Do better
Friday, Jan 15, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* You have to read the whole thing to appreciate just how awful this story is. Here we have a couple of Illinois Department of Corrections employees traveling to Washington, DC to protest in favor of overturning a legitimate presidential election and it’s all presented by the Galesburg Register-Mail as some fun little road trip…
When Anthony Tew made his way into President Donald Trump’s rally Jan. 6, he was not expecting that day would become infamous.
Tew, a corrections officer at Hill Correctional Center, and a friend, Correctional Officer Lee Gabbert, were on their way back from a trip to Chicago for a court appearance when he joked with his friend about attending the rally. It started as a joke, but he had some time off coming up, and his friend did too.
The two left on Monday afternoon, Jan. 4, arriving on Tuesday morning. After seeing the sites nearby and checking into their hotel room, they arrived at the rally at 6 a.m. Wednesday. […]
When Trump left, the two joined the march for a short stretch in a large group. Once they neared the Capitol building, Tew and his friend departed, tired from standing around for five hours. When they made it back to their hotel room, the insurrection had already begun.
* Meanwhile, same newspaper company, same day…
As she prepared to board a military aircraft bound for Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Airman Bridget Wood admitted she didn’t get a good night’s sleep.
A member of the Illinois National Air Guard, she is one of 200 guard members being sent to the nation’s capital amid concerns about the potential for violent protests surrounding President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. The mission’s historic nature and last week’s deadly riots resulted in a powerful combination of adrenaline and nerves that kept her awake.
“You’d have to be a little bit crazy if you didn’t feel nervous,” said the 20-year-old from Morton. “But I’m also excited to be going.”
Eighteen members of the Illinois Air National Guard’s 182nd Airlift Wing left their Peoria base Thursday morning. The group consisted entirely of security forces, a reflection of a recent FBI warning about the possibility of armed protests surrounding the swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20.
- Ok - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 9:55 am:
The Revolution Will Not be Instagrammed
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:00 am:
The white-washing (pun intended) of last week has only began.
In the coming weeks, months, and years conservatives will have you believe Trump’s rally on Wednesday was simply a picnic, where frisbees were tossed about and hackey-sac was enjoyed by all.
- Shemp - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:05 am:
Reading the whole article actually made it seem less awful. Two guys attending a rally that didn’t participate in the riot and didn’t feel incited to riot.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:09 am:
Eh, I wouldn’t have gone but it seems like the prison guards left before the terrorists were let loose on the Capitol. I think folks committed that much to trump are nuts, but it wasn’t illegal or against DOC rules for them to go. And the Register-Mail wants to sell newspapers (if that is still a thing?) and get clicks, after all - it shouldn’t be surprising that they would run these types of stories, or that PJ-Star would repost it.
Also, thanks to Airman Wood for her service during this crisis.
- Hashtag - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:13 am:
Last time I checked it was still legal, and ethical, to protest at the capitol, even if you find the cause distasteful.
- SWIL_Voter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:15 am:
Aw geez, all they did was try to overthrow the government, cut them some slack for not trying to assassinate the Vice President
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:17 am:
=== When Trump left, the two joined the march for a short stretch in a large group. Once they neared the Capitol building, Tew and his friend departed, tired from standing around for five hours.===
“We were just too tired to go full insurrection”
- Dotnonymous - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:17 am:
One likely story…more to come…likely.
- Stu - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:17 am:
I will defend anyone’s rights to attend a rally, even if I do not agree with the subject.
The subsequent riot and storming of the Capitol by a subset of those attending the rally cannot be excused.
- Anon221 - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:19 am:
From the PJ-Star article- “Gabbert says if they had proceeded to the building and seen the insurrection break out, they would have likely turned around and left anyway.”
****
That is this in a nutshell. Turning your back, ignoring incitements, and wearing blinders and rose-colored glasses. If this had happened in a DOC facility, what would these two have done then??? The National Guard women and men do not now have the luxury of “returning to their hotel and driving back home” thanks to this type of “it wasn’t me” and “I had a good time” ignorance.
