To the Editor:

As I read about the Rensselaerville man who was charged during the “mostly peaceful” protest of Jan. 6, 2021 [“Rensselaerville man charged with federal crimes during January 6 insurrection,” The Altamont Enterprise, Jan. 12, 2023], I found myself condemning those who rioted that day, much as I had found myself condemning the riots, looting, multiple instances of arson, assaults, and murders of summer 2020, which were so much more dangerous to our democracy, than was the “mostly peaceful” Jan. 6 riot.

I found myself thinking about Ashli Babbett, the U.S. unarmed and “mostly peaceful” demonstrator shot and killed by a courageous police officer, and the bravery she showed in standing up to such abuse of government power as an armed police officer pointing his gun in her unarmed and peaceful face.

Here is to equal justice, for the “mostly peaceful” rioters of both Jan. 6, 2021 and the many months of “mostly peaceful” crime-infested riots in 2020.

Edgar Tolmie

Altamont

Editor’s note: The Department of Justice investigation into Ashli Babbett’s death — she was shot in her shoulder, not her face, as she tried to climb through a shattered window of a barricaded door — “revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.”

The United States Capitol Police internal investigation found, “The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and to the House Chamber where Members and staff were steps away.”

The large crowd of rioters, including Babbitt, was trying to stop the transfer of power to the person who had won the 2020 election.