Rioters must be held accountable

Your article of Jan. 18 titled "D.C. insiders planned rallies that led to Capital riot" quotes some far-right organizations as not having any idea that the violence we saw on Jan. 6 would occur. Have their heads been buried in the sand?

The rhetoric that Trump has used the past four years and especially since the election and particularly on the morning of Jan. 6 has done nothing except incite the type of behavior that was exhibited at the Capitol.

Ali Alexander was quoted "Stop the Steal" and "1776 is always an option." 1776 was a revolution against a monarch that was ruling from across the ocean. Jan. 6 was a revolution against a democracy that conducted "the most secure election in the history of this country."

There was no steal. The votes were counted, recounted, and recounted again and then certified by people who had voted for Trump and that Trump had put on the bench. If this election had been stolen, don't these people realize that the Democrats would have had an overwhelming landslide in both the House and the Senate? That did not happen. In fact, the Democrats lost seats in the House.

Yes, protests against our government are protected by the Constitution, but a protest does not require weapons, only an insurrection does. And this was definitely an insurrection. Those responsible should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

Deborah Collander

Naperville