Capitol Attackers Didn't Back Blue
Turning the January 6th peaceful rally into a violent riot put police officers in danger. Over 780 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6th riot.
Attackers hit police with hockey sticks and baseball bats. They threw bike racks and metal barricades at police. One rioter even used the American flag to stab at a police officer. Some rioters carried Blue Lives Matter flags as they attacked and injured police officers.
The rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6th injured over 100 police officers.
Effects of January 6th:
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One police officer was beaten so badly he died of a stroke
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Police suffered brain injuries and smashed spinal discs
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Four police officers committed suicide
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One woman was trampled to death
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One woman was shot and killed
Police Attacker Claimed Self-Defense, Jury Found Him Guilty of Assault
A veteran and former police officer was convicted in early May of assaulting a Capitol police officer during the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
Thomas Webster, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years and in the New York Police Department for 20 years, is the fourth person a jury found guilty for the attack. The jury unanimously found Webster guilty of assaulting a police officer with a metal flagpole.
During his trial, Webster claimed his attack on Officer Noah Rathbun was self-defense.
But body camera footage shows Webster yelling obscenities and slamming a bike rack into Officer Rathbun. Webster then swung a metal flagpole down at Officer Rathbun, ran at him, shoved him to the ground, and grabbed the officer by his gas mask.
Officer Rathbun told the jury he started to choke when Webster grabbed the gas mask.
The jury saw through Webster’s story and found him guilty of assaulting a police officer. One juror said that Webster’s claim of self-defense “didn’t stack up.” Another juror said the entire jury agreed Webster’s actions were not in self-defense.
Other Attackers Sentenced
A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Cosper Head, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for dragging a police officer protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, into an angry pro-Trump crowd that brutally assaulted the officer. Head pleaded guilty to assaulting the officer, Michael Fanone, who has emerged as an outspoken advocate for the officers who were subjected to the mob violence on Jan. 6.
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Guy Reffitt, a Texan, was sentenced to 7 1/4 years in prison for igniting the crowd “into an unstoppable force” against police officers who were attempting to protect the Senate wing doors.
Reffitt was the first rioter to to be convicted at trial when a jury found him guilty on five counts: two counts of civil disorder and one count each of obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining on restricted grounds with a firearm and obstruction of justice.
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Kyle Young, an Iowa man, was sentenced to 86 months in prison for assaulting a law enforcement officer on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol. He and a group of other rioters swept the officer away from the police line and into the crowd, where they tased him on the neck.
Over a Year and a Half After the January 6th Attack, Many Are Still Calling on Violence Against Our Nation's Security Personnel and Leaders
In August, Luis Miguel, a GOP candidate who ran to represent Florida’s 20th district in the Florida House of Representatives posted a Tweet encouraging the killing of federal agents.
“Under my plan, all Floridians will be able to shoot FBI, IRS, ATF, and all other federal troops ON SIGHT! Let freedom ring!” he Tweeted in August, before ultimately losing his primary election.
Another Republican candidate from Florida, Martin Hyde, who lost his primary for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, made statements threatening FBI agents. In a video posted to Youtube in August in response to the search of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, he said that FBI agents “would stop at nothing. I wish they’d turn up at my home ‘cause they’d have gone home in a body bag.”
On August 23, a federal jury found Adam Fox and Barry Croft guilty of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. They face a maximum sentence of life in prison for their conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer.
Coming Together
America is the shining city on a hill because of the resolve of the American people. Even when it’s hard, Americans come together to make the country great.
On January 6th, Capitol rioters disgraced America’s highest ideals. The men and women who served in uniform who attacked the Capitol betrayed their solemn oath to protect America. Resorting to violence to attack democracy and assaulting police officers does not solve our nation’s problems. It only divides us.
We must always Back the Blue and defend democracy.