Mob storms Capitol

[Thomas Veil]

(Aside)

Hey, @ericgtr12 ...did you actually say you thought the conversation was going to get pretty dead around here once the election was over?

 

[Thomas Veil]

people need to be tried for treason

This X100.

 

[SuperMatt]

What We Know About The Capitol Police Officer Who Died

Brian Sicknick was a 42-year-old military veteran who had served in the U.S. Capitol Police for 12 years, according to a lawmaker, who said he "gave his life in the line of duty to keep us safe."

www.npr.org

I read in a NY Times article that he was killed by a blow or blows to the head with a fire extinguisher. Also noted: Trump did NOT use his Twitter account when he still had it to honor the fallen officer.

Then on Wednesday, pro-Trump rioters attacked that citadel of democracy, overpowered Mr. Sicknick, 42, and struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials. With a bloody gash in his head, Mr. Sicknick was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support. He died on Thursday evening.

He Dreamed of Being a Police Officer, Then Was Killed by a Pro-Trump Mob (Published 2021)

The death of Brian Sicknick, a military veteran and experienced Capitol Police officer, amplified the tragedy of Wednesday’s riots and undermined President Trump’s pro-law-enforcement claims.

www.nytimes.com

 

[lizkat]

Ronan Farrow is a great reporter; the story is very sad to me.

From the wrap:

Leake [a friend of the AF vet] said that he believed the same intense commitment that had made Brock an effective fighter pilot had led him to this week’s events in the Capitol. “Torch got all in on Trump,” Leake said. “He went all in on the alternative-news-source world. He actually believes liberals and Democrats are a threat to the country. You can see how the logical conclusion to that is, We’ve gotta take over.”

See this cannot be resolved by media messages although it would be nice if media would stop already with the crossfire-style panels of talking heads providing clickbait more engaging than straight news reporting.

The elected officials of Congress are our representatives. They themselves need to agree now to DEMONSTRATE that it's American to have peaceful political differences, to cross the aisle to work on stuff together, to campaign without proposing that the other side is the devil incarnate so man up for the apocalypse if the other guy wins. To concede graciously and congratulate the winner, to respond as a winner by thanking the loser for past accomplishments and for stepping up to public service, etc. That is how it used to be more often... much more often than it is nowadays. That is also how politics used to be covered much more often than it is nowadays.

Spoiler: And to the media, the TL;DR

Y'all in the media need to get your heads out of the accounting department. Your editorial side has been vandalized by the beancounters to the point where clickbait considerations don't just write the headlines, they dictate which stories get spiked as real yawners even before those stories get reported and written.

Reporters need to propose stories and report and write them. Editors need to quit taking out the parts that might not help an article get those blasted "most emailed" awards in the sidebars. Or skip the sidebars. Let us HAVE to decide what's worth sharing. You might find out your algorithms alone are stunting your growth.

Beancounters need help remembering that the Fourth Estate does have a reputation and responsibility to uphold in the annals of our democracy. It's part of why investors invest in papers of record. Democracy does indeed die in the darkness, but maybe some of that darkness is too much black ink spent on trying to get bigger profit margins every quarter. Papers are onto something with 99c promo rates but don't just give us the candy we came for. There's always the chance we'll stick around because we accidentally discovered we like broccoli. If you keep enough broccoli discoverers on board then maybe you can get by charging a lower regular rate and shore up the likelihood of a stronger regular circulation base.

Maybe we just really need more yawning over the newspapers in the waning days of Trump's godforsaken presidency. More coverage of the good guys working across the aisle because constituents on both sides of the aisle need that particular work done. It happens. Routinely. But it doesn't get celebrated because it's not potential clickbait and will never make those sidebar links to "most emailed" and "most shared".

As for news consumers, we need to quit figuring that the news needs to be as entertaining as an action adventure movie. We probably have had enough of that this past week to last for at least the rest of 2021.