- A skeptic - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:19 am:
Given the number of people in national media reporting who said they attended the rally but did not enter the Capitol, I’d take this story about leaving early with a grain of salt. DoC, federal authorities, someone should investigate and verify they did not take part.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:20 am:
“actually made is seem less awful”
5 people aren’t less dead.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:22 am:
“Rudy just being Rudy”
I’m sure a person a color saying the same thing would be viewed by these two in the same light.
- A skeptic - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:22 am:
Wrongly claimed to have not entered the Capitol, I should clarify. ^^
- Perrid - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:24 am:
Of course you’re allowed to protest whatever you want, but if you choose to spend a couple days of your life traveling to and participate in a rally to demand an election be overturned with no evidence as to why, and demanding people (meaning VP Pence) do things the Constitution doesn’t allow them to do, you are as un-American as it is possible to get and you have will get nothing from me besides contempt and disdain. Even if you didn’t personally participate in the riot.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:25 am:
=Department of Corrections employees traveling to Washington, DC to protest=
Seems like they were there to legally protest, a right enjoyed by all of us. They are union corrections officers who went on the record so I believe that they did not engage in any illegal activities.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:26 am:
=== at the capitol===
What happened at the the Capitol was an insurrection, the leadership of the United States was in peril, that’s not opinion, that is why the secret service felt the need to remove the leadership of the nation away from the insurrection.
- Banish Misfortune - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:27 am:
Struck by article saying attempted second impeachment. Are they not aware that he was impeach again?
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:29 am:
Lots of insurrectionists are going to face legal and economic problems, as some already have, getting arrested and losing jobs. These Trump-loving public employees in IDOC, however, have the protection of a union contract. They voted against “socialism,” and to have their own rights stripped (Janus decision), but they have protection thanks to the people they vote against.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:29 am:
I’ll believe these guys weren’t in the capitol when the investigations are over. Not sure why I’m supposed to take what they said to a local Galesburg stenographer at face value at this point, after they traveled across state lines to, at best, bear witness to a coup attempt.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:32 am:
Hashtag-
Tell that to the FBI when they come knock, knock, knocking at your door.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:33 am:
- Two guys attending a rally -
Yeah, a rally they hoped would inspire the overturning of a legitimate election because they believe nonsense. I’m thrilled my tax dollars fund their paycheck and that they have a role in the criminal justice system.
What pathetic losers.
- Last Bull Moose - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:33 am:
Stupid is as stupid does. Non-violent marches are legal. Even when their ideas are abhorrent. The violence moved this into an entirely different category.
Pray for the troops. They did not plan on fighting people who think they are American patriots.
- TaxTheMemes - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:33 am:
I couldn’t disagree with these two more but they went to protest and left before any violence. Association fallacy heavy out here, am I on Facebook?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:37 am:
=== Association fallacy heavy out here===
This;
=== Tew and his friend departed, tired from standing around for five hours.===
They departed, according to them, because they were tired of standing for 5 hours. That’s not a fallacy, that was an excuse to not going full insurrection.
This isn’t Facebook, but between Facebook, Instagram, even phone pings, law enforcement can get the information of who attended.
- SWIL_Voter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:39 am:
==Association fallacy==
We can only associate these guys with the protestors who wanted to peacefully overthrow the government and constitution, not the ones who wanted to murder politicians to carry out the same ends
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:42 am:
“Association fallacy heavy out there”
These two traveled nearly halfway across the country to hear a speech by the President where he told them the VP should overturn an election that has been upheld upteen times.
Then, told them to march to the capital and “be strong” as that was the only way to “save democracy.”
And these two, decided, “welp, that’s it, we’re tired time to go home”?
Some people, all the time.
