There were lots of LARPers. There were also some groups moving in organised fashion with less expensive and more useful equipment. There were people with bombs. There were some people ready to inflict harm on LE and luckily they didn't carry on to other people.
It was not a homogeneous group with same ideas and goals. That idea is just distracting from what happened.
I am interested in reading other people's thoughtfully formed opinions. Using words like "lots of" without clarifying further seems likely to lead to people talking past each other. That's why I commented.
This 5 deaths stat is one of the most mealy mouthed details being repeated. 1 police officer was killed, 1 rioter was killed. 2 people died of health related issues (1 stroke, 1 heart attack) while standing around. 1 died in the press of the crowd when people started panicking.
2 deaths were medical issues. 1 was a sad accident. 1 was a tragedy of someone being killed in the line of duty, and 1 was a trespasser paying the price for their actions. Playing it up like 5 innocent people were murdered by violent rioters is disrespectful to the one person who actually was, and is blatant politically motivated propaganda.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/who-died-in-capitol-bu...
Because Puerto Rico already had the Ley de la Mordaza since 1948. Also Pedro Albizu Campos had his pardoned revoked.