Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman
"For the officers who had already been fighting for hours, it had become a ferocious last stand."
"Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, U.S. Capitol Police: The rioters were vicious and relentless. We found ourselves in a violent battle in a desperate attempt to prevent a breach of the Capitol by the entrance near the inauguration stage."
"Officer Michael Fanone, Metropolitan Police Department: The fighting in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel was nothing short of brutal. Here I observed approximately 30 police officers standing shoulder to shoulder, maybe four or five abreast, using the weight of their own bodies to hold back the onslaught of violent attackers. Many of these officers were injured, bleeding and fatigued."
"Officer Abdulkadir Abdi, Metropolitan Police Department: A few people rushed the front of the line, and then that kind of instigated the rest of them to follow suit. At that point, it was just complete hand-to-hand combat, but very little space to maneuver."
"Detective Phuson Nguyen, Metropolitan Police Department: "it escalated into full fighting."
"Officer Daniel Hodges, Metropolitan Police Department: There’s a couple dozen of us in there against, you know, the thousands and thousands outside, and we just held it as long as we could. It was a brutal fight."
"Officer Abdulkadir Abdi, Metropolitan Police Department: "It was just physical, people hitting each other, punching, people with poles, metal poles."
"Officer Abdulkadir Abdi, Metropolitan Police Department: Every about five to 10 minutes, they would switch and then we would end up fighting a new batch of fresh bodies. That just continued on."
"Officer Daniel Hodges, Metropolitan Police Department: It was a battle of inches, with one side pushing the other a few and then the other side regaining their ground."
"Officer Jesse Leasure, Metropolitan Police Department: Someone handed me a pitchfork at one point. It made its way all the way up the stairs. I don’t remember if it was a civilian or an officer, but they said, “I don’t want this being used against you guys.”
It continues: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-book-excerpt-trump-32429c15e05de5b1de34fe799ba89882
The plaque honoring the efforts of the officers on that day has been removed from the capitol building, and we know who pardoned all of the perps....
It's pretty disgusting how Trump and his enablers are trying to gaslight us all and rewrite history. There are tons of video evidence from police body cams, and the rioters themselves who were posting their actions in real-time that clearly show it was anything but a "peaceful protest," and a "day of love," by "great patriots." NPR even has a
public database detailing every Jan. 6th prosecution, of course, as you pointed out, all pardoned now. I saw some reporting recently, too, where the journalists did an investigative follow-up on these rioters, and not surprisingly, many of them went on to commit more violent crimes after their pardon, and a sizeable number are in jail now for further violent crimes, including sexual offenses against minors. As I like to say, it boggles the mind that anyone can condone or make excuses for what Trump and the rioters did that day. And then to think we put Trump back in office, I sometimes wonder if we have not crossed the Rubicon with Trump, and that our democracy is now in a descent that's unstoppable.
