A July 4th week chat with my J6 neighbor

My neighbor facing federal J6 charges has an upside down flag hanging from his house. I took a picture. We had a discussion. It was gross; but I also think it was good.

I’ve blacked out the address on this house. And I’m being deliberately vague on its location. I don’t dox people.

About a year ago, the FBI swarmed this house in Lakeland’s Lake Morton neighborhood. Agents arrested my round-the-block neighbor Brian Boule for his alleged role in the January 6th Capitol Lynch Mob. Boule is awaiting trial, tentatively set for February, on multiple federal charges — including “civil disorder” and “entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.”

Boule was indicted as part of a group of five men. In fairness to him, the feds seem to consider him the least violent of the five — and he was not charged with some of the more serious counts of violence other J6ers face.

But if you expected him to show any remorse or reflection or respect for his fellow citizens and neighbors as July 4th approaches, well, note the desecrated flag and J6 banner hanging from his home in one of Lakeland’s more civically vibrant neighborhoods.

You can get the background on the upside down flag as a J6 symbol from many sources. Here’s one.

I want to be clear: I’m the proud son of a combat wounded Vietnam veteran and grandson of a soldier who fought in the hedgerows at Normandy. But unless it violates the terms of his pre-trial release somehow, my Capitol Lynch Mob neighbor should fly his flag however he wants without interference from authorities. I would fight for his right to do so. Indeed, I hope he keeps it up for all to see. It’s good for decent citizens to see how bad citizens declare themselves openly.

Likewise, I can publicly, peacefully share my contempt for what that desecrated flag represents — the unneighborly insistence on injecting cruel, anti-social, J6-style disorder into our shared lives and spaces.

That’s what I had in mind when I snapped the picture.

A useful chat

It just so happened that a woman was emerging from the house as I was taking the picture from the public sidewalk. I assume she’s Boule’s wife, but I’ve never met her or Boule before and have no way to be sure.

“Why are you taking a picture of my flag?” she asked.

“Because it’s upside down,” I answered.

A general discussion ensued in which a man I assume is Boule joined in. He certainly acted like he was Boule.

It wasn’t the most edifying back-and-forth ever. The man I assume is Boule called me a “pussy” several times; and they both instinctively made fun of my stuttering like 8-year-olds would. I referred to Boule’s indicted criminality and asked if he wanted to hit me. He’s a physically large MAGA arrested for taking part in a violent political lynch mob; and he was calling me a “pussy.” So I thought it prudent to assess his intentions. But he did not want to hit me; and in truth, the whole brief encounter was strangely civil and useful.

Nobody really raised their voice or behaved in a physically threatening way. I obviously didn’t (and wouldn’t) trespass their property. And I learned some things about them.

1. They knew who I was. And they had read the article I wrote about Boule’s arrest last June. They made reference to it. It seemed to have stung them.

2. The woman seemed deeply annoyed that she sees me walk by her house every day. I do this because I work from home and like to stretch my legs. The house is on my little route, as it would be if J6ers did not live there and fly desecrated flags. She seemed to think I was singling out their house. I’m not. Before noticing the desecrated flag, I don’t think I’ve ever even slowed down in front of their place. I’ve certainly never had any interaction with them beyond the article I wrote. In reality, Lake Morton is the most pleasantly walkable neighborhood in our city. I’ve lived here 25 years and know many of my neighbors of all different political and social persuasions. I enjoy seeing and chatting with them in the course of the day. Perhaps the Boules (assuming it was them) would be less inclined to announce to their neighbors how much they hate their country if they had a little more friendly interaction with the citizens who live amongst them in a very politically and socially diverse neighborhood.

“What have you done with your life?”: the oddly needy psychology of J6/MAGA citizenship

I find it interesting that the Boules (assuming it was them) became aggrieved that I would take a picture of their flag. They publicly displayed it, tacked it to their house deliberately, to make a public point to their neighbors about our shared country.

They wanted to send a public message. They wanted to provoke; and someone from the public noticed and obliged. Why should that annoy them?

I would have thought the woman, knowing who I was, would have said to me, “Hell yeah, lib, look at my flag. That’s the future. Wait’ll Trump beats Sleepy Joe and pardons all the J6ers, what are you gonna do then, pussy?”

I would have said: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯and walked on.

But that’s not how it went down. How it went down had the emotionally vulnerable vibe of a middle school cafeteria. These are actual quotes from the guy I assume is Boele, in addition to “pussy.”

“Nobody likes you.”

“You don’t know me.”

“What have you done with your life?”

