mob of indignant supporters of then-President Donald Trump as they surged into the US Capitol, breaking via police limitations and smashing via doorways.
It wasn’t his fault, he mentioned, that he ended up contained in the constructing with a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag round his neck as lawmakers ran for his or her lives.
Grider, 39, a vineyard proprietor and former college instructor in Texas is amongst not less than a dozen Capitol riot defendants recognized by The Associated Press who’ve claimed their presence within the constructing was a results of being “caught up” within the hysteria of the group or that they had been pushed inside by sheer power.

For some, blaming the mob is a part of an try to revive reputations tarnished by their presence at an occasion of such infamy. Others might attempt to broach the problem at trial or not less than throughout sentencing in bids for leniency.
Social scientists have lengthy noticed how people can act in methods they by no means would on their very own when they’re in crowds of like-minded people who find themselves whipped right into a frenzy.
The insurrectionists descended on the nation’s capital that day to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Many attended a rally by Trump, who was refusing to concede though there was no proof to recommend the election had been rigged and his personal administration mentioned it wasn’t.
Hundreds of Trump supporters broke via police barricades and overwhelmed officers, violently shoving their approach into the constructing to chants of “Mike Pence” and “Stop the Steal”.
Some got here ready with pepper spray, baseball bats and different weapons. More than 400 individuals have been charged; it’s the most important prosecution within the Justice Department’s historical past.
Grider, accused of serving to to interrupt a glass door to the House chamber, by no means deliberate to storm the constructing, his lawyer has mentioned in filings and feedback to reporters after Grider, was charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
“He would never have anticipated finding himself in the situation, but for the president and the rally and the way everything went down,” Brent Mayr informed the Houston Chronicle.
“We’ve heard ‘mob mentality’ – and he describes it to a T.” Mayr extra not too long ago declined to remark additional.
Judges sometimes don’t let defendants assert at trial that exterior influences, be it medication or peer stress, made them act as they did. Most judges would reject efforts by rioters’ attorneys to make use of any iteration of a blame-the-crowd defence, authorized consultants say.
“Even though I’m a criminal defense attorney, it sounds like a desperation move,” mentioned Miami lawyer Joel Hirschhorn, insisting that would-be rioters who travelled lengthy distances to Washington needed to perceive what they is perhaps stepping into. “It’s sort of like, ‘The devil made me do it.’ Come on.”
But there’s some precedent for a model of the argument succeeding at trial.
Lawyers on the California trial of two African American males charged with tried homicide within the beating of white truck driver Reginald Denny throughout Los Angeles riots in 1992 had been allowed to name psychiatry professor Armando Morales to testify {that a} pervasive mob mentality meant the boys couldn’t have meant to hurt anybody.
Denny was pulled out of his truck and severely crushed after 4 white Los Angeles officers had been acquitted of most expenses within the beating of Black motorist Rodney King.
Morales described to jurors how people can develop into contaminated by a mass hysteria when in indignant throngs, shedding their regular management and appearing violently with out precise intent to commit a criminal offense.
“This can happen to the most upstanding individuals,” he mentioned.
While prosecutors known as rebuttal witnesses to problem the professor’s competition that intent wasn’t potential in the course of the riot, jurors acquitted the 2 males of tried homicide, convicting them of lesser chargers.
Many in regulation enforcement criticised the verdicts on the time, saying they despatched the unsuitable message that participation in crowd violence made somebody much less culpable than if they’d acted alone.
In federal court docket such arguments are normally allowed solely throughout sentencing, however defendants are already laying groundwork.
One rioter informed investigators that strolling up the Capitol steps was like “a funnel.” A second claimed he couldn’t pull again from the group, though the FBI mentioned video confirmed the person made no try to show round.
One defendant, Kevin James Lyons of Chicago, is accused of going into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace in the course of the riot and posting a photograph on social media of a plaque bearing Pelosi’s title. A caption with the photograph learn, “WHOS HOUSE?!?!? OUR HOUSE??”
Authorities say Lyons claimed he deliberate to attend solely the Trump rally, the place he heard flash-bang units going off within the distance and noticed individuals strolling towards him with purple faces. They say Lyons, nonetheless, quickly headed to the Capitol himself and wound up inside.
“Lyons claimed that there was very little he could do to escape the crowd because he weighed 140 pounds,” the FBI mentioned.
James “Les” Little of Claremont, North Carolina, informed the FBI that he had no intention of getting into the constructing when he went to the Capitol however grew to become overwhelmed by the second. Once inside, he mentioned he fist-bumped others, walked across the Senate chamber and took images of himself.
During an interview with investigators, he additionally mentioned he was caught up within the second when sending a textual content to somebody about taking up the Capitol. Little’s legal professional, Peter Adolf, didn’t return a name in search of remark.
Debra Lieberman, a psychology professor on the University of Miami, mentioned individuals in massive crowds make calculations on the prices and advantages of their actions, and with so many others round, they imagine they’ll get away with it.
Those who went via barricades on the backside of Capitol Hill needed to have made an specific resolution to take part and may’t contend they had been simply swept up by the group, she mentioned.
Saying you had been “being swept up is pushing the blame and culpability aside,” Lieberman mentioned. “It’s a sneaky strategy.”
When US District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson dominated in February that she would launch Grider on bond pending trial, she didn’t converse instantly as to whether crowd dynamics is perhaps related to his case. His authorized staff hasn’t mentioned it’s going to try to make {that a} function of a trial protection.
But Jackson confirmed no sympathy for claims that Grider was extra of a bystander than the rest that day.
Jackson famous Grider could be seen on the entrance of a crowd that rushed towards House chamber doorways. While he didn’t smash the door home windows, he stood by whereas others did and didn’t retreat, she mentioned. One rioter was fatally shot by police as she tried to climb via one of many shattered home windows.
“Make no mistake, Mr Grider, you did participate,” the choose mentioned, addressing him instantly. “You did have a role in one of the most egregious assaults on our democracy in the history of this country.”