Florida now has the lead in a category no state in the U.S. wants to be first in: Most arrests tied to the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
The Sunshine State has been the location for the arrests of 43 people who were later charged in connection with the deadly siege in Washington, D.C., according to analysis of the Justice Department’s compilation of Capitol breach cases by the Orlando-area tv news station Spectrum News. Texas and Pennsylvania are tied for second-most arrests with 42 each. Six states — Mississippi, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming — have seen no related arrests. A total of 453 people have been charged thus far in the Jan. 6 violence.
Florida and Texas are both conservative states where former president Donald Trump enjoyed great support. It was Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol building on January 6, seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in last November’s presidential election.
Of greater concern to some is the fact that Florida leads all states in arrests of individuals with ties to two far-right groups — the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys — that were active in storming the Capitol building.
Experts told USA Today there are several potential explanations for the high number of arrests in Florida tied to the Insurrection. An obvious reason is that Florida is relatively close to Washington, D.C. in comparison to Western states. There are also more active chapters of some extremist groups in Florida and has a large number of vocal MAGA supporters spread across the sprawling state. In fact, one observer views Florida’s scattered network of extremists mirrors the gathering in Washington on January 6.
Here’s what Andrew Mines, a research fellow with George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told USA Today:
“We see a little bit in Florida of everything we saw at the Capitol itself. You see local chapters of those groups, of the Proud Boys, of the Oath Keepers. You see rallies put on by QAnons. You see other, less organized, less networked, activity that’s difficult to put a finger on. It’s really fractured.”
