ArcaMax

Even now, deep into the age of Twitter and YouTube, I am bemused by the fact that the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 couldn’t resist shooting and posting so many photos and videos of themselves. But I’m glad they did.

Thanks to that bravado and some demented hunger for fame at any cost, federal investigators report they’ve received more than 140,000 tips and digital media, including an eye-popping array showing riot perpetrators in the Capitol during the insurrection.

After making more than 100 arrests, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency had more than 200 subject case files open.

I am sadly accustomed to seeing too many young hoodlums, driven by insane bravado and too much time on their hands, commit awful crimes that they put online, as if the police didn’t know how to use social media too.

But seeing the angry and largely middle-class Capitol rioters indulging in the same weird narcissism as they attempted an insurrection reveals a derangement mixed with kooky amateurism.

Take, for example, the Chicago man who was arrested Jan. 13 after posting on Instagram and then deleting — but not quickly enough to escape investigators’ attention — a photo of the plaque outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ransacked office. He’s also posted the message “STOP THE STEAL.”

That’s the hashtag and rallying cry adopted by supporters of President Donald Trump’s false claims that President-elect Joe Biden’s election was stolen. During the riot that some call an insurrection, the sign outside Pelosi’s office was stolen, as were numerous other items.

Kevin Lyons, 40, of Chicago was arrested at home, where FBI agents confronted him with the photo, the Chicago Tribune reported.

“Wow you are pretty good,” Lyons said to investigators, according to the criminal complaint. “That was up for only an hour.”

Yes, the FBI is pretty good at finding suspects, especially when the suspects leave online fingerprints.

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