Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Public House › protestors invade the US Capitol building
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January 10, 2021 at 2:45 pm #126678znModerator
This video shows Donald Trump supporters dragging a police officer down the steps and savagely beating him.
Dozens of people appear to be involved. Horrifying.
Trump, Cruz, Hawley, Don Jr, and Rudy need to be arrested.
This is Donald Trump’s America. pic.twitter.com/AN1iPzYdfI
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) January 10, 2021
January 10, 2021 at 7:01 pm #126687znModeratorTwo men who were seen in videos and photos from the Capitol riot carrying plastic restraints have been arrested, one in Texas and one in Tennesseehttps://t.co/6MHeOPQd3r
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 10, 2021
January 10, 2021 at 7:16 pm #126688wvParticipant#Trump supporters crush police officer in doorway during #Capitol storming on Wednesday#USA pic.twitter.com/JtVk6u54x1
— Ruptly (@Ruptly) January 9, 2021
January 10, 2021 at 7:24 pm #126690znModerator#Trump supporters crush police officer in doorway during #Capitol storming on Wednesday
There’s a mixed take on the Capitol police. In some vids they are virtually compliant. In others they are directly under attack by the mob (to the point where 2 have died so far). It almost depends on what part of the building they’re being filmed. In some places, they are under assault; in others, they are letting people in without hindrance.
Though even in the places where they are assaulted…I can’t help but imagine if the crowd were people of color. Can you imagine that in that situation the police would just passively let assaults on them happen? I can’t imagine a situation like that where the police wouldn’t use guns.
January 10, 2021 at 7:43 pm #126692wvParticipantThere’s a mixed take on the Capitol police. In some vids they are virtually compliant. In others they are directly under attack by the mob (to the point where 2 have died so far). It almost depends on what part of the building they’re being filmed. In some places, they are under assault; in others, they are letting people in without hindrance.
Though even in the places where they are assaulted…I can’t help but imagine if the crowd were people of color. Can you imagine that in that situation the police would just passively let assaults on them happen? I can’t imagine a situation like that where the police wouldn’t use guns.
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Yeah, it was mixed. Some cops fighting the Trumpies, some cops helping the Trumpies, some cops probably totally confused as to what to do.
It will take a year or so to untangle and research it all. I’m sure Woodward is beginning his book on it, as we speak.
I dont have anything original to say about it. Its just how things are now.
Fox News, Rightwing-Radio, Rightwing social-media, Q-anon, Evangelical-Religion
coupled with
Capitalism, Inequality, Neoliberalism, Outsourcing Jobs, Opioids, etc
have spawned various shades of Trumpies. At one end of the Trumpie spectrum you have little old evangelical ladies like wv-mom. At the other end of the Trumpie spectrum you have the ProudBoys, Nazis, KKK, etc.75 Million Trumpies. Probably a good 10 million on the Ultra-Right-Fascist end of the Trumpie-Spectrum.
Not enough for a Revolution, but enough for a lot more domestic terrorism
in the coming decades.The FBI will probably arrest a lot of them in the future, but
so many of them are already IN law enforcement, its a complex problem,
as we see in the Capital Police situation.80 million neoliberal imperialist CIA-loving Bidenites.
75 million rightwing-soft-and-hard-fascist Trumpies.And about 1 million leftists.
Interesting times ahead.
Portugal calls.
January 10, 2021 at 7:52 pm #126694znModeratorThese Black Capitol Police Officers Describe Fighting Off “Racist-Ass Terrorists”
Two Black officers told BuzzFeed News that their chief and other upper management left them totally unprepared and were nowhere to be found on the day.https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/black-capitol-police-racism-mob
The first glimpse of the deadly tragedy that was about to unfold came at 9 a.m. on the morning of the insurrection for one Black veteran of the US Capitol Police. But it didn’t come from his superiors — instead the officer had to rely on a screenshot from Instagram sent to him by a friend.
“I found out what they were planning when a friend of mine screenshot me an Instagram story from the Proud Boys saying, ‘We’re breaching the Capitol today, guys. I hope y’all ready.’” The officer, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from his superiors, told BuzzFeed News that it was just a sign of the chaos that was to come, which saw officers regularly finding themselves unprepared and then outmanned and overpowered by the mob.
The officer said that while the department’s upper management had been telling them to prepare for Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol like they would for any other protest, that Instagram post sent a clear message: this wasn’t going to be just some kind of free speech protest — this was going to be a fight.
