Friday, January 12, 2024

Some of the real heroes of Jan. 6.



Some of the real heroes of Jan. 6.
Aides carrying the electoral ballots to safety.


Officer Lt. Michael Byrd - a hero, defending lives and the Capitol.

A villain - Ashli Babbitt

who was shot assaulting elected officials and police while breaking through a door and window:





As the certification process was underway, Trump gave a speech encouraging his supporters to march to the Capitol. Many of them did, whereupon they joined other protesters already gathered in the area and violently breached and stormed the Capitol, eventually entering the Senate chamber as well as numerous offices. The Congressional proceedings were suspended, and the legislators were taken to secure locations.

Babbitt, wearing a Trump flag as a cape, was among several dozen rioters who approached the doors to the Speaker's Lobby, adjacent to the House chambers. Three uniformed officers were posted outside the Lobby where they were threatened by the crowd. One member of the mob yelled, "Fuck the Blue" (blue being a reference to the police). One officer guarding the doors told the others "They're ready to roll", and the three officers moved away from the barricaded doors leading to the Speaker's Lobby. No longer impeded by police, rioter Zachary Jordan Alam smashed a glass window beside the doors. On the other side of those doors, many lawmakers and staff were being evacuated by Capitol Police, but some were trapped in the House balcony.

After "he's got a gun" was yelled several times when Lieutenant Michael Byrd aimed his weapon, Babbitt, hoisted by two men, began to climb through the shattered window. She was then shot in the left shoulder by Lieutenant Byrd and fell back among the other protesters. Babbitt had been warned not to proceed through the window: one witness recalled that "Several police and Secret Service were saying 'Get back! Get down! Get out of the way!'; [Babbitt] didn't heed the call."

Many rioters immediately began to leave the scene, making room for a Capitol Police emergency response team to get in and administer aid, and Babbitt was transported to Washington Hospital Center where she later died. She was 35 years old. According to a January 11, 2021 crime scene examination report by the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences, the police "recovered a 'Para Force' folding knife in Ms. Babbitt's pants pocket" after she was shot.

U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a witness to Babbitt's attempted breach, said that Lieutenant Byrd "didn't have a choice" but to shoot, and that his action "saved people's lives". - adapted from Wikipedia.

Big villain - Trump praising an insurrectionist dying trying to kill police officers and politicians.



An American hero - Lt. Michael Byrd.



Americans have to take a stand on which side they are on.

I have.

.

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