How did Rosanne Boyland die, and how has it been covered?
Remember 34-year-old Rosanne Boyland? She was one of the five people who died of various causes during or shortly after the January 6th Capitol demonstration (or “insurrection,” according to the left).
Why am I going into the story again at this point? The reason is that the January 6th Capitol incident continues to be used by the Biden administration as a justification for just about every crackdown on the right they can get away with. And what’s more, I recently had two discussions with close relatives, talks that made it very clear to me that both (highly intelligent) people have swallowed the January 6th MSM/Democrat narrative hook, line, and sinker and that it is still operating very forcefully in their political considerations. One person even said to me that, if January 6th hadn’t caused me to conclude by now how extremely dangerous the right is, I was a lost cause.
The edifice on which the rank-and-file Democrat’s perception of the meaning of January 6th is built is composed of thousands of bits of information, one piled on the other to create a very sturdy building indeed. To even begin to break it down would require showing the person a great deal of competing information, and that would require that the person have the motive and will to take the time to look at it. That doesn’t happen very often, and that’s why the MSM does what it does in order to set the narrative early and defend it against any later news that could undermine it.
The original story about the cause of Boyland’s death was that the marauding Trump-crazed crowd had stampeded and crushed her. But her autopsy results from last April indicted that she had actually died of an amphetamine overdose:
The D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday revealed that Roseanne Boyland, one of five people who died amid the Capitol riot, died from accidental “acute amphetamine intoxication”—instead of being crushed by the MAGA crowd as previously reported. The New York Times was the first to report on January that Boyland, a 34-year-old from Georgia who wanted to be a sobriety counselor, was seen in body-camera footage being trampled by rioters as her friend screamed for help.
Apparently Boyland fell amidst the crowd because of the drug reaction, and the crowd did not immediately realize what was happening, but it was the OD that killed her. However, if you were to poll most people on the street, I doubt the majority have ever heard of the autopsy results.
I also recently read claims that Boyland actually was beaten by a police officer and that this is shown in video. I offer that with a large caveat, however, because the assertion was advanced at Gateway Pundit, a source I don’t think it’s good to rely on. Also, I watched the video and can’t make head or tail of it, so I can’t determine whether the charge is true or not. What’s more, the autopsy made no observation of any wounds or bruises consistent with beating, as far as I know.
However, the news stirred up some curiosity in me about a related issue, which is how the MSM covered the Boyland autopsy results. When I did a search at the NY Times website, the most recent mention I could find there for Boyland was at the end of May (quite a while after the autopsy results were issued). The amphetamine overdose autopsy certainly wasn’t featured in any of the headlines listed, nor in the subtitles accompanying them. However, the stampede theory was heavily referenced in early headlines such as these:
[From January 15th]: “Videos Show How Rioter Was Trampled in Stampede at Capitol”
Rosanne Boyland died after losing consciousness in the crush of a pro-Trump mob as it surged against the police. Here’s how it happened.
[from January 28th] “Body Camera Footage Shows Capitol Rioters Trampling Over Woman”
Video obtained by The Times provides a police officer’s view of the deadly battle to defend a key entryway from the surging mob.
And here’s the headline and subtitle for that May 30/31 article, the final one the Times has written so far about Boyland:
“Death of QAnon Follower at Capitol Leaves a Wake of Pain”
Rosanne Boyland had never voted before 2020, but she fell prey to dark conspiracy theories, family members said. She died on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and they are still not sure why.
So the focus now shifted to Boyland’s family and their pain, and the headline and subtitle seem to indicate that her cause of death remains a mystery. The way the article was framed and introduced, I don’t think it would necessarily be read by a whole lot of people unless they were interested in delving into the family’s psychological situation. My guess is that most people who had taken in the earlier articles’ contention that Boyland had died in a Trump-follower stampede would not be revisiting this at all. But if they did, they would be reading a while before they came to any mention of the autopsy results, and the article very much downplays them even when it does get around to discussing them.
It’s a long article of about 1800 words. The very beginning indicates the family has no idea why Boyland died. It describes the fact that she seems to have been a QAnon supporter, and that this alarmed her family and friends. It mentions her former drug addiction. But it’s only about 500 words into the article that the autopsy is mentioned, and it’s done this way, emphasizing the trampling again and introducing serious doubt about the autopsy results:
The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiner’s office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines.
Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, though it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose.
“We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest,” Ms. Cave said. “This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way.”
