I saw the video on Tucker showing the Capitol Police "escorting" The Shaman around the Capitol building. I saw the commentary that said that the video was exculpatory and I read statements from the DC police saying that it generally was not. What follows are a few thoughts about how it could possibly be a tresspass.
If you recall when Arbery was shot in Georgia that people went out of their way to point out that Arbery could NOT have been trespassing because nobody told him that he was not allowed in the property. Due to that, any attempts to seize him amounted to kidnapping.
With that in mind we have to ask the DC police if they ever *told* Shaman that he was trespassing. If he was never informed that he was to leave [now] then it can be argued, just like in the case of Arbery that he was NOT trespassing. Indeed if he was not told AND he was "escorted" around the building as the video showed, then he committed no crime and should never have been arrested, tried and imprisoned.
This is settled law. Ask any card counter and they will tell you that a trespass has not happened unless you've been told/asked to leave.
"Ahh..." you say. "How did he get into the building?"
Well that is a valid question. We know that in certain areas and certain points protestors were *let into the building*. I do not know if Shaman was a part of the crowd that met police resistance or if he was one of those who was let in. If he was a part of the latter, it *cannot* be argued that he knew that he was "trespassing". Remember that the Capitol is a pubic building. While some areas may be "off limits" access to the building is *not* closed to the public. There are regular protests and confrontations with members of congress. Therefore, the mere presence of a person in that building is *not* evidence of a crime.
With this in mind, a fair jury could have very well found Shaman not-guilty since by law they are supposed to weigh any doubt *in favor of the defendant*.
Alternately the situation could have been that Shaman entered the building in one of the waves that was let in. As he and others were wandering about trying to find the chambers, he ran across some other police. Hypothetically they said to him something along the lines of:
"You can't be in here."
If that happened then Shaman was obliged to leave. The Capitol Police are empowered agents and can declare a person trespassing. If Shaman said anything to the effect of "I'm not going anywhere" then at that moment he is trespassing. It doesn't matter if he was shown around the building. He was asked to leave by an appointed agent and refused.
That doesn't make him a violent insurrectionist.
It makes him liable for a misdemeanor trespass prosecution. That is all.
Again, going back to the card counter comparison. If the counter is asked to leave (trespassed) they don't have the option to say "well I'mma play the slot machines on the other side of the casino first..."
The last alternative (assuming he didn't breech barriers) is that he was wandering around, again looking for the chambers and encountered the police we see in the video. If they never said anything to the effect of "you can't be here, please leave now", then Shaman has no reason to believe he is trespassing and legally is not. Again, as established by law, you cannot be trespassing unless you have been informed you cannot be in a location.
If those police failed to "trespass" Shaman AND "escorted" him around, de-escalation technique or not, then there is no crime, the video is 100% exculpatory, Shaman should be freed immediately and sue for malicious prosecution and possible Civil Rights violations. If that video wasn't turned over to his lawyer and a jury was unable to view it, I believe there are criminal penalties in play.
So those are the possible scenarios I gather from the video. There are significant bits of information missing to make any one of them THE explanation. If any reader has that information please send along.
