Disturbing Video Shows Officer Crushed By Pro-Trump Mob At Capitol
The video shows a police officer being crushed against a door by a crowd trying to take over the nation’s Capitol
During Tuesday’s acts of sedition, where Trump loyalists laid siege to the Capitol building and proceeded to brutally riot and vandalize the government buildings, members of law enforcement who were there to keep the peace likewise fell under similar attacks that members of press organizations found themselves facing.
WARNING: The video below is both graphic and disturbing. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
During the standoff, caught on video by Status Coup and shared on CNN, one officer was trapped between a Capitol door and and the mob of extremists. At least one person tried to tear off the officer’s mask as he was wedged, and the video shows the officer’s screams of pain as the mob pressed against him. The video moved over to show the rest of the rioters, who chanted in unison, “Heave, ho! Heave, ho!” trying to advance further into the entrance. The camera then returns to the officer, still stuck, but now maskless and bloodied — and shouting for help.
The officer subsequently was able to free himself from the door. The condition of the officer is not known.
Jon Farina, the man who filmed the video, spoke with CNN about the clash between police and rioters, which he said was constant.
“There was no talking to them,” Farina said of the rioters. “They were going to get in there regardless of what was in their way.” He added that “nothing really fazed them” and that “they just kept rotating in and out. They would say ‘We need fresh patriots.'”
Farina said authorities, ultimately, were able to clear rioters from that location.
The video marks a different tone from the past rhetoric of extremists, who baselessly criticize the Black Lives Matter movement for their seeming lack of respect for police. The far-right faction, which usually touts such phrases as “Blue Lives Matter” and “Respect The Blue,” seemed to have misplaced their support of law enforcement. In the horrifying video of the shooting death of insurrectionist Ashli Babbit, in the seconds before the incident, a rioter can be seen outside the Speaker’s Gallery at the House of Representatives, shouting at law enforcement that they should have their back in the same way the rioters had theirs during the BLM protests.
Twitter users were quick to point out the hypocrisy.
In a report on MSNBC, anchor Chris Hayes spoke of the mood on the Hill, where the mob expressed their intention to hang Vice President Mike Pence for failing to support Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud. A widely circulated photo from Tuesday’s riots shows a gallows had been erected outside the Capitol.
“It is entirely possible that there were people in that crowd, looking to apprehend, possibly harm, and possibly murder the leaders of the political class that the President, and people like Mo Brooks, and even to a certain extent Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, have told them have betrayed them,” Hayes says.
Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol left five people dead, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. The FBI asks the public for information to help to identify the domestic terrorists who infiltrated the Capitol building and took their mayhem to the surrounding areas of Washington, D.C.