 

[Thomas Veil]

What We Know About The Capitol Police Officer Who Died

Brian Sicknick was a 42-year-old military veteran who had served in the U.S. Capitol Police for 12 years, according to a lawmaker, who said he "gave his life in the line of duty to keep us safe."

www.npr.org

I read in a NY Times article that he was killed by a blow or blows to the head with a fire extinguisher. Also noted: Trump did NOT use his Twitter account when he still had it to honor the fallen officer.

He Dreamed of Being a Police Officer, Then Was Killed by a Pro-Trump Mob (Published 2021)

The death of Brian Sicknick, a military veteran and experienced Capitol Police officer, amplified the tragedy of Wednesday’s riots and undermined President Trump’s pro-law-enforcement claims.

www.nytimes.com

What an awful way to go. Sicknick was a veteran and by all accounts a nice guy. But he was also ambivalent about war in the Middle East, first being for it, then against it. That kind of uncertainty may have been (as it is for so many people) what led him to Trump.

He threw in his lot with Donald Trump (at least in 2016), and that's where his story took its final, ironic turn in that it was Trump supporters that cost him his life.

 

[SuperMatt]

A very upsetting interview with 2 black Capitol police officers:

These 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.

www.buzzfeednews.com

 

[lizkat]

A very upsetting interview with 2 black Capitol police officers:

These 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.

www.buzzfeednews.com

This is really terrible. I hope every Black congress critter finds a link to this piece in their work email from a constituent. I'd say "every congress critter" but it's the Black members of Congress that should rise up as one now having read that and say uh no this can't be how it goes. Just in case they have not realized that's how it can go if you're Black and NOT a congress critter in the Capitol.

Another thing I did not know about is the apparent "arrangement" (tacit or explicit) between Congress and the Capitol Police regarding a waiver on security checks into the place per a Congressman's invitation to anyone or a group of people.

The veteran officer welcomed the resignation of US Capitol Police chief, Steven Sund, but he thinks more needs to change at the agency.

“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.”

Uh, yeah...Just because there's now a national memorial in rural Pennsylvania for the victims of United Flight 93 instead of a new Capitol Building --the existing one being the fourth planned target on 9/11-- does not excuse this gross violation of common sense after the events of that day.

Congress can't have it both ways, and the people of the USA should demand that Congress have more respect for the Capitol itself as well as for the men and women who work there and who secure it. Too bad if it's an inconvenience to pass through security. Terrorism and espionage both thrive on lapses in security. It's how 9/11 happened to begin with.

A footnote here: The House now has this right wing flake Boebert with her swell Glock fetish as a freshman member of the 117th Congress, She owns an establishment called "Shooter's Grill" in Rifle, Colorado. The place encourages patrons to carry their firearms openly. So can she just invite a couple dozen or couple hundred of her restaurant's patrons into the Capitol for a visit and they don't have to go through security?

 

[SuperMatt]

This is really terrible. I hope every Black congress critter finds a link to this piece in their work email from a constituent. I'd say "every congress critter" but it's the Black members of Congress that should rise up as one now having read that and say uh no this can't be how it goes. Just in case they have not realized that's how it can go if you're Black and NOT a congress critter in the Capitol.

Another thing I did not know about is the apparent "arrangement" (tacit or explicit) between Congress and the Capitol Police regarding a waiver on security checks into the place per a Congressman's invitation to anyone or a group of people.



Uh, yeah...Just because there's now a national memorial in rural Pennsylvania for the victims of United Flight 93 instead of a new Capitol Building --the existing one being the fourth planned target on 9/11-- does not excuse this gross violation of common sense after the events of that day.

Congress can't have it both ways, and the people of the USA should demand that Congress have more respect for the Capitol itself as well as for the men and women who work there and who secure it. Too bad if it's an inconvenience to pass through security. Terrorism and espionage both thrive on lapses in security. It's how 9/11 happened to begin with.

