| UNFAIR PARK | Many Texans attended the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. Samuel Corum/Getty Images A year after the Jan. 6 insurrection, Texas still has the second most alleged Capitol rioters. LONE STAR SHAME BY PATRICK STRICKLAND I 44 t was a big, angry crowd, and those in it had come from all over the country, Texas included. They had the same goal in mind: to keep then-President Donald Trump in office. At noon on Jan. 6, 2021, the outgoing president launched into a fiery speech. Much like he had for the previous two months, he insisted that the November 2020 presidential vote had been rigged against him. He decried “hoaxes and lies” and “a fake election.” He told his followers Vice President Mike Pence could send the results back to the states to be recertified. Around an hour after Trump started speaking, he told the crowd, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” Hun- dreds of Trump supporters, many of them linked to militia groups and the ultra-na- tionalist Proud Boys outfit, had already headed down to the U.S. Capitol. Some were armed with makeshift weapons. Others brought with them zip-ties, ostensibly to kidnap politicians. Outside the U.S. Capitol, flags fluttered against the grey sky. Then, the riot erupted. When they raided the U.S. Capitol, they tore through barri- cades, smashed windows, and traded blows with police officers. Clouds of tear gas floated above. “Gas, gas, gas,” someone shouted through a megaphone. Nicholas DeCarlo had trekked some 1,300 miles from his hometown of Burle- son, around 20 minutes south of Fort Worth. He’d dressed for the occasion: His hair was parted and slicked back, and he wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “MT Media,” shorthand for “Murder the Media.” Meanwhile, some in the mob attacked Capitol police officers. Others paraded up and down the halls of the building. Some smashed windows. One flew a Confederate flag as he walked around the corridor. A few even made their way into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, pausing for photos. DeCarlo also posed for photos, court re- cords show. Along with Nick Ochs, a Hawaii resident and member of the far-right Proud Boys group, DeCarlo took a snapshot with the now infamous “QAnon Shaman,” an Arizona- based conspiracy theorist who wore a horned helmet and fur hat and rioted shirtless. On a YouTube livestream video, he celebrated. “As we’ve been saying all day, we came here to stop the steal,” he said. “We did it.” with two other North Texans and celebrated the U.S. Capitol riot online. (She’s in a federal prison camp in Bryan for the next two months.) Luke Coffee, the Dallas actor who al- legedly beat a police officer with a crutch. Mark Middleton, the Cooke County man who reportedly attacked police and is now running for the Texas Legislature. (When the Observer asked Middleton why he was running earlier this year, he said only that “Texas needs true patriots in the House.”) A year out from the riot, more than 700 Y people have been charged over the Jan. 6 vi- olence, and Texas has the second highest number of alleged Capitol rioters, as of late December. Florida leads the pack with 80, but Texas racked up 66. The FBI’s ou probably know some of their names. Jenna Ryan, the Frisco real es- tate broker who took a private plane >> p6 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 JANUARY 6–12, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