So the Times covers the autopsy (for the first and only time, as far as I can tell) from the doubting family’s point of view. The article also gives several links to videos that supposedly support the trampling hypothesis, but no link is given to the autopsy report or to any article about the autopsy report. Then, after a lengthy discussion once again of Boyland’s belief in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, and after we also learn about her felony drug conviction and her continuing struggle against drug abuse, we read this only about 140 words before the very end of the article [emphasis mine]:
Ms. Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowd’s surge up the Capitol steps — a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American flag sunglasses.
She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the day’s most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed.
Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her.
It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of “acute amphetamine intoxication,” a ruling that left her family, convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse, flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctor’s prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said.
Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood — most likely from the Adderall — had been enough to be potentially fatal.
Iain M. McIntyre, the former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiner’s office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Ms. Cave said her sister sometimes did. Mr. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop.
And remember, this is in a woman with a lengthy history of very serious drug abuse.
So that’s the takeaway. See how the Times manages to report on the autopsy, and yet still write an article that will keep the narrative intact?
Do her relatives really know what Q is, or were put into there mouths? I read a lot of blogs and comments and I don’t have any idea what Q is or their ideas. Seems to me to be stalking horse for the left.
I’m not sure that Neo’s relatives will find a crowd of QAnon enthusiasts amped to the point of death particularly reassuring
y81:
At present, they think it was a bunch of QAnon enthusiasts who were bent on murder and who accomplished it.
Drug overdose is more reassuring than that. And of course Boyland was the only person who died that way that day.
Addiction is a terrible thing. As a person who had a parent who had addiction to prescription drugs, relapses are difficult to accept. It is dark and ugly how the media and political leaders use lies for their benefit, and ‘trample’ on US citizens.
“She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the day’s most brutal hand-to-hand fighting” [my emphasis]
WTF? Did I somehow miss the seriously wounded that would have had to result from “brutal hand-to-hand fighting” ?
One more example of massive exaggeration to drive the narrative…
Lies, lies all the way down.
Geoffrey Britain: Yeah, I was kind of stunned by that. “brutal hand-to-hand fighting”–and yet no one was killed or seriously injured?!? Unbelievable distortion except that it’s so typical.
If there are two things that autopsies are specifically designed to discover and characterize, it’s death caused by drug overdose and death caused from trauma. It would seem surprising that a news journal of the NYT’s supposed stature would decide to pivot away from such conclusions, as expressed by credentialed experts, in preference of something more lurid and emotional – unless its purposes were biased.
After all, they were pretty supportive of the Medical Examiner’s conclusions from Jeffery Epstein’s death, not so?
Aggie, however did you manage to write “It would seem surprising that a news journal of the NYT’s supposed stature” with a straight face?
Just kidding, I sense a tongue firmly placed within a cheek 😉
From the GiveSendGo page for Jonathan Mellis:
Jonathan attended the rally on January 6 to protest peacefully and to show his support for President Trump. While he was there in the crowd he heard screams for help and saw people being trampled by the police. He saw the lifeless body of Roseanne Boyland being kicked by the police and hit with their batons. He jumped into action to help. Now he is facing over 40 years in prison.
https://givesendgo.com/G23KB
Another tragic, drug-induced progressive condition and self-abortion a la Floyd.
While he was there in the crowd he heard screams for help and saw people being trampled by the police. He saw the lifeless body of Roseanne Boyland being kicked by the police and hit with their batons.
Separately, an unarmed woman, in a prone position, aborted with a novel apology of self-defense. A Capitol Police, embedded instigators per chance Whitmer-closet, forced “riot” (disorder). A security detail denied, an assembly colored, a handmade tale, the inevitable progressive path and grade.
Byron York had a very interesting post today on the “armed insurrection” lies.
I’ll just quote his summary of the tabulated details, and his observations.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/armed-insurrection-what-weapons-capitol-rioters-carry
Since this is an Insurrection post, I wondered what happened to one of the alleged insurrectionists in particular, and now I know.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/10/lets_go_brandon_brandon_straka_that_is.html
Widburg is nearly unique these days in using the proper verb “pled” instead of the incorrect “plead” (yes, really), or the marginally acceptable “pleaded.”
Your relatives are haters. They believe the blatant, obvious lies because they really want to believe. Their belief allows them to feel good about themselves for hating.
That’s why they have zero interest in learning the truth. The truth might interfere with their enjoyment of their hatred and their feelings of moral superiority.
Byron York’s definition of riot differs greatly from what we’ve seen from everyone else in the media.
According to Julie Kelly’s reporting, not only was there heavy fighting in the tunnel, but also teargas and perhaps worse, deployed by police. One person needed medical attention for his reaction to the gas, and he was near Boyland.
https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/06/what-did-the-capitol-celebrity-cops-do-to-roseanne-boyland/
Related:
“Effectively, they walked into a booby trap.”