A footnote here: The House now has this right wing flake Boebert with her swell Glock fetish as a freshman member of the 117th Congress, She owns an establishment called "Shooter's Grill" in Rifle, Colorado. The place encourages patrons to carry their firearms openly. So can she just invite a couple dozen or couple hundred of her restaurant's patrons into the Capitol for a visit and they don't have to go through security?

A black member of Congress weighs in as well. Cori Bush of Missouri:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/09/cori-bush-capitol-mob-white-supremacy-government/

Referring to what we saw at the Capitol:

This is America, and it will continue to be America, until white supremacy is dismantled. Justice starts at removing each and every representative who incited this insurrection. I’ve unveiled my first piece of legislation that would do just that. We cannot denounce white supremacy and allow its endorsers to continue serving in our government.

 

[lizkat]

A black member of Congress weighs in as well. Cori Bush of Missouri:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/09/cori-bush-capitol-mob-white-supremacy-government/

Referring to what we saw at the Capitol:

There was a piece in a Boston news outlet that reported the reactions of Josh Delaney, Senator Warren's deputy legislative director, who later wrote an op-ed about Wednesday's events for the Boston Globe. The news article cited parts of that piece.

‘This is the image I can’t forget’: Warren aide shares the impact on Black Hill staff of seeing the Confederate flag carried in Capitol

Josh Delaney watched in horror on Wednesday as the Capitol was stormed by a mob of Trump supporters, who breached the government building in a day of violence that left […]

www.boston.com

“Historians have noted that not even during the Civil War did this violent symbol of white power and oppression penetrate the halls of our Capitol,” Delaney wrote in the Globe. “And yet, a white mob had successfully and violently ushered this hate into the bowels of Congress. The chilling contrast between these images and the images of violence used against mostly peaceful protesters for Black lives last summer was profound.”

Growing up in Georgia, he saw the flag on display at homes, stores, and restaurants multiple times a week, presenting him with the message of hate that he was not welcome, Delaney wrote.

“This was the first time I’d seen that message on display at my place of work,” he said. “I’ve walked the halls of Congress so often that I probably take for granted how my very presence in the building is a miracle — the result of years of hard-fought civil rights victories and justice work. And consequently, a threat to racists and white nationalists who wish to take us back to whenever they perceived America was ‘great.’”

 

[SuperMatt]

There was a piece in a Boston news outlet that reported the reactions of Josh Delaney, Senator Warren's deputy legislative director, who later wrote an op-ed about Wednesday's events for the Boston Globe. The news article cited parts of that piece.

‘This is the image I can’t forget’: Warren aide shares the impact on Black Hill staff of seeing the Confederate flag carried in Capitol

Josh Delaney watched in horror on Wednesday as the Capitol was stormed by a mob of Trump supporters, who breached the government building in a day of violence that left […]

www.boston.com

This makes me very angry. When I saw the line of people exiting the Capitol, they were being treated more kindly than teenagers leaving a house party that got out of hand and police were called. Since entering was a crime, EVERY SINGLE PERSON should have been loaded straight into buses or vans and taken to jail. They often scoop up dozens or more of people at peaceful protests, as has been well documented. These INSURRECTIONISTS were allowed to go home with no consequences!!!!!!! Now we have to hope that a Biden-led FBI will be able to use investigative techniques and track them all down to arrest them and bring them to justice. What a massive waste of time and money that will be, and for NO REASON.

 

[thekev]

This makes me very angry. When I saw the line of people exiting the Capitol, they were being treated more kindly than teenagers leaving a house party that got out of hand and police were called. Since entering was a crime, EVERY SINGLE PERSON should have been loaded straight into buses or vans and taken to jail. They often scoop up dozens or more of people at peaceful protests, as has been well documented. These INSURRECTIONISTS were allowed to go home with no consequences!!!!!!! Now we have to hope that a Biden-led FBI will be able to use investigative techniques and track them all down to arrest them and bring them to justice. What a massive waste of time and money that will be, and for NO REASON.

Capitol police may have preferred to first get them out of there. I still think Trump will try to pardon them.

 

[SuperMatt]

Capitol police may have preferred to first get them out of there. I still think Trump will try to pardon them.