Management’s inaction left Black police officers especially vulnerable to a mob that had been whipped up by President Donald Trump, a man who has a record of inspiring racist vigilantes to action. One of the most defining videos of that day was of one of their colleagues, another Black officer, trying in vain to hold back the tide of rioters who had broken into the building and were hunting for Congressional members.
BuzzFeed News spoke to two Black officers who described a harrowing day in which they were forced to endure racist abuse — including repeatedly being called the n-word — as they tried to do their job of protecting the Capitol building, and by extension the very functioning of American democracy. The officers said they were wrong-footed, fighting off an invading force that their managers had downplayed and not prepared them for. They had all been issued gas masks, for example, but management didn’t tell them to bring them in on the day. Capitol Police did not respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment about the allegations made by officers.
While some of the images from that day appeared to show officers standing by to let the mob into the Capitol building, the veteran officer said that they had fought them off for two hours before the attackers eventually gained access. The officer said that many of the widely spread images of smiling marauders, wandering the halls dressed in absurd costumes, had the effect of downplaying how well prepared some of the rioters were to overtake the building, and even to capture and kill Congress members.
“That was a heavily trained group of militia terrorists that attacked us,” said the officer, who has been with the department for more than a decade. “They had radios, we found them, they had two-way communicators and earpieces. They had bear spray. They had flash bangs … They were prepared. They strategically put two IEDs, pipe bombs, in two different locations. These guys were military trained. A lot of them were former military,” the officer said, referring to two suspected pipe bombs that were found outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee.
The officer even described coming face-to-face with police officers from across the country in the mob. He said some of them flashed their badges, telling him to let them through, and trying to explain that this was all part of a movement that was supposed to help.
“You have the nerve to be holding a Blue Lives Matter flag, and you are out there fucking us up,” he told one group of protesters he encountered inside the Capitol. “[One guy] pulled out his badge and he said, ‘We’re doing this for you.’ Another guy had his badge. So I was like, ‘Well, you gotta be kidding.’”
Another officer, a newer recruit, echoed these sentiments, saying that where he was on the steps to the Rotunda on the east side of the Capitol, he was engaged in hand-to-hand battles trying to fight the attackers off. But he said they were outnumbered 10 to 1, and described extraordinary scenes in which protesters holding Blue Lives Matter flags launched themselves at police officers.
“We were telling them to back up and get away and stop, and they’re telling us they are on our side, and they’re doing this for us, and they’re saying this as I’m getting punched in my face by one of them … That happened to a lot of us. We were getting pepper-sprayed in the face by those protesters — I’m not going to even call them protesters — by those domestic terrorists,” said the officer.
While it was a hard day for almost every officer at the Capitol, Black officers were in a particularly difficult position, he said, and he drew a stark contrast with how police handled the Black Lives Matter protests this summer.
“There’s quite a big difference when the Black Lives Matter protests come up to the Capitol,” he said. “[On Wednesday], some officers were catering to the rioters.”
He said that what upset him the most was when he later saw images of a white colleague taking a selfie with the attackers, seeming to enjoy his time with the insurrectionists who were roaming the US Capitol with Confederate flags and other symbols of white supremacy.
“That one hurt me the most because I was on the other side of the Capitol getting my ass kicked,” he said.
He is certain that if a group of Black Americans had stormed the Capitol, they wouldn’t have gotten that kind of friendly reception from his white colleagues.
“If you’re going to treat a group of demonstrators for Black Lives Matters one way, then you should treat this group the same goddamn way. With this group you were being kind and nice and letting them walk back out. Some of them got arrested but a lot of them didn’t. Everyone who came into that Capitol should have been arrested regardless if they didn’t take anything.”
The number of arrests has steadily increased in recent days, but it currently seems unlikely that everyone who breached the building on Wednesday will be arrested for their actions.
Five people died on Wednesday, including a Capitol Police officer. One protester was shot and killed by Capitol Police, while three others died of medical emergencies during the attack.
The older Black officer didn’t think it was a simple case of treating the rioters differently from BLM protesters, but instead part of a bigger issue with how the agency is managed.
“Our chief was nowhere to be found, I didn’t hear him on the radio. One of our other deputy chiefs was not there,” he said. “You don’t think it’s all hands on deck?”
The veteran officer welcomed the resignation of US Capitol Police chief, Steven Sund, but he thinks more needs to change at the agency, which answers to Congress and where security is not as tight as it should be.
“Congress can bring anybody in the building that they want. They can go outside and find 200 people, and say, ‘Hey, they’re with me. Come on in.’ They don’t have to go through security as long as a congressman said so,” he explained. “They just want to make Congress happy. So I think the next chief needs to come in and sit down with Congress.”
