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Six months after the riot at the US Capitol, conservatives —
encouraged by former President Donald Trump — are spamming social
media with the alleged name of the police officer who shot Ashli
Babbitt.
On Wednesday, multiple top posts on a fringe far-right message
board called for “justice” for Babbitt and shared the alleged
name of her shooter. One post, which was one of the site’s most
popular threads of the last 24 hours with more than 3,000 likes,
called for the arrest of the officer.
One Twitter user shared the alleged name of Babbitt’s shooter on
Wednesday and questioned why he hasn’t been “tried or arrested”
yet, reaching 8,200 likes and nearly 3,000 retweets.
British talk show host Piers Morgan
wrote an article for the DailyMail published Wednesday in
which he claimed to know the identity of the shooter — though he
did not reveal it — and said the name must be released to the
public for the sake of “transparency,” no matter whether you
believe Babbitt was a “traitor or a patriot.”
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran with a
history of sharing far-right conspiracy theories like QAnon
online, was one of five people who died as a result of the
riot in Washington. During the riot, an officer shot Babbitt
in the left shoulder as she attempted to surge through a broken
window and pass into the Capitol building, according to
The New York Times.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to bring criminal
charges against the officer after it found in an investigation
that he did not violate Babbitt’s rights. Insider is not sharing
the name of the alleged officer, as it has not been
verified.
“The investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the
time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer
did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in
self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others
evacuating the House Chamber,” the DOJ wrote in a
statement.
Still, Babbitt has become a major symbol for the right, with
Republicans including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia
calling for “justice” for Babbitt’s death in a
speech on the House floor in May and Fox News host Tucker
Carlson demanding to
know who killed Babbitt in a June segment. As
Talia Lavin reported for New York Magazine, Babbitt is now
the “most visible” hero of the pro-Trump Capitol
insurrectionists.
The renewed online attention comes after Trump invoked Babbitt’s
name in a
four-word email to his supporters last Thursday: “Who killed
Ashli Babbitt?” In a press conference on Wednesday, the former
president again referenced Babbitt, falsely claiming that there
“were no guns in the Capitol except the gun that shot Ashli
Babbitt.”
On Tuesday, the six-month anniversary of the Capitol riot, Rep.
Paul Gosar of Arizona followed Trump by issuing a
letter “in remembrance” of Babbitt.
In response to the renewed interest in Babbitt’s death, many
Twitter users criticized conservatives for treating the rioter
like a martyr.
“Conservatives arguing that Ashli Babbitt was unjustly shot &
demanding the name of the officer who killed her confirms that
they believe the role of police is to murder Black people,” the
grassroots activist @BreeNewsome
wrote on Twitter.