- TheInvisibleMan - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:42 am:
Will County board member Debbie Kraulidis also went to the riot, even posting a live video of herself when she was back in her hotel room at 5pm.
She started out by saying she was okay. Then tried to say she wasn’t aware of what was happening at the capitol, even though the events had already taken place and she felt the need to tell people she was okay and safe. She also claimed she didn’t go into the capitol because it was too crowded.
Within a day she started trying to scrub her entire presence from social media sites showing she was there at all.
She’s also the VP of the moms for america group that had a stage right outside the capitol building which you may remember from Mary Miller being invited and introduced by Kraulidis to speak on their stage.
- Anyone Remember - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:48 am:
“… but he had some time off coming up, and his friend did too.”
Thought IDOC overtime was a result of people taking time off at the very last moment. This is something IDOC needs to investigate. Maybe OAG and / or OEIG also.
- JoanP - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:49 am:
Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that these two really did leave, had no intention of engaging in violence.
They were still hanging out in a very large, mostly maskless crowd, a perfect recipe for getting COVID, and then they headed back to a congregate setting.
For that alone they should be disciplined.
- @misterjayem - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:55 am:
The moral and legal equivalent of attending a klan rally, imho.
– MrJM
- Commisar Gritty - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:59 am:
Actually lol’d at Flying Elvis’s first comment, but then I realized he was probably right and it made me sad. Better go hacky sack about it.
And Hashtag, wow what an awful take. Go check out the sit in’s in the lobby for the Americans with Disabilities Act or Medicare for All if you want to see what a protest in the capitol looks like. Stealing government property and scrawling death threats on the walls ain’t it, bub. Comments like these really show that one man’s “patriot” is another man’s domestic terrorist.
- yinn - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:01 am:
Not buying the story. DOC employees need to be able to read a crowd. They smelled a mood and beat it.
Also am having a hard time understanding anyone traveling across several states to attend a political demonstration for the entertainment value. I’ve been to a few. I go when conscience pulls me and judgment allows it. It’s sometimes scary and never a lark.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:07 am:
yinn said it all.
- Hashtag - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:09 am:
* For that alone they should be disciplined *
Good thing you aren’t in charge. Employers have no right to discipline employees for not wearing masks outside of work
* Tell that to the FBI when they come knock, knock, knocking at your door. *
Gladly. Unfortunately, I was sitting here working like I am every day. 100000 people and 99,900 did nothing wrong.
*The moral and legal equivalent of attending a klan rally, imho*
More nonsense, “I don’t like you therefore you are racist”.
- Commisar Gritty - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:11 am:
Also kudos to InvisibleMan for continuing to beat that drum. Hopefully she gets held accountable for
- JB13 - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:14 am:
If you attend a rally or protest, you are fine (or should be, in a truly free society.)
If you participate in assaulting police or other people, destroying property (public OR private), burning, looting, etc, you are a part of a riot at best, insurrection at worst, and should pay the price for those actions. You also should be prepared to pay a price for inciting others to do so, or making excuses for those who commit such crimes.
If you want to destroy people’s lives for merely supporting the wrong president, I guess you can hold that position. But you can certainly stop proclaiming to the rest of the world how much you love democracy and fear for its future.
- JS Mill - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:15 am:
I support everyone’s right to peacefully assemble. I think we all do.
This was not a peaceful assembly and it was not patriotic. It was a riot turned insurrection and it was all in support of one demagogue/attempted dictator who wanted to stage a coup and overturn a lawful election.
Since these two happy go lucky wanderers cited hitler in the article I would posit that trump has cultivated the “cult of personality” following similar to despots like hitler, mussolini, putin, and chavez.
I will never understand the trump flags and other garb. They were not there for America.
- Dance Band on the Titanic - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:20 am:
If they were too “tired from standing around for five hours” how the heck do they manage to function during a full 8 hour shift?
