Opinion | I chased the proud captains. I know why Trump let them go.

On 6 Jan.

The overflowing crowd attacked an officer’s staff, and pepper was thrown into the air. The couple did not back down from the violence but pushed the makeshift barricade, but the police were set up, beat a security guard and tried to lead one of the crowd. They just threw themselves out, and even though they didn’t make it to the capitol, they were proud of what they did: Ms. Middlon wrote on Facebook, “Fought at the Capitol and we got peppered and beaten but by gosh the patriots came in!

I know this because I was one of the lawyers who prosecuted the riots, and was part of the team that personally tried Middleet. (On Thursday I left the department, and I told it to myself alone.) Their trial was only once. Sitting in the courtroom in the amazing minutes before their verdict was announced, I noticed that Mr. Middleton was wearing “Trumpon” shoes, with the president’s face. This little sign touched me knowingly. The Middleets are willing to go to jail for a man who, presumably, doesn’t care about them at all.

Middleet was convicted on all counts, including charges of assaulting federal officials. But on Monday, Mr. Trump let them go and more than 1,600 people stormed the capitol on his behalf. I think that the troublemakers did not do charity, but because their freedom serves their interests.

But while some still regretted it, and some seemed ready to put politics behind them, and many others were controlled by what they saw as unjust persecution. Freed by the president, they have never been more dangerous.

Take Stewart Rhodes, whose bodyguard group made a gun and ammunition attack near Washington on Jan. 6. Or Enrique Tarrio, whose proud boys led riots in the capitol and who announced just after the 2020 elections that although they will not start a civil war, they will make sure to “finish one” .

They can now pursue revenge and have said they want it. When he was released this week, Mr. Tarrio declared that “success will be revenged.” He added, “It’s our turn.”

The result – and I believe it is the goal – of these pardons is to encourage secrecy and a militia loyal to the President, but not to the government. Irregular democracies and dictatorships often rely on such militia groups, whose organization and importance can dominate, from the secret that implemented the Hijab dress code in the House ‘i Colombia who killed the opposition of Colombia.

Here in America, the Lynch Mobs and the Ku Klux Klan carried out a caste system with respect and state violence, most of which were not willing to do it themselves. But for decades, we have had little reason to fear that secretaries or militias will enforce the will of the State.

This may change. The protesters who attacked the police in the Capitol called on the politicians who opposed Mr. Trump, declared that “there will be blood,” and “I will” is that other people will die, for their country, if they go down. ” But his determination is not only his determination. A fighter, who worked riots, explained to me how I felt the way Jan 6. Forgiveness on Monday will strengthen the things that these rioters believe in the cause, and their loyalty to the man who leads them.

Mr. Trump seems excited about the possibility. When asked Tuesday if the pride boys and oath keepers have political positions, he said, “We’ll have to see,” adding that “these are people who love our country.”

There is a lot of value to them in having members of these groups who are freed, doubly loyal to them, and actively carry out their programs and silence their critics with violence. Mr. Trump expressed his willingness, and stopped him from doing it again.

What could happen next? The Vigilante could pursue, attack or kill the enemies of the state. Under the slim prospect that these activists acted in self-defense, the president could pardon them for federal crimes, or pressure the Government Plant to do the same for the state. In such a situation, the president could put those loyal to him above the Law, literally. This kind of violence is part of the past; It could be part of our future.

It’s scary, but not inevitable. Groups like Georgetown Law’s Constitutional and Defense Institute are already working with law enforcement officials to block legal action, in addition to other things, interfere with government or constitutional rights. Local law enforcement can and should prioritize the protection of groups that may be the first target of illegal groups, such as immigrants, trans people and opposition politicians.

These efforts are urgent now, as most of our elected officials have changed their calculus on attacks. Elise Stefanik, a Republican in the House, said the opposition should be “extended to the fullest extent of the law.” Three years later, they called the “hostage”, and he was chosen by the President as ambassador to the United Nations.

Shortly after the attack, Kelly Loeffler, a Republican senator from Georgia, said that “the violence, the lawlessness and the siege of the halls of Congress is an abomination.” However, in the years that followed, he repeatedly called for a congressional investigation into the attack “Sham,” and said that there are allegations based on his work “should be dismissed from the the hand.” He is also appointed to serve in the president’s cabinet. Even Mr. Trump once called the “disgusting attack”, and they said: “For those who broke the law, you will pay.” His position, of course, has changed.

Although Congress is required by law to establish a police force that respects the police who protect the capitol, Congressional leaders have failed to do so. It seems amazing that they would refuse to acknowledge the people who saved their lives. But some ambitions some authorities need to do what is real.

Pardoning the president is part of this collective attempt at oblivion. Ilcralism depends on the concealment of past crimes, whether Jair Bolsonaro, when he was president of Brazil, celebrated the 1964 coup d’état in his country, or Vladimir Putin’s government refused to understand the enemies of Soviet politics.

The past is of the utmost importance to the enemies of democracy, and we must not mess with it. The victim on 6 Jan. should prosecute Congress to establish their Memorial. And academics should save the hundreds of federally docked criminal complaints that detail in excruciating detail what each of the defendants did that day.

The rest of us must also endure the horrors of Jan. 6 will not be forgotten. Remember the day. Read about the attack, and watch the videos. Make it a bye in your conversation. Doing so. At a time when many politicians are in oblivion, it is the memory of the resistance.