DC Capitol Riot & Subsequent Fallout Thread (Jan 2021)

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

So here is a question, when they arrest you in the US do they make you shave prior to mug shots?

Or are these criminals going home and all thinking that shaving will fly them under the radar?

I have seen 2 mugs now where they shaved after the insurrection.

It's known as the reverse Clark Kent.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by Dion

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347932562304487432

At 4:48 I’m pretty sure the guy on the phone says “yeah I was the first person in, momma”

[Scorch]

This is a tough read from two of the African American Capitol Officers

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml...ice-racism-mob

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’s 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 veteran 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 ####ing us up,” he told one group of protestors 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 one, 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 protestors, 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 god damn 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 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 ####, man? Is this America? What the #### just happened? I’m so sick and tired of this ####.’”

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 ###### 15 times today,” the veteran officer shouted in the rotunda to no one in particular. “Trump did this and we got all of these ####ing people in our department that voted for him. How the #### can you support him?”

“I cried for about 15 minutes and I just let it out.”

[octothorp]

Jeez, that's heartbreaking to read.

[Manhattanboy]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Jeez, that's heartbreaking to read.

Hardly surprising.

[transplant99]

This may be the greatest rant ever made...spot on as well.

***********LANGUAGE WARNING************

NSFW!

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347336476451872769

[Julio]

Originally Posted by Ped

The guy with the zip ties is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

This was the older, chubby guy in the green helmet, not the guy most associated with having zip ties, who was a younger more athletic looking guy who, in the pic I have seen the most, is valuting over a railing in the Senate chamber.

[Mr.Coffee]

We all knew the US wasn't what they said they are. Like... for 25 years.

I'm not sure why anyone, outside the US, would be surprised today.

The only people indoctrinated as to what the US "was/is"..... are Americans.

And yes, we have the same problem.

[Scorch]

On an American Airlines flight from DC, the Captain threatens rioters he’d stop the plane in Kansas.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347630575159570442

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347629283892731905

[Scorch]

[Lanny_McDonald]

The Terminator may have summed up the current state of events best.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1348249481284874240

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Arnie, what’s a ####ing speech man. Warms the cockles of my heart. That was phenomenal.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by Scorch

On an American Airlines flight from DC, the Captain threatens rioters he’d stop the plane in Kansas.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347630575159570442

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347629283892731905

"Isn't this American Airlines??"

Yes, being truly pieces of #### now is considered being American

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Cappy

"Isn't this American Airlines??"

Yes, being truly pieces of #### now is considered being American

Those passengers can’t take a joke.

[FlameOn]

Excellent speech by Arnie. Lets all remember Canadians are not immune to what Trump is spouting. We have our own pro-Trump pro-disease rallies going on here. Here's one from yesterday. No tickets were issued during this event.

[Locke]

There are days that I want to sit down with these people and work out where they come from.

But then I remember that, to my utter dismay, I am more or less sane.

[PepsiFree]

There are few things more profoundly idiotic than a Canadian Trump supporter.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

There are few things more profoundly idiotic than a Canadian Trump supporter.

I dont know. I can kind of get it, to a point. Its easy to support things that are happening at a distance.

Ugh. No. Its just...if you logically think things through to their conclusions it makes no sense.

Can he even wield firearms with those little hands? Inquiring minds demand answers!

[rubecube]

Disgusting. Fair warning, the images in the article are pretty disturbing

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...ck-black-woman

A Black woman in Los Angeles who was beaten and pepper-sprayed this week by Trump supporters while her arms were held down said she is lucky to be alive.

Berlinda Nibo, 25, said she was walking past a "Stop the Steal" protest outside Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday during the attempted coup in Washington, DC, when a group of Trump supporters started asking who she voted for, saying "white lives matter," and calling her the n-word. Nibo said she then flipped them off and told them to leave her alone and that they should be wearing masks.

Soon after, Nibo realized a group of about 30 people kept following her and she quickened her pace, but the Trump supporters blocked her path and swarmed her. A man she recorded on her cellphone falsely accused her of hitting someone else and scratched her eyes and took her phone.

Footage captured by Nibo of the man shows him accusing her of "assaulting that guy" and grabbing her phone. Other people then started hitting Nibo, pulled off her wig, and pepper-sprayed her.

In a video posted on Twitter after the attack, a woman with a Trump flag hanging over her shoulder proudly held up Nibo's wig.

"I did that," the woman is heard saying in the video. "I did the first scalping of the new civil war."

And for people who still get incredulous when slogans such as "ACAB" get tossed around:

Nibo and a photographer who captured the attack said Los Angeles police officers were across the street, but never intervened.

Natalicchio said she and the two women helped Nibo walk over to the police officers, but when the women approached, a captain pushed one of them to the ground.

"The police were there the entire time and didn't move an inch," she said.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Hard to watch this stuff. Beating cops (and killing) with American flags.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1348346357233446914