And as I was walking away, the woman said something like yeah, you’re time is coming. That was the closest thing I heard to a threat, so I turned around to clarify:

“What’s that you said?”

She very quickly amended it to: “People are gonna know what kind of criminal you are.”

I had referred to her husband’s criminal charges and she was kinda riffing off that. So I did not take that as a threat. I took that as her realizing she said something she shouldn’t have and was covering it quickly. Also, I’m not a criminal. And I’ve never taken part in mob that tried to lynch American representative government under a desecrated flag

So I just smiled and set off for home.

The big questions

But what if Trump wins again and pardons all his Capitol Lynch Mob participants?

Does that give Brian Boule and his wife (assuming I was talking to them) legal, social, and political cover to come whip my ass — or worse — in revenge for writing about them?

I doubt it; but who knows?

He’s a big dude — a lot bigger than me. I’d probably get the worst of it.

In a more general sense, I think it’s important to remember just how anti-social and juvenile Trump and his J6 MAGAs have repeatedly chosen to behave. Their ascendance and the impunity of that behavior is certainly on the ballot in November.

Indeed, the schoolyard joy of calling a neighbor a “pussy” for noticing an indicted lynch mob participant’s provocatively desecrated flag is perhaps the core instinct of the dominant faction of the Republican party. That’s why I joined it — to try to confront that instinct as best I can from the “inside.”

And what if Sleepy Joe rouses himself; and that instinct is defeated for another four years?

Well, I’m a radical believer in reconciliation and community. But perhaps nothing tests that commitment like a lynch mob.

How does society reckon with its lynch mobs?

America has never really reckoned with the full scope of its lynch mobs and pogroms. I doubt that it can.

It’s likely that millions of “respectable” Americans took part in these hideous things over time — from Atlanta to Tulsa to Chicago to Ocoee to Rosewood to Claude Neal. They acted at all layers of the mob — from actual hands-on murder to the souvenir-grabbing periphery and all the degrees in between.

99.9999999 percent of American lynch mob participants went completely unpunished — either legally or socially. They went on to build generational wealth and social power. As I wrote near the end of my book Age of Barbarity:

The recent descendants of torturers and murderers and mob vigilantes walk Palatka’s streets today, just like they do many other streets in Florida and the country. They mingle often and pleasantly with the recent descendants of those Republicans and sinners that made the best targets.

The January 6 Capitol Lynch Mob was the first massive, highly public, lynch mob spectacle America has seen in multiple generations, probably since the 1930s. (Different historians may have different takes on that.)

It sought to lynch American representative government, not a specific person, except maybe Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. But it was lynch mob — or perhaps a pogrom. I wrote about that here, just a couple days after it happened.

January 6th is the first lynch mob/pogrom in American history to see participants charged and punished at some scale — even accounting for the many prosecutorial challenges of punishing a mob — and Supreme Court’s recent dismissal of a class of charge.

But the individual accountability that law is capable of delivering will never match the enormity of the mob’s collective behavior and intent.

There are very brave police officers dead today — American heroes, who fought for American self-government, who literally fought for my citizenship with their bodies — who would be alive if not for the lynch mob Brian Boule is accused of taking part in.

Other officers are maimed for life.

Still another brave police officer, who saved countless lives by righteously killing Ashli Babbitt with a single skilled shot as she was leading the lynch mob at its most dangerous moment, is considered a mortal MAGA enemy, a mortal enemy of the upside down flag.

Violence, truth, reconciliation

So how do we, as a community, as a neighborhood, reckon with all that, under either scenario November offers us? Do we reckon with it at all?

Is it just easier and better to let it alone? Easier, yes.

Better? I don’t think so.

For me, the gross, unpleasant, but strangely civil personal discussion I had with the Boules (assuming it was them), is helpful.

Our humanity was in the same physical space. I learned something about them. Maybe they learned something about me. Maybe something good comes of it — maybe not. Brian Boule isn’t going to prison for the rest of his life for what he’s accused of. He may not see jail at all. I’m not a lawyer or a prosecutor. I’m just his neighbor.

I think it is good they heard face-to-face my civic disapproval of their anti-civic behavior and displays. They can’t say no neighbor has told them. And they have to decide what to do about that — whether Trump wins or not.

At the same time, I also heard something in “You don’t know me” — a humanity that did not want to be defined entirely by taking part in the Capitol Lynch Mob, upside down flag notwithstanding.

Are they willing to do anything about that?

In any event, I’ll continue walking by their house. It’s on my route. I have no need to antagonize them and won’t. Maybe they’ll call me pussy; maybe they won’t.

But at least now we’ve met.