Capitol Building West Side 1.6.2021 Part 1

This was taken at 1:30:47 p.m. It had begun seeming more hectic after an officer (or officers, since it cut away a lot) began hitting people with a stick. Even after they'd backed away (and had not been being combative before), he kept hitting at one person with that stick, & at some point it appears the stick was tossed back. There had already been some tear gas sprayed, but I believe this is before they set off tear gas "bombs" that could be smelled and felt at quite a distance. Nobody I witnessed had been struggling with any of the officers, but a few had gotten up close and done things like waving their flags above them.

Up on the scaffolding to the left, there were people with megaphones, often trying to encourage the crowd to "move forward", "close in" or "close the gap", but most of the crowd ignored them.

After the physical abusiveness from the officers began, some people in the crowd further back became irate at what they were witnessing, as can be heard. Very few people in that huge crowd were willing to go up toward the front, and even the crowd behind the police line were mostly milling around and talking, or at times someone would begin a chant that everyone else would take up.

Lots of noise, especially from people with megahorns, sirens and shofars, plus yelling, but not violence, and certainly not rioting.