Local Politics

Downtown Raleigh rally marks two years after Jan. 6 riot

Advocates rallied Friday in downtown Raleigh on the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
Posted 2023-01-06T16:19:32+00:00 - Updated 2023-01-06T23:56:11+00:00
Activists in the Triangle call for more accountability two years after Jan. 6 riot

A small group of activists rallied Friday in downtown Raleigh to mark two years since the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

The noon rally was one of many events being held nationwide to "push for accountability," according to Democracy Out Loud, the group behind Raleigh's event.

State Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, was among the three dozen or so activists participating in Friday's rally.

"Watching gunshots through a window and a body being taken out of the U.S. Capitol," Morey said. "Scaling the walls. Those images are seared into our minds. That day, like 9/11, has changed us."

Some 900 people nationwide have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 atatck. It includes three dozen of them from North Carolina, but Morey said those who incited the riot haven’t been.

"It wasn't just fringe people across the country that stormed the Capitol," Morey said. "We have to hold our leaders accountable."

Former President Donald Trump and his allies have denied responsibility, saying the attacks were organized by white nationalist groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Duke counterterrorism expert professor David Schanzer said the leaders of those groups are facing years in prison, but their rhetoric is still all too common.

"The stoking of violence, getting people angry and afraid about political issues, that the people are on the opposite political side are trying to take away their way of life," Schanzer said.

Schanzer doesn’t foresee another Jan. 6-type event in the near future, but he sees white nationalism as a continuing threat that political leaders need to work to defuse.

"I'm not that worried about, you know, large, organized mass instances of violence, but I am still deeply concerned that this ideology can can lead individuals to things like mass shootings or other forms of individual or small group violence," Schanzer said.

Schanzer said he'd like to see further investigation of how law enforcement missed the warnings of violence on Jan. 6 ,2021. He said many people on social media were discussing violence at the event for weeks in advance, but law enforcement seemed to have been taken by surprise.

Friday's event also called for voting protections, reproductive rights, climate protections, gun safety reform and access to affordable higher education.

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