At the end of the night, after the crowds had been dispersed and Congress got back to the business of certifying president-elect Joe Biden’s victory, the veteran officer was overwhelmed with emotion, and broke down in the Rotunda.
“I sat down with one of my buddies, another Black guy, and tears just started streaming down my face,” he said. “I said, ‘What the fuck, man? Is this America? What the fuck just happened? I’m so sick and tired of this shit.’”
Soon he was screaming, so that everyone in the Rotunda, including his white colleagues, could hear what he had just gone through.
“These are racist-ass terrorists,” he yelled out.
In the seven years since Black Lives Matter has become a rallying cry, the image of a white cop deciding how and when to enforce law and order has become ubiquitous. On Wednesday, Americans saw something different, as Black officers tried to do the same, as they attempted to protect the very heart of American democracy. And instead of being honored by the supporters of a man who likes to call himself the “law and order” president, Black Capitol officers found themselves under attack.
“I got called a nigger 15 times today,” the veteran officer shouted in the Rotunda to no one in particular. “Trump did this and we got all of these fucking people in our department that voted for him. How the fuck can you support him?”
“I cried for about 15 minutes and I just let it out.”
January 11, 2021 at 12:22 am #126710ZooeyModeratorHere is what they see on Parler
January 11, 2021 at 12:53 am #126717znModeratorThis week the reign of Donald Trump reached its natural culmination, the activation of an army of white thugs who could be motivated by the oldest trick in the nationalist playbook: the promise that they operated in service of some grand idea—to be explained at a later date—and that it was going to take some head-cracking and bloodletting to be born. A 42-year-old Capitol Police officer named Brian Sicknick survived deployment in Iraq only to have his head fatally bashed by Americans with a fire extinguisher in the U.S. Capitol.
It is not accurate that he was deployed in Iraq. He was deployed to the middle east in support of American actions in Afghanistan but never served in Afghanistan itself.
A right wing editorial claims that honoring him just serves as a device to silence Trump supporters. The logic of that claim is so twisted.
from https://nypost.com/2021/01/10/what-the-left-wants-to-ignore-about-slain-capitol-police-officer/
After serving his country and observing the workings of its government, Sicknick had come to believe that America is governed by a self-interested, unresponsive and unaccountable oligarchy. There is ample evidence to support his beliefs. Biden and Sen. Chuck Schumer, both of whom voted to authorize the invasion, have suffered no consequences for their folly. Nor have the countless other supporters of the invasion who populate Congress, K Street and the think tanks.
That’s from the editorial I just mentioned. It supports Trump and condemns the effort to use this guy’s death to tarnish the Capitol attack mob.
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January 11, 2021 at 6:44 am #126720Billy_TParticipantSome quick and dirty observations:
Wonder how many of Trump’s supporters picked up on the fact that he was nowhere to be seen during the melee, after promising them, “I’ll be there with you!” He whipped them into a frenzy — for five years — and then, when it really counted, was safely in a secure location, cheering on the mayhem. Coward and liar to the end.
Imagine Mel Gibson’s William Wallace, whipping his fellow Scots into a war frenzy, but instead of charging into the brink with them, he flees from the battle as fast as his horse can carry him.
The above also makes me think of how exhausting it must be to be a right-winger. Right-wing politicians are relentless in keeping their “base” in a state of permanent fury, with the help of right-wing media, of course. No other part of the political spectrum requires so much effort/hatred/othering to be in with the tribe.
January 11, 2021 at 6:52 am #126721Billy_TParticipantWhiteness is a shield. Although I think it’s fair to add this: If white people rebel against the system from the left, they risk losing all or part of that shield. White people who rebel from the right just don’t. They’re seen by all too many police/protectors of capitalism as somehow representing the “real” America. They’re seen as “patriots,” who own the flag, etc.
White leftists, OTOH, are seen as the Other, foreign in a sense, not real Americans.
Hitler went after communists and all leftists before he went after the Jews.
Trump’s overwhelmingly white rioters/supporters stormed the Bastille to keep Louis XVI in power.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Billy_T.
January 11, 2021 at 4:41 pm #126746joemadParticipantJanuary 11, 2021 at 7:09 pm #126755znModeratorCaitlin Emma@caitlinzemma
At least two Capitol Police officers have been SUSPENDED, per @RepTimRyan, the House appropriator who oversees Capitol Police funding.Of the two suspended officers, one took the now infamous selfie and the other wore a MAGA hat while directing rioters.
