DC AG declines to charge mother of Ashli Babbitt, Jan. 6 protester killed by police

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: USA Today

Prosecutors have declined to file charges against the mother of Ashli Babbitt, Micki Witthoeft, who was arrested on traffic charges this month on the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot where her daughter was fatally shot by a police officer.

Witthoeft, 58, was arrested as she and other District of Columbia protesters blocked traffic on Independence Avenue, U.S. Capitol Police said in a news release.

Police gave the group multiple warnings to get out of the road. Refusing to leave, Witthoeft instead turned around with her hands behind her back and asked to be arrested, the police statement said. She was arrested on citations for failure to comply with an order and obstructing roadways. Witthoeft was released later the same day.

The case went to the office of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb. Prosecutors there declined to file court charges against Witthoeft, said Gabe Showglow-Rubenstein, a spokesman for Schwalb. He said the office does not discuss charging decisions.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/dc-ag-declines-to-charge-mother-of-ashli-babbitt-jan-6-protester-killed-by-police/ar-AA16Oq0C

[SoCalDavidS]

1. In Other Words, Feel Free To Do It Again. No Harm, No Foul. nt

[Marthe48]

2. Why not?

The mother raised the child in her image and shouldn't be given a pass. She will be back and do worse.

[brooklynite]

62. If you're going to accept BLM and Occupy Wall Street protestors blocking streets...

[PlutosHeart]

3. BOOOOO! Bad AG.

[SunSeeker]

4. Tyre Nichols was beaten to death for a lot less.

Micki Witthoeft assaulted officers who were giving her reasonsble commands to clear the road along the perimeter of our nation's Capitol. Tyre only ran from his torturers in his own neighborhood.

[Gore1FL]

5. The ideal is not to find equality in pain.

I don't want Tyre Nichols' ordeal to be the standard treatment. I want the way they treated Micki Witthoeft to be the default.

I don't fault the law enforcement officers who shot Ashli Babbitt; they did what they HAD to do. The DC Attorney General did what they could to do.

Personally, I'm OK with that.

[SunSeeker]

7. That was not my point at all. Of course there should not be pain.

Of course the way the officers treated Micki Witthoeft should be the default. Pain should not be the default in police encounters.

My point is how show differently they were treated, how much more harshly Tyre was treated even though he was not aggressive towards the police like Witthoeft was.

But she should have been prosecuted for assaulting the officers. And yes, the law enforcement officer who shot Ashli Babbitt was correct in what he did. He did what they had to do to protect members of Congress from that lunatic diving through a broken window.

[MichMan]

8. Where did you see that the mother assaulted officers?

"Police gave the group multiple warnings to get out of the road. Refusing to leave, Witthoeft instead turned around with her hands behind her back and asked to be arrested, the police statement said. She was arrested on citations for failure to comply with an order and obstructing roadways. Witthoeft was released later the same day."

[SunSeeker]

9. She walked right into a cop trying to keep her from going into the street.

It's 25 seconds into this video:

And she kept ripping her arms away from the cop trying to handcuff her, also on that video.

[MichMan]

10. You think she should have been charged with assaulting a police officer for that ?

How many years behind bars do you think she deserved?

[SunSeeker]

11. Yes.

6 months. That is how you get people to comply with the police. It is a lot more civilized than beating them to a pulp.

[ripcord]

19. So do you believe this should be standard enforcement at all protests?

[SunSeeker]

41. Yes, when you get physical and walk into cops like she did. nt

[MichMan]

37. I saw thousands of protesters blocking a bridge in Memphis while protesting Tyre's death

Should they also be jailed for 6 months for not complying with the police ? Would that be appropriate?

I can't agree with you that it would be.

[SunSeeker]

40. Did they walk into cops like Right Wing Mama did?

[ShazzieB]

15. Did you watch the video?

It was laid out pretty clearly in there, I think. (And as an added bonus, he does a hilarious impersonation of MTG.)

[ShazzieB]

14. That guy in the Meidas Touch video did a great impression of MTG!

Funniest thing I've seem in a while. Thanks for this!

[BumRushDaShow]

16. OMG he had MTG down pat (complete with air quotes)!

[bottomofthehill]

6. Her daughter is dead

It was the second anniversary of her death. It was a non violent protest of a grieving mother. It happens thousands of times a year on the hill.

[SunSeeker]

13. She should be protesting at Mar-A-Lago. Trump is the person who killed her daughter.

She is now repeating the lie that got her daughter killed, which could get some other mom's kid killed.

And no, it was not exactly an nonviolent protest. She walked into a cop trying to block her from walking into the street (assault) and kept ripping her arms away from the cop trying to handcuff her (resisting arrest). It's all on this video:

She groomed her daughter to be a dangerous right wing terrorist willing to believe the lies of Donald Trump. She now wants to continue doing that with others nationwide as the "grieving mom" of the right wing. She should be ashamed of herself.

[Cha]

23. You're right, of course.. but these

brainwashed zombies will NEVER figure that out.

She should be blaming dt.. Especially After all that has come to light. As IF they would hear it on fux "news", though.