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:20 am:
This is a consequence of the ability of conservative politicians, opinion shows and social media repeat lies over and over again. Take these two guards, for example. If all of their media consumption consists of newsmax, rush, fox opinion hosts, trump’s Twitter account, etc., all telling them the same lie for months on end, it shouldn’t be surprising that these people actually believe it is true. Y’all keep saying (correctly) how this election fraud stuff is nonsense, but why in the world do you think these kinds of people should believe otherwise? I don’t think anyone has yet figured out how to keep someone from being a gullible rube.
- EssentialWorkingMom - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:26 am:
The media needs. To. Do. Better. Full stop.
- Dotnonymous - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:27 am:
I’m not involved…I’m just here to watch the lynching…is not an excuse.
- Dotnonymous - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:34 am:
This violent treasonous attempt to overthrow the government was not spontaneous.
A planned insurrection is distinct from a riot…a critical distinction…indeed.
- Commisar Gritty - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:38 am:
@Hashtag
So if your boss catches you on TV at a superspreader event, they have no right to protect their other staff by forcing you to self isolate for 2 weeks or canning you. Also, and this may come as a shock here, it is against almost every company’s interests to violently overthrow their government.
I’m going out on a limb here and guessing you use the quote about the tree of liberty requiring watering about twice a week, that fair?
- Conservative in Illinois - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:39 am:
- TheInvisibleMan - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 10:42 am:
Will County board member Debbie Kraulidis also went to the riot, even posting a live video of herself when she was back in her hotel room at 5pm.
Just curious - do you support the doxing Kraulidis is going through, and do you agree she should resign from her county board seat because she attended the rally?
- Homebody - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:42 am:
The security researchers who managed to access and download the Parler archives have done a massive service for our country. Never have we had so much contemporaneous evidence of exactly what happened at an event like this. Anyone who attempts to whitewash it in the future can just be shown any of the hundreds of videos taken by the insurrectionists themselves, and hear their own words.
- JS Mill - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:53 am:
=More nonsense, “I don’t like you therefore you are racist”.=
Ok, maybe ask the klansman, nazis, and other white supremacists proudly represented at the cult rally.
I wonder what kind of rally they thought they were attending?
- Occasionally Moderated - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:56 am:
== I’m going out on a limb here and guessing you use the quote about the tree of liberty requiring watering about twice a week, that fair?==
Which was on the tee shirt McVeigh wore to the Murrah Building.
I noticed extremist buzz words in everyday peoples posts quite some time ago. It worried me then, worries me now.
“Tyrant” to describe a duly elected official of the people is one. My gosh what are we coming to.
- Hashtag - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:59 am:
* violently overthrow their government *
LOL, if that was the goal of everyone that went to the rally, it would have been done by nightfall. You are doing exactly what some on the right did over the summer - lumping everyone at a demonstration in with those who chose to be violent.
Rather than criticizing anyone for being at the rally, maybe try to answer the question of why 100,000 people felt the need to demonstrate in DC (with many times more sympathizers at home). Try answering with something other than “orange man bad”.
- SWIL_Voter - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 12:00 pm:
== do you support the doxing Kraulidis is going through==
Her home address and telephone number are listed publicly on the Will County Board website
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 12:03 pm:
===maybe try to answer the question of why 100,000 people felt the need===
Because either they believed a gigantic, total, easily disproven lie or they wanted the government overthrown.
- JS Mill - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 12:08 pm:
= why 100,000 people felt the need to demonstrate in DC=
I see you are a Trump University graduate of his crowd size estimating program.
Try more like 30,000
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 12:11 pm:
=== if that was the goal of everyone that went to the rally===
The insurrection at the Capitol was deemed a threat to the chain of leadership of the United States
Sweatshirts citing the date of “civil war” were printed and worn on the day, well ahead of the insurrection.
The goal of the rally was to “Stop the Steal”, a lie, and to rally to overturn the fair and free election.
