“An Ohio pastor who … pushed against a police line on Jan. 6 was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday,” NBC News reported on October 5, 2022 (read story here).
He’s William Dunfee (with megaphone in photo below), and he was recorded telling rioters they were “taking our house,” and telling police officers the mob was taking over the Capitol steps.
Call himself a pastor all he wants, he’s no Christian, he’s a criminal. He’s also a fascist. He said, “Mister police officers, we want you to understand something. We want Donald Trump and if Donald Trump is not coming, we are taking our house.” That’s how fascists operate; he’s not entitled to do that in a democracy. His “wanting” for Trump to get another term isn’t how we choose presidents in this country, we do it with elections, and trying to overthrow the election with mob violence was an attack on the freedom of every American citizen who voted for Biden.
Dunfee told the mob, “This election has been stolen right out from underneath of our noses.” He can believe whatever he likes, but that doesn’t make it true. The election wasn’t stolen, nor are Democrats cannibals who eat little children, as QAnon claims and stupid people believe. I respect the freedom of thought and speech we cherish in this country, and will defend it even for idiots, but that doesn’t require me to have patience with idiots.
He also said elected officials “need to fear us” and demand “elected officials realize that we are no longer playing games.” He’s right about this not being a game, which became especially clear to him when FBI agents handcuffed him and led him away. Special kudos to the rioters who recorded the videos that helped authorities identify him.
Besides verbally inciting mob violence, “Dunfee and others” pushed a metal barricade into police officers, breaking through the police line, and occupied the Capitol steps but didn’t go inside. I can’t tell you how much prison time that should be worth; that’s up to the federal judges meting out punishment to Capitol rioters. But given that Dunfee’s been charged with felonies, incited rioters with his megaphone, and participated in physically assaulting the cops guarding the Capitol building, I’d guess based on what various judges have done in other cases that he’ll get something like 25 to 36 months if he’s convicted of these charges.
The authorities aren’t playing games, and I’m not in a mood to play games with these people either. They can rant all they want to, but they have no right to overthrow an election because their candidate didn’t win. That crosses the line.
I want to see Dunfee get prison time if he’s convicted. Although I think he’s a lousy preacher — real Christians are non-violent — I say let him minister to inmates while paying his debt to society. It might do them some good, and if he learns some humility from this, that’s good too.