Stewart Rhodes revisited, as a colleague—and ex-Green Beret—is arrested…:
https://www.revolver.news/2021/10/arrest-of-green-beret-oath-keeper-threatens-to-expose-fbis-darkest-1-6-secrets/
Key grafs:
“…Oddly enough, Oath Keepers founder and leader Stewart Rhodes himself has not been charged with anything, despite the fact that the government cites Rhodes’s own statements and actions as largely constitutive of the conspiracy for which so many of his underlings face charges….
“…Back to the case of Jeremy Brown. The Justice Department explained in its peculiar arrest affidavit for Brown, an Army Green Beret veteran and Oath Keeper associate, that anyone who set foot anywhere in a giant swath of land ranging from the Capitol’s West side lawn to its East side promenade is technically guilty of trespassing…
“Under ordinary circumstances, these “grounds” are open to the public, not “restricted.” But because law enforcement erected some police barriers and fencing there on January 6—barriers that were all but removed before most of the attendees even arrived at the Capitol—thousands of Trump supporters unknowingly crossed an imaginary Maginot Line.
“Effectively, they walked into a booby trap….”
The January 6th insurrection was the most pathetic ever. It was a protest that involved a riot. No guns by protestors!
And, the Afghanistan withdrawal was the most pathetic ever!
Barry Meislin —
Revolver is generally a little … excitable, shall we say. But this paragraph is the TL;DR of all TL:DRs:
But [the DOJ has] a big problem: all roads in the January 6 event lead back to Rhodes. So if Rhodes is a fed, that would mean the government used a fake anti-government front group to “attack” itself and frame the sitting President and his supporters for the crime.
For months now I’ve been reading things about Stewart Rhodes and it just keeps getting more suspicious.
You’re right, Bryan.
The whole thing is so convoluted that it’s hard to know what to believe.
But if one were to hold that the whole thing was concocted, one would be able to cite precedents of duplicitous FBI entrapment, the most recent (i.e., prior to Jan. 6) being those Michigan shenanigans.
And if one were to say that the government is being at the very best hyper-hypocritical and at the very worst criminal, then one could back up such a contention with evidence.
That the Democrats are pushing the “insurrection” so vociferously, so constantly, so automatically—to the point of pathologically—is a bizarre case of trying to drown out any opposition with overbearing decibel levels—a tried and true media tactic: an obvious case of the Lady “protesting too much” as it were.
All this “righteous indignation” is from the Nancy Pelosi/Sheldon Schumer/Kamala-Harris School of Theater and “SMACKS OF COVERUP”…but then what else is new…
And one hasn’t even begun to talk about the false reports, the inconsistencies, the conspiratorial “lack of preparations” on the part of the “authorities” who should have prepared for such an event.
And, of course, the endless coverups.
The real problem here is that none of the above is surprising…except—perhaps—that, as recent revelations have shown, Milley is in on it up to his eyeballs.
But maybe that too shouldn’t be too surprising..after Obama successfully weaponized the IRS and the DOJ, the FBI and the CIA—while having begun the politicization of the armed forces during Obama1.0—and used this—HIS—vast array of resources to hamstring and hogtie Trump and his advisors (especially Michael Flynn). So why shouldn’t all of these abuses return full-blown to the fore (after four years of slightly submerged sabotage) under Obama2.0.
One should expect no less.
Except that now, the country and all its citizens are potential targets.
(Time to rerun a “golden oldie” that, unfortunately gets newer and newer with each passing day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4c7BpwDFMo
…Yes, presenting the one and only…(I’ll stop there)…MAXINE WATERS!…
…her eyes all atwinkle when describing the subject of her deepest admiration….
Um, er, make that “Chuck Schumer” (chalk it up to an alliteration attack…or solar flares)
This is all so dumb. QAnon, first of all, is not a “conspiracy theory”, it is a loose organization, or movement, that may exist as entity formed around one, or a few various “conspiracy theories”. I’m not aware of any other instance where a group of people – such as QAnon – has been widely considered as synonymous with a conspiracy theory that the group believes. Other than when the group is named after the theory – IE holocaust deniers.
Fact of the matter is, QAnon is more of a left wing created bogeyman as much as anything and likely represents a microscopic fraction of the public. That the referenced article cites a poll that says 15% of people believe in whatever theory they attribute to QAnon, almost surely means that quite a bit less than that actually do.
I’m pretty sure QAnon is a disinformation op in the form of an alternate reality game.
https://medium.com/curiouserinstitute/a-game-designers-analysis-of-qanon-580972548be5