This wasn’t some rally, it was like minded folks who wanted an election overturn by all means, literally, as the President of the United States talked of marching to the Capitol and calling out his own VP during an insurrection while that VP was being ushered… twice… to safety.
This rally was never about the peaceful transfer of power. It was about stopping democracy and “celebrating” that stopping… “Stopping the Steal”
Enough of “good people who…”
They knew what they wanted, their voices heard against democracy.
- skeptic - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 12:27 pm:
I think most of the comments are missing the point. It’s not whether protest alone is permissible. That’s beyond debate. It’s why the newspaper chose to publish an article focusing on those individuals rather than the far more newsworthy instances of law enforcement participating actively in violent insurrection.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 12:32 pm:
Thanks, skeptic. That’s the whole point of this post. People see what they want to see.
- James the Intolerant - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 12:39 pm:
I had a Naples Daily News subscription where they ran a similar article like it was a nice little outing for some locals and did not address what happened at the Capitol. I cancelled my subscription.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 1:03 pm:
The sub-story to the insurrection will seemingly be the law enforcement and military backgrounds of the attendees and looking at what that means to the oaths taken and how the falsehoods that led to wrongly felt beliefs as facts led to the storming of the Capitol, defying their own oaths.
This belief in a central figure over the constitution, truth, democracy and the law is how far we’ve fallen.
- Jocko - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 2:00 pm:
As others have stated, these rally defenders (and attendees) are being too cute by half.
At best, the purpose of the rally was to ’stop the steal’ (despite no such thing having taken place). At worst, it was an attempt to subvert our government. To me, ‘kinda insurrection’ is like ‘kinda pregnant’
- M - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 2:12 pm:
Why does the GOP continue refusing to punish the president for what he did?
- Dotnonymous - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 2:20 pm:
No defense of sedition and treason exists…none.
Back off or suffer the consequences…they shall.
- Dotnonymous - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 2:28 pm:
“- Hashtag - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 11:59 am:
* violently overthrow their government *
LOL, if that was the goal of everyone that went to the rally, it would have been done by nightfall.”
Who made that claim?…wait…it was you…trying to put your words in others mouths…poorly.
You’re argument is made from straw…unartfully.
- Lincoln Lad - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 2:52 pm:
If their faces are seen in the Capitol film… they’ll be found out. If their phones were on, the investigators will find out if they were in the Capitol. I trust this investigation will be extremely thorough. I’m sick of any effort to soft pedal what happened by the conservative media. That needs to stop… it’s part of what has put us in this situation.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 4:09 pm:
===Tew, a corrections officer at Hill Correctional Center, and a friend, Correctional Officer Lee Gabbert===
Sounds like Correctional Officer Lee Gabbert has a lot of reason to be unhappy with his friend for speaking to a journalist about the “just for fun” attendance they had at the “stop the steal” rally.
I don’t think either of these two State employees are aware of the content of the Code of Personal Conduct implemented by the Rauner Administration which could very well serve as grounds for discipline and termination. There are times when Capitol Fax commenters may resemble a howling mob, but these two could face some serious consequences all because of boasting to a local news paper.
For anyone’s reference there are several points that could more than likely be applied to our two fine public servants.
https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/doit/tmpPersonnel/Documents/4Policies/Code%20of%20Personal%20Conduct.pdf
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 4:14 pm:
===The Revolution Will Not be Instagrammed ===
If Gil Scott Heron were with us today, I think he would lose his mind over what happened last Wednesday for a lot of reasons.
- MyTwoCents - Friday, Jan 15, 21 @ 4:17 pm:
Hashtag, that’s a spurious argument. There’s countless examples throughout history of people believing things that are false or just flat out propaganda. Trump’s “Stop the Steal” solely to soothe his own damaged ego is just another example of that. The fact that large number of Americans believed that speaks a lot about them. The fact that people feel the need to 1) celebrate protesting and 2) violently attack the US Government over a fictional reason is disgusting. Nobody should be happy about their part in this farce.