Many of them are coming back for more; emboldened by their success on the 6th. I posted in the “January 6” thread some details...

 

[thekev]

Many of them are coming back for more; emboldened by their success on the 6th. I posted in the “January 6” thread some details...

They're idiots. I imagine the FBI and capitol police may be ready to perform mass arrests in such an event. Security for the inauguration is also going to be ridiculous.

 

[SuperMatt]

Truly evil racists. They didn’t just attack the Capitol. They were attacking random innocent black people in the streets.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/do-not-go-in-to-dc-after-a-black-moms-warning-on-jan-6-came-a-shameful-moment-blocks-from-the-capitol/2021/01/08/ae1a9202-5213-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

 

[SuperMatt]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1347918472303554560/

 

[SuperMatt]

Cops facing a “‘mob of rioters” during BLM protests:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1268877820903804931/

Cops facing actual violent rioters at the Capitol:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1346914484108095492/

I wonder why there are multiple songs with the theme of “F tha police”???

 

[JayMysteri0]

This is where some wanted our country to head

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1348147381519470597/

Congress member voted to overturn Biden win out of fear after riots, Rep. Peter Meijer says

Michigan lawmaker said his colleague voted against the results after being "profoundly shaken" by the violent attack on the Capitol.

www.newsweek.com

Republican congressman Peter Meijer has said one of fellow party members voted against supporting the presidential election results, despite believing they should, over fears their family would be targeted by Donald Trump's far-right supporters if they didn't.

Meijer, who was recently sworn in to represent Michigan's 3rd congressional district, made the claims while writing about the "heinous assault" which occurred on Wednesday, January 6, as Trump supporters, extremists, and followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory stormed the Capitol in what lawmakers say was an attempted coup.

In an opinion piece for the The Detroit News, Meijer recalled how he had "assured my colleague we would be fine" even after they were unpacking gas masks and taking cover under bulletproof chairs as the violent mob tried to gain entry in to the chamber.

After the assault on Congress by those who Biden referred to as domestic terrorists, Meijer said his colleague—who was one of the 121 House members and six senators who supported the objection—did so despite knowing Trump's claims of voter fraud were false.

"My colleague told me that efforts to overturn the election were wrong, and that voting to certify was a constitutional duty," he said. "But my colleague feared for family members, and the danger the vote would put them in.

"Profoundly shaken, my colleague voted to overturn."

Meijer did not name the GOP lawmaker and it is unknown if they had previously planned on supporting the results prior to the attack.

Newsweek has contacted Meijer for further comment.

It's one thing to fear for your job by constituents if you aren't doing what they imagine they voted you into office for. It's another thing to fear for your or your families life, because people who may NOT even be YOUR constituents terrorize you for not doing the bidding of their chosen leader.

There it was though on Jan 6th.

 

[SuperMatt]

This is where some wanted our country to head

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1348147381519470597/



It's one thing to fear for your job by constituents if you aren't doing what they imagine they voted you into office for. It's another thing to fear for your or your families life, because people who may NOT even be YOUR constituents terrorize you for not doing the bidding of their chosen leader.

There it was though on Jan 6th.

There seems to be little appetite for tracking these domestic terrorists within the DHS. I truly hope that attitude swivels 180 degrees with a Biden presidency.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Truly evil racists. They didn’t just attack the Capitol. They were attacking random innocent black people in the streets.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/do-not-go-in-to-dc-after-a-black-moms-warning-on-jan-6-came-a-shameful-moment-blocks-from-the-capitol/2021/01/08/ae1a9202-5213-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

Wow. Excellent, excellent story.

I hope that poor woman doesn't feel any guilt. She did what she had to do.

 

[SuperMatt]

We already knew this because we‘ve been paying attention, but the data confirm it:

The Police’s Tepid Response To The Capitol Breach Wasn’t An Aberration

Authorities are more than twice as likely to break up a left-wing protest than a right-wing protest.

fivethirtyeight.com