Florida Keys couple’s arrest encouraging proof FBI still hunting down Jan. 6 rioters | Opinion
Former President Donald Trump, a Palm Beach resident, is not the only South Florida resident indicted recently for playing a role in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riots two and a half years ago.
This week, a Florida Keys couple became the latest to be arrested for taking part in the mayhem that ensued under the direction of Trump, a failed coup attempt by his followers.
Tuesday, Bryan Roger Bishop, 51, and his wife, Tonya, 47, were arraigned in federal court in Key West, accused of being part of that violent mob.
The FBI found its most recent suspects on their liveaboard vessel in Marathon. Pretty remote, but the feds still found them. Well done.
Still in pursuit
The arrests of the Bishops, so many months after the crime was committed, signals the depth, length and breadth of the federal government’s push to locate and prosecute anyone who stormed the Capitol. And they should. It sends the message that the rest of the country will not tolerate this insurrection from other Americans.
So far, more than 100 Floridians have been arrested for taking part; most are from Central or North Florida, and some are linked with extremist groups like Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
According to a Seton Hall University report, Florida had the sorry distinction of being No. 1 in the nation with 82 people charged in the insurrection — almost 12% — in the first year after the event. In addition, out of the 60 charged with conspiracy offenses during that time period, almost 50% were Floridians.
The unprecedented violent insurrectionists attempted to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. Lawmakers went into hiding; five people died.
How the Bishops avoided capture for so long is unclear. But they now are among the more than 1,000 people the FBI has relentlessly tracked down by dissecting police cam videos, security footage and photographs from that day and charged with crimes.
The FBI revealed Tuesday in federal documents that photos of the couple, sometimes hidden under knit caps, had been compared to their driver’s licenses in Washington State and shown to people who knew them for a positive ID.
What affiliation the Bishops had to any political or radical organization is unclear. Still, according to the federal indictment against them, they did some damage.
Assault charges
Bryan Bishop is accused of spraying a chemical irritant in the face of two Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department officers trying to contain the riot, leaving one of them temporarily blind in the middle of the chaos. Bishop faces several charges of assaulting police officers with a dangerous or deadly weapon, trespassing and engaging in violence in the Capitol.
The FBI said he was prominently seen inside the Capitol and remained there for 17 minutes.
Tonya Bishop was also photographed under a cap. She is accused of trespassing in the Capitol and faces charges of entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct in the Capitol, and parading “and demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.” She remained inside for 30 minutes, the documents say.
There should be no dispute that the Capitol riot was an attack on the foundations of American democracy. Charging those allegedly involved, including the Bishops, ensures that such lawlessness does not go unpunished.
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