Capitol riot arrest of restaurant owner rattles hometown

KANE, PA >> A crank caller ordered an “insurrection pizza” from Pauline Bauer’s restaurant. A profane piece of hate mail addressed her as a domestic terrorist. She even became a punchline for Stephen Colbert’s latenight talk show on CBS.

A swift backlash greeted Capitol riot suspects like Bauer when they returned to their homes across the U.S. after joining the mob that stormed past police barricades, smashed windows and disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6. Relatives, friends or coworkers reported scores of them to the FBI. Some lost jobs. Others lost their freedom, jailed awaiting trials.

In Bauer’s hometown in rural Pennsylvania, her arrest and that of a longtime friend have rekindled partisan bickering, more often on social media than on street corners, some residents say. As Bauer and William Blauser Jr. fight the charges in court, many in the town of Kane have struggled to comprehend how two of their neighbors could be among the hundreds of Trump loyalists bent on overturning the election that day.

“I think it was totally outrageous, it was illegal and I think it was treasonous,” said Joe Lanich, who operates a letterpress print shop with his wife called The Laughing Owl Press Co. in Kane’s uptown business district. He said the town is populated by proud residents who work hard to improve Kane and “don’t want to see one person paint us in a bad light.”

Bauer tries to shrug off the scorn from strangers, but acknowledges her actions have angered some in her community.

“Some people didn’t like the fact that I became political,” she said during a break in dinner service at her restaurant, Bob’s Trading Post.

In the months since Jan. 6, former President Donald Trump and his supporters have sought to portray the rioters as peaceful patriots even as videos from that day show members of the mob beating police officers and hunting for lawmakers in an unthinkable attack on the seat of American democracy. On Tuesday, officers who defended the Capitol that day described to a congressional committee investigating the insurrection how they feared for their lives and continue to suffer physical and emotional pain.

MICHAEL KUNZELMAN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Pauline Bauer, right, speaks with customers from left, Ron Stevenson, 68, of Jamestown, N.Y., his cousin Glenn Robinson, 68, of Kane, Pa., and his half-brother Paul Boedecker, 71, of Warren, Pa., at Bauer’s restaurant, Bob’s Trading Post in Hamilton, Pa.