January 11, 2021 at 10:21 pm #126760ZooeyModeratorJanuary 11, 2021 at 10:23 pm #126761joemadParticipantJanuary 12, 2021 at 12:40 am #126774znModerator“Armed protests”
I think I’ve covered these overseas but they called them something different. https://t.co/MDa4uOKRV3
— Nick Turse (@nickturse) January 12, 2021
January 12, 2021 at 12:44 am #126775znModeratorNo, We Do Not Need New Anti-Terrorism Laws to Combat Right-Wing Extremists via @thenation https://t.co/9pd5rwlh4n
— OpheliaPGMom 🦺 (@OP_Omom) January 12, 2021
January 12, 2021 at 2:57 am #126778znModeratorThose are some impressive neocon brain worms. https://t.co/xT7LIjAqOf
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) January 11, 2021
January 13, 2021 at 2:07 am #126819znModeratormunson_jo@munson_jo
Pelosi said her young staffers knew to barricade the door, turn out the lights, and be silent, because they learned it in school.January 13, 2021 at 11:25 am #126825ZooeyModerator“Weeks before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, right-wing activist Ali Alexander told his followers he was planning something big for Jan. 6.
Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — coinciding with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), all hard-line Trump supporters.”
January 13, 2021 at 12:35 pm #126835znModerator🚨Listen to the level of detail about the floor plan the woman at 0:54 is giving during the attack.
Is this someone who got one of those reconnaissance tours @RepSherrill talked about tonight? A staffer? Other employee?pic.twitter.com/SSKtXY52VO
— Kristin Mink #ImpeachAndRemoveNOW (@KristinMinkDC) January 13, 2021
January 13, 2021 at 8:38 pm #126856znModeratorAnd here’s Alex Jones admitting the insurrection marching orders were coming from the White House and Donald Trump…pic.twitter.com/O6T7sHFHt3
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) January 14, 2021
January 14, 2021 at 12:31 pm #126877ZooeyModeratorPaul Gosar (R-AZ) was identified as a key planner of January 6th.
His constituents in Prescott, AZ put together this video exposing his sedition.
Please watch & share, from @IndivisPrescott: #DemCastAZ
pic.twitter.com/fm3qRUzXqE— Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 (@NickKnudsenUS) January 13, 2021
January 15, 2021 at 12:00 am #126888znModeratorChilling: @DCPoliceDept officer Michael Fanone said on CNN that rioters went for his gun, saying “Kill him with his own gun”.
He told CNN, “It was all about self preservation…I “appealed to their humanity…I just remember yelling out I have kids”
pic.twitter.com/zUOafxRdBU— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 15, 2021
January 19, 2021 at 2:51 pm #127043znModerator“The mob was fed lies by the president and enabled by me.” pic.twitter.com/swanodNnMW
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) January 19, 2021
January 19, 2021 at 4:31 pm #127050Billy_TParticipantDoes anyone doubt that if Obama and Dem enablers had done this, that if the shoe had been entirely on the other foot, they would have been arrested immediately? With the full support of the GOP as well?
I don’t.
And I honestly think Trump should have been arrested on January 6th, along with Giuliani, Gosar, Brooks and Cawthorne, and anyone else who was involved in whipping up the violent mob — whipping up the mob into violence.
To me, this isn’t at all about “free speech,” or “protected political speech,” and I don’t see it as a civil liberties issue, either. IMNSHO, when you incite violence, and this is all based on lies, you have to be held to account.
Fair trial, impartial jury, no kangaroo courts. But you get a taste of your own beloved “law and order,” at least.
February 5, 2021 at 9:18 am #127614znModeratorRep. Dean Phillips: "I'm here tonight to say to my brothers & sisters in Congress & all around our country, I'm sorry. For I've never understood, really understood, what privilege really means. It took a violent mob of insurrectionists & lightning-bolt moment in this very room." pic.twitter.com/PqnoBMiQDu
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 5, 2021
February 10, 2021 at 9:52 am #127720joemadParticipantRaskin video
February 11, 2021 at 10:49 am #127741znModeratorIt’s not “economic anxiety” it’s anxiety over losing “status and power” that’s fueling Right wing extremism.
There is a white supremacy radicalism in our society and we can’t afford to dismiss or normalize it. https://t.co/WLxmKeMGn8
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 10, 2021
February 14, 2021 at 11:37 am #127807znModeratorDave Chappelle on the Capitol Hill riots…pic.twitter.com/QC1SCZchwy
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) February 14, 2021
February 14, 2021 at 11:42 am #127809znModeratortest
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