Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System by Ryan J. Reilly (2023) | Book Review
Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System by Ryan J. Reilly Genres: History, Non-Fiction
Original Publication Date: 2023
Source: I purchased this book
Goodreads
Find the Author: Goodreads, Amazon
Sedition Hunters: The attack on the Capitol building following the 2020 election was an extraordinarily large and brazen crime. Conspiracies were formed on social media in full public view, the law-breakers paraded on national television with undisguised faces, and with outgoing President Donald Trump openly cheering them on. A mass of online tipsters–“sedition hunters”–have mobilized, simultaneously providing the FBI with valuable intelligence and creating an ethical dilemma. Who gets to serve justice? How can law enforcement still function as a pillar of civil society? As the foundations of our government are questioned, the FBI and Department of Justice are the first responders to a crisis of democracy and law that threatens to spread, and fast.
Table of Contents
Sedition Hunters
After the terrorist attack at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the FBI was overwhelmed.
This book details how members of the public started to help identify the January 6th terrorists. These various individuals and groups became known as “sedition hunters.”
The FBI
They already had thousands of other cases they were investigating before January 6th.
The FBI had been warned that there might be a violent attack on the government on January 6th, egged on by the narcissistic President who simply could not tolerate losing the election.
There were thousands of participants in the attack on the Capitol. The FBI’s technology was hopelessly outdated and made it difficult to identify those who entered the Capitol and those who violently assaulted police and others:
To keep up with twenty-first-century threats, the FBI needs to beef up its tech teams. But as a government employer, they can’t compete with the salaries that tech companies can offer.
Another severe problem for this “elite” law enforcement agency:
SOME FBI MEMBERS DON”T BELIEVE THAT JANUARY 6TH WAS A CRIME BECAUSE THEY SUPPORT TRUMP.
This is the BEST video I have seen about sedition hunting groups.
You will see one of the online sleuths (her identity is hidden) and the author of this book discussing the online sleuth community:
Citizen Sleuths
There have been online sleuthing communities for decades. The most famous is probably Websleuths.
But had been no crime that could compare to January 6th.
Many online sleuths were determined to identify these criminals.
They noticed how overwhelmed the FBI was and they decided to help.
They do this because they believe it is necessary. They don’t get paid.
They spend thousands of hours scouring January 6th footage and use facial recognition software to possibly identify suspects.
It was indeed lucky that many of the rioters did NOT wear face masks!
They also use many other methods to track down these criminals.
One of them using a dating platform to track down some of the men involved!
Here is a typical tweet from the Sedition Hunters group:
There are multiple accounts on Twitter and other social media doing this. This really helped the FBI to identify suspects.
Word about the various “sedition hunter” groups grew.
This video from October 2021 shows the author of this book and how he came to write it:
This was posted in December 2021:
This was posted by CBS Mornings on the one-year anniversary of the attack:
Final Analysis
This is an absolutely wonderful book, even though I had to grit my teeth throughout because it made me so ANGRY.
Ryan J. Reilly was a major reporter on the January 6th attack for NBC News. He became very interested in the various ways the J6 attackers were caught.
This book goes into detail about the various groups helping the FBI, and the author also spoke to some of the January 6th defendants and also some police officers who were viciously attacked.
You also find out why the FBI and other government entities need their technological capabilities completely overhauled.
Further Reading and Viewing
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