Don’t hold your breath.
Jamaal Bowman [Dumbfuck-NY] attempted to delay a House vote yesterday by seeting off a firearm alarm. Sane people are getting pretty vocal about charging him. Dimocrats seem to be pretty quiet on the subject of Bowman.
Jamaal himself, however, doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.
Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open. I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door.
There are some problems with that claim.
Most obviously, one does not open doors by tripping fire alarms; a school principal who oversaw fire drills for ten years ought to know that. Next, the doors are marked for emergency use only (at first). Then there’s the inconvenient — for Bowman –fact that those are second floor doors.
Second floor doors all seem to open onto balconies, not stairs. I haven’t seen the Cannon building in person in decades, so if someone does know of some second floor exterior stairs, let us know in comments. So it seems extremely unlikely that those doors are normally used to get to the Capitol building in a hurry for floor votes.
As for the “emergency” signs on the doors, video reportedly shows Bowman tearing them off. Vandalism.
And finally, rather than exit through those “usual” doors and rapelling to the ground or whatever, after pulling the wall alarm, Bowman ran away and downstairs to the first floor where he exited the building.
Now, Jamaal’s a Dim, and DC and the DOJ are run by his fellow Dims, so it’s not bloody likely he’ll face any charges unless enough people get angry enough. But let’s take a look at some charges he could face if he had been wearing a MAGA hat.
- DC Code § 22–303: Malicious burning, destruction, or injury of another’s property; misdemeanor, fine and six months in jail.
- DC Code § 22–1319: False alarms and false reports; misdemeanor, good for a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.
- 18 U.S. Code § 1361: Misdemeanor destruction of government property; good for a year in federal prison.
- 18 U.S. Code § 1038: False information and hoaxes; felony good for a fine and five years in prison.
- 18 U.S. Code § 1512(c)(2): Obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so; twenty years in prison, and a fine.
Yep, if he were a Republican private citizen, he would be facing thousands in fines, and decades in prison. 18 U.S. Code § 1361 and 18 U.S. Code § 1512 are what the feds have been using against J6ers.
1 small note where you are wrong. Of commercial buildings where I have spent my life as a builder/contractor the fire doors that are latched/locked with a mag-lock (Google that up if you want) that mag-lock IS tied to the fire alarm by UBC law. Fire Alarm trigger = mag-locks drop power. Not that I’m saying this liar has a chance in hell of using the excuse I also read where he was a school principle of some grades so he would know exactly what the fire alarm does when pulled. He did this on purpose to evacuate the building and forestall the vote. What he did is a clear crime on a number of points.
I didn’t really think about mag-locks, but given the time delays the signs mention those doors must be on mags. But… those doors have push bars which trigger the alarm and open the doors. If that’s all he wanted, why pull the wall alarm?