The LuLac Edition #4, 627, November 24th, 2021

 

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

Our “Write On Wednesday” logo.

This week the Times Leader zeroed in on Frank Savo and his troubles with the feds. Here are their thoughts.

SCAVO LIED UNTIL HE COULDN’T HIDE HIS ACTIONS

Frank Scavo lied.

He lied until he was caught, and only then — when facing real consequences for the actions he lied about — did he express regret.

Regardless of anything else that comes from the Old Forge resident’s case (sentencing is scheduled for Monday), those facts should not be overlooked, or forgotten.

Give the activist his due. He organized 200 area residents for a trip to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 for what he contends — and we believe him on this point — was assumed to be a peaceful rally opposing the congressional certification of the November election that clearly made Joe Biden President. That’s Democracy in action.

And please leave any debate about Biden’s victory or his performance since being sworn in out of this. We’re talking about the former Old Forge School Board Director. Like many other protesters, he went too far, crossing police barricades to enter the Capitol Building. Then he lied about doing so.

Give him credit, also, for not being part of the destructive faction of those who entered the building by smashing doors and windows, and even took or damaged property once inside.

“He didn’t steal anything or break anything,” Scavo’s attorney Ernie Preate, Jr., said. “He regrets what he did on that day.” We find that easy to believe as well as the claim that Scavo truly came to D.C. expecting a peaceful protest.

We even give him credit for agreeing to a guilty plea for unlawfully entering a federal building and remaining there, and for telling the judge he regretted what he did. Again, all this happened after being caught and charged, but it still counts for something.

All of that may mitigate the wrong he committed. None of it mitigates what he said when first confronted with evidence strongly suggesting he was inside the building during the insurrection attempt to overturn an election by mob force.

As reported by staff writer Bill O’Boyle in Wednesday’s paper (and reported previously), two days after the insurrection, Scavo was asked if he had been inside the capitol, as two Getty photos appeared to show. The Republican said no, he was not inside the building.

“We stayed about 15-20 minutes and I took some photos,” Scavo told us and other media outlets. “We received a text from the D.C. mayor that a curfew would begin at 6 p.m. We decided to round up our people to return to the buses and leave.

“We didn’t see what was going on inside the Capitol.”

Scavo then tried to turn the facts on their head, contending that rather than being with a mob threatening to hang the vice president, he was concerned that it was the protest participants at risk of being harassed.

“This is America,” he said. “Why can’t we take a bus ride down to our nation’s capital to witness history and be a part of this without incident.”

You can. Indeed, had that been all that happened — a bus ride to witness history without incident — There would be no real story here. But there was an incident, instigated by the protesters: a physical assault on a vital symbol of democracy.

People died.

Scavo probably deserves a sentence on the lighter side of the guidelines for his actions Jan. 6. We doubt he was part of the actual violence; the Getty images of him suggest he was too busy just taking selfies.

But he made the mistake of trying to cover up his entry into the building. Had he simply conceded when asked that, yes, he was inside, but no, he didn’t participate in the damage, the assaults on police and the threats of violence, things would be a bit different. But Scavo took a coward’s path.

He lied.

And that warrants remembering in any of his future public or political activities.

— Times Leader