[NH Ethylene]

18. Agreed. It also would've been a PR nightmare.

And a rallying point for extremists. Wise decision.

[bottomofthehill]

21. Thousands in DC are Citation Released

And the US Attorney declines prosecution. Additionally, they are already swamped with the actual Jan. 6 crowd. The two year later crowd cited for walking on the street is not the same level of threat.

Additionally, it was the two year anniversary of her daughters death. I believe the police officer who shot her was fully justified, but it is the anniversary of her death. A little humanity is not a bad thing here.

[femmedem]

35. +1

I agree completely.

[JohnSJ]

27. True, but her daughter is dead because she took part in an insurrection to overthrow the government

and endanger the lives of our legislators and breached the House chambers.

[bottomofthehill]

30. Yes she did, but a mother has the right to grieve the loss of her daughter

Suicide, OD, her daughter is dead. No matter who is at fault, and make no mistake, I believe Ashley Babbit is responsible for her own death through her actions, but a mother is still with out her daughter

[SunSeeker]

42. Grieving is one thing, but what she was doing was a political protest that got out of hand.

She was there to push dangerous propaganda. She's claiming her daughter was "murdered" by the officer who shot her (which is why she was there in DC protesting), a lie that endangers that officer's life. And she is pushing the very lie that got her daughter killed, namely that Trump won in 2020.

It's not like she was going to lay flowers at her daughter's grave. Her daughter is not buried in DC. She's in DC for a political protest, not to memorialize her daughter. And she got physical with the cops in doing so. She was not arrested for grieving her daughter, she was arrested for disobeying a direct legal order to her by an officer standing right in front of her. She then literally walked into that officer (assault) and then dared him to arrest her, giving him her hands. Then when he did try to arrest her she ripped her hands away from him (resisting arrest). She already got lenient treatment by not getting charged for assault and resisting arrest.

[LudwigPastorius]

12. You'll have to do better than that if you also want to be a martyr, Micki.

Maybe your orange god will get another shot at an insurrection. Better be there, it'll be wild.

[JohnSJ]

17. The misleading article says Ashli Babbitt "protestor" was "killed by police", on January 6th, with

an implication that what happened January 6th, was a perfectly reasonable “protest”, is a subtle way of leaving out the violence committed by those so-called protesters, who had every intention of overthrowing the US government, and doing great harm to our representatives

That insurrectionists like Gosar and MTG, etc, are still active members in Congress is a disgrace, and that we are at great risk of losing our democracy

[Cha]

25. "Protester".. oh god! She was a

Domestic Terrorist Breaching..

" fatally shot while attempting to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s
Lobby inside the Capitol"

While Sullivan said Babbitt was “not violent” and shouldn’t have died, Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who was inside the chamber at the time, said the police lieutenant “didn’t have a choice” but to shoot once the window was breached.

https://news.yahoo.com/one-woman-shot-six-hospitalized-205937445.html

[JohnSJ]

26. Thank-you

[Cha]

38. A 35 year old woman who was

Breaching the Capitol building while trying to Overthrow our Democracy.

She was warned to stop but she wouldn't.

It was a Clean Shoot.. I'm sorry she was so Brainwashed by fucking fox that she was Stupid enough to listen to them & trump.

[MichMan]

39. Should have killed every single one of them

Once the first few dozen bodies started piling up, the rest would have got the message.

[Kennah]

47. I disagree

You take out the leaders, and the rest give up. Start killing everyone, even if it were justified, and they decide they have nothing to lose.

[wnylib]

52. Plus, several of the insurrectionists were armed.

And they had stashes of weapons to grab and bring back to the Capitol building. They also outnumbered the officers. The insurrectionists WANTED a shooting battle. Then Trump would have imposed martial law and taken over as dictator.

It is good that there was no more shooting than Babbitt's. I fully agree that the officer wss justified in shooting her. But additional shooting would have turned the insurrection into a full blown bloodbath of the officers on hand by the armed insurrectionists. Remember, they also had explosives stashed away for use. They anticipated a shootout and came prepared for it.

[Kennah]

56. It's like Corrections folks in prisons. The prisoners outnumber them, so brute force don't work.

[republianmushroom]

20. mistake

[onenote]

49. Standard operating procedure.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/government-drops-charges-against-all-inauguration-protesters-n889531

[republianmushroom]

50. Yep

[iemanja]

22. It's a minor offense

I expect most people wouldn't be prosecuted for it.

[SlimJimmy]

24. I agree. And to think that some folks here want her to do

six months for essentially jay-walking. I just have to shake my head, sometimes.

[SunSeeker]

43. She wasn't jaywalking; she walked into a cop (assault) who was ordering her to stop.

She refused a direct order from a cop and got physical with the cop. That's very different than jaywalking. She literally walked into the cop, then dared him to arrest her. Then when he did try to arrest her, she ripped her hands away from him (resisting arrest). She was already getting lenient treatment by only being charged with disobeying orders.

[SlimJimmy]

44. OMG she "walked into" the cop

Let's lock her up for six months. Do you even hear yourself?

