Politics Project 2025/Agenda 47/Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power

I'm sorry to hear you've been in a coma the past 4 years. Must be frustrating trying to learn about everything that happened while you were asleep?

If you want me to research the landholdings of the Bulgarian prime minister, I'd be happy to. But January 6th is something everyone here should already know the facts on.
And it wouldn't be hard for you to research it if you did just wake up from a coma.

barfo

 

I doubt it.

Anyway, the situation is that you have some point you want to make about the injuries. So make it. You are absolutely right, facts matter. So make your argument and back it up with facts. Don't be asking me to back up your argument.

Everyone (with the possible exception of you?) has seen the videos of the riot. If you want to die on the 'it was just a rock concert with no music' hill, be my guest.

There's two ways to go about it. jonnyboy has demonstrated one - just assert your claims and refuse to back them up. That's the easiest route, although it doesn't tend to convince anyone.

The other way is present evidence. And yes, the burden is on you to do that. You are the one complaining that republicans are being unfairly blamed. You know, the 'jaded narrative'...

barfo

 

• Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted January 6 at the Capitol, including about 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/24-months-january-6-attack-capitol

 

Serious bodily injury

 

Officers’ Injuries, Including Concussions, Show Scope of Violence at Capitol Riot

One officer lost the tip of his right index finger. Others were smashed in the head with baseball bats, flag poles and pipes. Another lost consciousness after rioters used a metal barrier to push her into stairs as they tried to reach the Capitol steps during the assault on Jan. 6.

“We don’t have to hurt you — why are you standing in our way?” one rioter told the officer as he helped her to her feet, according to court documents. She tried to regroup, but blacked out while making an arrest hours later. Doctors determined she had a concussion.

A little more than a month after the Capitol siege, a fuller picture of the injuries sustained by the police has emerged from court documents, footage revealed at former President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial, accounts provided by officers and interviews with law enforcement officials and experts.

The Capitol assault resulted in one of the worst days of injuries for law enforcement in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. About 140 officers — 73 from the Capitol Police and 65 from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington — were injured, the departments have said. They ranged from bruises and lacerations to more serious damage such as concussions, rib fractures, burns and even a mild heart attack.

...

“If you’re a cop and get into a fight, it may last five minutes, but these guys were in battle for four to five hours,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit that advises departments across the country on management and tactics.

“You would be hard-pressed to find another day in history like this,” he said, “when the police encountered this level of violence in one event.”


The horror of the siege — which officers have described as “medieval” because of brute hand-to-hand combat and the use of blunt objects as weapons — received renewed attention this week at Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial. House managers repeatedly raised the injuries as they revealed new video and audio to argue that Mr. Trump incited his supporters to overrun the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying his election loss.

At the trial on Thursday, Mr. Cicilline listed a litany of injuries that laid out the effects of the siege on officers: concussions, irritated lungs and injuries caused by repeated blows from bats, poles and clubs.

“Capitol Police officers also sustained injuries that will be with them for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Washington police officers who had served in Iraq said that the Capitol riot “was scarier to them than their time in combat,” Mr. Cicilline said, quoting Chief Robert J. Contee III of the Metropolitan Police.

Mr. Cicilline then played clips of rioters shouting to officers in the Capitol: “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Traitor, traitors, traitors!”

...

“A majority are bruises and sprains, but one officer had a mild heart attack after he was hit with a stun gun several times and had to be pulled out of the crowd,” Mr. Burke said. “Others had laser pointers to the eyes, which can cause long-term damage.”

Estimates vary on the number of rioters who surrounded or entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, but a review of footage shows that at least thousands swarmed the building. In addition to the blunt objects, some were armed with stun guns, bear spray and plastic handcuffs.

At one point, one rioter took a fire extinguisher and slammed it on the ground. A loud explosive boom rang out, and white powder from the extinguisher filled the air.

...

About 170 of the roughly 1,200 Capitol Police officers on duty at the time of the attack were equipped with riot gear. Few other officers had gas masks or other protective equipment.

Some without helmets sustained brain injuries, one officer had two cracked ribs, two shattered spinal discs, and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake, said Gus Papathanasiou, the chairman of the Capitol Police Union.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police-officer-injuries.html

 

I think comparing the violence that day to a concert is pretty twisted.