(C) Common Dreams
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‘So the Traitors Know the Stakes’: The Meaning of the Jan. 6 Gallows [1]
['Catie Edmondson']
Date: 2022-06-16
A striking array of far-right iconography littered the Capitol during the riot by Mr. Trump’s supporters, such as a Confederate flag, Crusader crosses, an Auschwitz-themed hoodie and “white power” hand gestures. But the gallows erected in front of the Capitol, where rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” as they stormed the building looking for the vice president, is one of the most chilling images to emerge from a day of violence and extremism.
It is also one of the bigger unsolved mysteries in the investigation into what happened that day. Seventeen months after the riot, little is known about it. No one has publicly claimed responsibility for erecting the gallows or been charged with setting it up. It appeared to be too small to be used, though its presence — along with the orange noose that hung from it against the backdrop of the Capitol dome — clearly conveyed a threat of physical violence.
The House select committee investigating the Capitol assault showed video of the gallows when it opened its hearing on Thursday, as it detailed the intense pressure campaign that Mr. Trump waged against Mr. Pence, the threats of violence against him, how his security team tried to keep him safe from the mob, and how Mr. Trump reacted approvingly to his supporters’ threats to execute the vice president.
Yet Mr. Pence was hardly the first public figure to face such threats. The gallows has a prominent place in the language and belief system of the far right, and has been embraced in particular by white supremacists.
The imagery, said experts who study domestic extremism, evokes the early practice of hanging traitors; the nation’s dark history of lynchings and violent attempts to terrorize Black Americans; and a novel favored by white supremacists that culminates in the mass hangings of political enemies.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/16/us/politics/jan-6-gallows.html
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