Capitol Rioters Undone by the Selfie

Image Courtesy of CBSnews.com

Image Courtesy of CBSnews.com

Rohan King Jr., Staff Writer

On Jan. 6, Joe Biggs, former army sergeant, now Proud Boys lieutenant led his subordinates against the capitol to riot, destroy, and desecrate the capitol building in an attempt to disrupt the counting the electoral college votes for the next president of the United States.

Yesterday, Biggs and his group re-lived that day in court as video and photographic evidence of their crimes were presented during the hearing, evidence that was ironically provided by Biggs himself, through selfies and snaps taken the day of the riot.

According to the New York Times, the government reviewed records from 1,600 electronic devices along with more than 210,000 tips. These tips were made up of videos and photos from social media. One rioter posted a selfie on his Facebook page with the caption, “I just wanted to incriminate myself lol”.

Biggs himself is guilty of the same bravado, a video of Biggs shows him putting on a mask at the last minute to hide his face, only to pull it down and shout, “This is awesome!”.

The majority of video evidence used to prosecute the Proud Boy members was filmed by the accused themselves.

Even before the riot took place Biggs made a post that incited violence, claimed that the presidential election was fraudulent, and even tried to raise funds for equipment needed for the “war” to come.

Biggs even announced the exact date and time of the riot on Dec. 29 to his Proud Boy buddies stating that “Jan. 6 is [going to] be epic”.

Joe Biggs is facing years in prison and was indicted last month on charges of conspiracy and destruction of government property and a potential ban from all social media platforms. Official sentencing has not yet occurred, but Joe Biggs remains in custody.