The country has now put six months behind itself and that awful day on January 6th, when so many of us told our kids as we watched, “this is your 9-11.” But unlike 9-11, there would be no year-long investigation into which extremists were most directly responsible. (Planners and funders is a different story).  To the surprise of many “patriots” in the Capitol that day, hundreds have since been arrested. We are relatively certain that those who have not yet been arrested, believed themselves to be in the clear.

We are learning today that they are wrong, according to the Washington Post. On Saturday, the Post published a new piece highlighting the FBI’s next target for arrest and prosecution, the “patriots” that went after journalists covering the event.

“Nearly six months after the U.S. Capitol riot, the Justice Department has begun arresting a new category of alleged criminals — those who attacked reporters or damaged their equipment as journalists documented the violence perpetrated by supporters of President Donald Trump.

“The first such charge came last week, when 43-year-old Shane Jason Woods of Illinois was charged with engaging in violence on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6, as well as assaulting a law enforcement officer. Authorities say Woods was caught on video knocking down a cameraman.”

It sounds to us like Woods should have been arrested some time ago, though we’ll allow that the FBI has had to through a lot of video.

Joshua Dillon Haynes, has been charged with smashing journalist’s equipment outside the Capitol on the 6th and then boasting about it in text messages to friends.

“We attacked the CNN reporters and the fake news and destroyed tens of thousands of dollars of their video and television equipment here’s a picture behind me of the pile we made out of it,”

The Post notes that there are some difficulties in prosecuting these types of cases, though it is certainly not impossible:

“Court papers filed in the ‘attacks on media’ cases suggest that charging someone with a$$aulting a journalist or vandalizing their equipment is a bit more complex than other rioting charges.

There is no federal law specifically against getting aggressive and physical with a journalist, so the Justice Department has charged those who went after reporters or their gear on Jan. 6 with committing violence in the restricted grounds of the Capitol, or destroying property on the Capitol grounds. More such arrests are expected, according to officials.”

We aren’t quite sure why this would pose such a problem. If one of us is walking down the street and pushes someone from behind, sending them falling to the ground and breaking their phone and camera, it would seem as though there are plenty of criminal laws that would cover such an act. Perhaps the FBI has something more serious in mind for these defendants.

Either way, the group of rioters exposed to possible arrest and trial has grown substantially. It is well past time, too. Journalism has become increasingly dangerous in the MAGA era and they should know that there will be a price to pay for this dangerous type of behavior.

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