Washington, DC – A shudder from the prison window met the cheers of a small group waiting outside.
The sign has become an almost nightly ritual at the DC Central Detention Facility. As the sun begins to set, those imprisoned inside try to wave the lights as a signal to their followers.
But this caused an uproar among about a dozen people who gathered on the street on Sunday, despite the freezing temperatures.
It was the night of the fourth anniversary of January 6, 2021, when thousands of people attacked the United States Capitol in a certain area. amazing experiment to topple Donald Trump's 2020 election loss.
For the past 900 days or so, a small group has been rallying to show support for those caught up in the riots, some of whom are incarcerated in DC.
However, insiders' sentiment was high, largely due to Trump's victory in the November election. It was a change in the already existing political system that led the candidate back to his 2020 victory.
His second term starts in just two weeks. As part of his talks, Trump promised to pardon those convicted four years ago, in the attack on the Capitol.
“The force in here today was amazing,” said Dominic Box, who was found guilty of trespassing and disorderly conduct.
His words were broadcast by assistants outside, who held a mobile phone to the microphone.
Box expressed optimism for Trump's inauguration. “We expect that the pardons will decrease, and by the end of the week,” he said.
“Many men, including myself, started packing our goods,” he added. “Each of us will be walking out of these doors for the last time.”
At least 1,583 people has been charged in connection with the incident on January 6, 2021, according to the US Department of Justice.
About 608 of them were charged with assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police. This includes 174 people charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
'Political prisoners' or terrorists?
In many ways, to pardon the guilty according to January 6 would be a victory for Trump.
The Republican leader has been claiming, without evidence, that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him due to voter fraud.
Trump, too, has faced legal trouble for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
In a federal lawsuit in Georgia and another in Washington, DC, he was charged with leading a conspiracy to disrupt the 2020 election. The DC case has also been dismissed based on his election.
But Mr Trump dismissed the allegations as a “political witch hunt”. Compared to the current situation, he described the sentences handed down to the defendants on January 6 – especially for non-violent offenders – as unjust.
Often, he referred to the accused as “political prisoners” and “prisoners”, saying that his administration would begin to review their cases “in the first hour” of his second term.
Trump's speech highlights a variety of issues that took place on January 6.
Trump supporters dismissed the violence as a simple protest, while Democrats portrayed the violence as an act of violence, which occurred as lawmakers tried to secure the 2020 vote.
On Sunday, US President Joe Biden described the attack on January 6 as “a real threat to democracy”.
In a column for The Washington Post, Mr. Biden criticized Mr. Trump's efforts to reframe the attack on the U.S. Capitol as a patriotic move.
“Continuous efforts have been made to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day,” Biden wrote. “To describe it as a show that is about to end. This has not happened.”
Some right-wing politicians and unions also criticized efforts to downplay the attack on January 6.
For example, the Society for the Rule of Law, which was founded by lawyers and judges who do not obey the law, has said that the severity of the war in the United States Capitol warrants a harsher punishment.
“(Trump's) promise to pardon criminals is a violation of the law, and we have condemned them in the strongest possible terms,” the group said.
'I hope he leaves me'
But for the protesters who gathered outside the DC jail, there was no question that the charges were fraught with injustice.
Many have criticized the authorities for wanting to keep the riots on January 6. Others have also said that the violence of a few people has been used to smear all the people who were there.
The authorities have done it again and again he protested that statement.
In his phone calls, Box repeated his repeated claims that no Capitol Police officers had died as a result of the attack.
Capitol Police, however, still attribute five deaths to the riots: One police officer, Brian Sicknick, was beaten to death a day after suffering two strokes, and four others died by suicide in the following months.
However, Box framed his actions on January 6 as an act of free speech, protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
“None of those who are being prosecuted on January 6, whether they are in jail or on the FBI list or walking free today, have done nothing but do what is supposed to be protected by the First Amendment, respond to our complaints and hear our concerns around the world about the fact that the election was stolen. in 2020,” Box said.
Brandon Fellows, 30, was also charged in the incident on January 6. He spent almost three years in the DC jail, after prosecutors showed evidence that he entered the US Capitol through a broken window and smoked marijuana in the office of Senator Jeff Merkley.
He was later charged with contempt of court for rioting in court.
But Fellows was released on probation, which puts him on an 80km (50-mile) radius around Washington, DC. He participated in Sunday's protest outside the DC jail wearing a Make America Great Again hat, a sign of his continued support for Trump.
“I'm just hoping that (Trump) will drive me, so that I can leave and start my life,” Fellows said, adding that he wants to resume the lumber and chimney businesses he ran before the arrest.
'The rise of Donald Trump'
Night legs were first started by Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was shot by the Capitol Police while trying to climb through a broken window on January 6.
Nicole Reffitt has been one of the designers ever since. Her husband, Guy Reffitt, was the first defendant on January 6, 2022. After that, he moved to Washington, DC, from Texas to help other defendants in their trials.
“When you have the power of the United States government against you or your loved one, it's scary and scary,” he told Al Jazeera.
Guy Reffitt was convicted of disorderly conduct, obstructing law enforcement and remaining in a prohibited residence with a firearm.
A video from January 6 showed Reffitt, a member of the Texas Three Percenters, saying, “I just want to see (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi's head hit all of the king's steps on her way out.” He was sentenced to about seven years in prison.
I believe Trump's payback is just around the corner, Nicole Reffitt says politics interfered with justice in her husband's trial.
He and fellow protesters set up an “advent calendar” to mark the days until Trump's inauguration on January 20.
“I saw the facts and exaggerations used as facts and the DC judges who saw my husband as an extension of Donald Trump,” Reffitt said. “This is not how justice should be done in America.”