[SunSeeker]

45. What do you think would happen to a BLM protester who intentionally chest bumped a cop?

Last edited Mon Jan 30, 2023, 04:30 AM - Edit history (1)

We don't have a lot of examples of it happening because cops come to BLM protests with tanks and shields.

Right Wing Mama got treated a lot nicer than the BLM protesters who came to DC.

She intentionally walked into the cop telling her to stop, chest bumping him. That is assault. Then she ripped her hands away from him when he tried to cuff her. That is resisting arrest. Why do you think she should get away with that when others, particularly progressive protesters, don't get away with that sort of physical violence?

[SlimJimmy]

51. They dropped the charges.

I guess her crime was not that serious

[SunSeeker]

54. It's another example of two different justice systems.

A lenient one for white people, and a brutal one for black people. Kinda like how a black Texas woman got 5 years in prison for accidentally voting illegally while on probation (after the state clerks told her she could), whereas the white residents of The Villages in Florida who intentionally voted twice for Trump got probation. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/voter-fraud-florida-gop-stronghold-leads-light-sentence-rcna44777

[SlimJimmy]

55. Or they realized the charges were excessive and decided

to drop them. Ymmv.

[SunSeeker]

59. That "realization" seems to happen a lot when the person charged is white.

Not so much when the person is Black.

[SlimJimmy]

61. Whatever

Feel free to make it racial, even when it's not.

[SunSeeker]

64. I don't "make it racial when it's not." nt

[SlimJimmy]

65. It's not (nt)

[SunSeeker]

66. That's your opinion and I disagree with it.

Looks like this not a productive discussion, so we should leave it at that.

[JohnSJ]

28. Yes, it was a minor offense from the mother, but what her daughter did was NOT a minor offense

It came very close to having our representatives injured or killed by a mob out for blood, instigated by trump

[iemanja]

29. A mother doesn't haave charges brought against her because their daughter did something

It's not relevant to the mother's case.

[JohnSJ]

31. Of course not, but the USA Today article brought what the daughter did, and formed the daughter's

action as legitimate protest, which it was not

If the reporter is going to introduce the daughter’s involvement, they should give a little more context than that the mother was protesting the killing of her daughter, while her daughter was protesting. Her daughter was not “just protesting”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Ashli_Babbitt

[iemanja]

32. Okay

I don't know how that relates to what I said.

[JohnSJ]

33. I was just explaining that it wasn't the mother's protest that bothered me

[Martin68]

34. Smart decision. Prevents her from politicizing it and making her a martyr for the right.

More is gained than lost in this decision.

[SunSeeker]

46. Basing charging decisions on politics rather than facts is a loss for the rule of law.

She was already a martyr on the right. Dropping the charges does not avoid that.

Now, with her charges dropped, her dangerous assertions that her daughter was "murdered" is legitimized, endangering that Capitol Police officer's life. The election deniers will point to the dropped charges as a concession by the authorities that the mom was right and that authorities released her out of guilt for what they did to her daughter.

Her suffering no consequences for her refusal to obey police orders, not to mention assaulting the cop and resisting arrest, really encapsulates white privilege. What do you think would happen to a Black man who did that?

[Martin68]

48. I wouldn't characterize the decision that way. She was peacefully protesting. She hurt no one.

If she was demonstrating for BLM would you feel the same? Nothing is legitimized or de-legitimized by ruling in favor of non-violent free speech. What do YOU think should happen to a black man who did that?

[SunSeeker]

53. She was not "non-violent." She assaulted a cop and resisted arrest.

She walked right into a cop trying to keep her from going into the street. That's assault. It's 25 seconds into this video:

And she kept ripping her arms away from the cop trying to handcuff her (resisting arrest), also on that video.

Could you imagine what would happen to a BLM protester who did that?

She was already getting MUCH better treatment than the BLM protesters who were at DC, who got tear gassed and attacked by literally an army. Then they were arrested and charged on a wide array of charges. That was wrong. This is wrong too.

Instead of getting arrested for assault and resisting arrest, she just got arrested for disobeying a police officer. Now that charge was abandoned altogether. That sure looks like white privilege to me.

Letting violent right wing fascists like her get away with assaulting and disobeying police encourages another Jan. 6, which is what she wants. She's an insurrectionist, just like her daughter was. She came to DC to push the dangerous lie that Trump won, and to lie that the Capitol Police Officer who shot her daughter committed "murder," thus endangering that officer's life and his family.

[Martin68]

57. The fact that you keep comparing her to a BLM protestor says it all. We are better than that.

[SunSeeker]

58. WTF. I am not comparing her to a BLM protester. She is nothing like a BLM protester.

Instead of nonviolently calling for equally, she is violently calling for fascism.

[Martin68]

60. Read your own posts. You constantly bring up BLM Protestors and ask how they would be treated.

You should strive for consistency if you want to be taken seriously.

[SunSeeker]

63. I'm comparing the JUSTICE SYSTEM's response to BLM vs. white insurrectionists.

The response is glaringly different, as demonstrated by this case.