THE 1954 ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL AND THE WOMAN WHO LED IT
This month the Supreme Court could very well make a ruling that upends the Jan. 6 prosecutions. In 1954 an attack left 5 Senators shot, but Democrats pardoned the shooters!
Dolores "Lolita" Lebrón Sotomayor led the attack that left 5 Congressmen shot. Over the objections of the FBI and Republicans, Jimmy Carter would pardon her and her fellow shooters.
The only person who was shot on January 6th during the oddest insurrection in history was unarmed. A guard who died months later was written up by the press as being beaten to death with a fire extinguisher at the Capitol. That turned out to be a fabricated story. One would think insurrectionists would go into the mountains and form guerilla groups to carry out their revolt, not return home and go back to work. I have read several military reports on the “insurrection” and was surprised to discover the military considers the events that day a first amendment protest. Not an insurrection. Don’t believe me? This has been suppressed by the media:
Here’s why the Pentagon described the Capitol Hill riots as ‘First Amendment protests’
When is a riot not a riot?
Next we have a subscriber only newsletter from the NY Times that was not published in the newspaper:
Why Jan. 6 Wasn’t an Insurrection
Jan. 12, 2024
Note, first, that the 14th Amendment disqualifies anyone who engaged “in insurrection or rebellion against the same” — with “the same” referring back to “the Constitution of the United States” in the prior clause. This wording tracks with my own understanding: What transforms a political event from a violent riot or lawless mob (which Jan. 6 plainly was) to a genuinely insurrectionary event is the outright denial of the authority of the existing political order and the attempt to establish some alternative order in its place.
There was no such equivalent declaration when the QAnon Shaman ascended to the Senate rostrum; no serious claim of military or political authority made on behalf of the assembled mob, no declaration of a dissolved Congress and a new Trumpist Reich. Had there been — had, say, one of Trump’s aides rushed to the Capitol and announced that Congress was disbanded and that President Trump was declaring a state of emergency and would henceforth be ruling by fiat — then the riot would have been transformed into an insurrectionary coup d’état. But nothing like that happened: The riot did not culminate in an attempt to depose the Congress; it dissolved before lawful authority instead, remaining a mob until the end.
But one can abuse the powers of the presidency for one’s own political benefit without it being an insurrection or rebellion under the terms of the 14th Amendment. Woodrow Wilson engineered legislation that led to the imprisonment of a political rival; that was wicked and abusive, but it was not insurrection. Richard Nixon covered up an election-year criminal conspiracy against the Democratic Party; that was abusive, but it was not an insurrection. Trump’s scheme to manufacture supposed proof of voter fraud, had it found many more cooperators among Republicans, would have been worse — but “worse than Watergate” is not in the text of the 14th Amendment.
NY Times opinion piece on Jan 6
What led up to the shooting event in 1954 that Democrats would later declare was not an insurrection?
Over the course of four days in 1950, there were several uprisings in Puerto Rico that were led and organized by Pedro Albizu Campos, the president of the Nationalist Party. Along with staging uprisings in eight different towns (Arecibo, Jayuya, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Peñuelas, Ponce, San Juan, and Utado), there were attempts to assassinate both Governor Luis Muñoz Marín of Puerto Rico and President Harry S. Truman of the United States.
Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, who were living in the United States, made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President Truman at Blair House on November 1st, 1950.
We are talking about years of insurrections and attempted murders. Including an attempt on the Presidents life! The group had previously shot up another building as well.
September 06, 1979
President Carter today commuted the sentences of four Puerto Rican Nationalists to time served. These individuals have been serving prison terms for Federal convictions stemming from their participation in shootings that occurred at the Blair House in 1950 and the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954.
The four individuals are Oscar Collazo, 67; Rafael Cancel Miranda, 49; Irving Flores Rodriguez, 54; and Lolita Lebron, 59.
The President concurred with the judgment of the Secretary of State that the release of these four prisoners would be a significant humanitarian gesture and would be viewed as such by much of the international community.
The four prisoners will be released from Federal prison immediately upon completing routine administrative discharge procedures for their release.
A note found in Lolita Lebrón's purse after the attack stated that the attack was "aimed at making the Puerto Rican plea heard throughout the world, as no one seemed to pay attention to the sufferings of her people." She reiterated this statement years later from prison, stating, "Attacking the U.S. in its own heart, its own entrails, was Puerto Rico's last recourse... because the island could not arm itself... and confront the U.S. in a traditional war. We made our war the only way we're able to."
Castro and the Cuban government hailed the release of the insurrectionists.
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Behind the paywall: The Puerto Rican Independence Movement including a bombing campaign in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
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