This 10-minute interview with Officer Michael Fanone of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is very powerful.
Officer Michael Fanone tells @donlemon it’s been very difficult to see elected officials whitewash what happened on Jan. 6.
He was stun-gunned several times and beaten with a flagpole during the Capitol attack.
Watch part 1 of his first in-depth interview: pic.twitter.com/4LzuJcfztl
— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) April 28, 2021
Watch the video. It’s just 10 minutes of your time; then if you feel like I do, share it far and wide.
[Officer] Fanone suffered a heart attack and a concussion during the insurrection and is now dealing with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder..
“I experienced the most brutal, savage hand-to-hand combat of my entire life,” he said Tuesday. “Let alone my policing career, which spans almost two decades. It was nothing that I had ever thought would be a part of my law enforcement career, nor was I prepared to experience.”Federal prosecutors have filed charges against Thomas Sibick, who allegedly participated in the assault of Fanone. Prosecutors said Sibick was seen in police body-camera footage assaulting Fanone while he lay on the ground outside the Capitol during the riot.
During the brawl outside the Capitol, Sibick allegedly grabbed Fanone’s badge and radio, and he later posted a photo of himself holding a police shield on Facebook, court filings say.
“I want people to understand the significance of January 6,” Fanone said Tuesday. “I want people to understand that thousands of rioters came to the Capitol hell-bent on violence and destruction and murder.”
h/t zhena gogolia
hueyplong
Prosecutions + convictions, with wide dissemination of the evidence supporting those convictions.
That’s what we need.
trollhattan
I really, really want those traitorous bastards to pay, pay with their freedom, pay with their precious money (and really experience economic anxiety), pay with being exposed to the world for the murderous traitors they are.
hueyplong
@trollhattan: And whining endlessly about how they’re unemployable. The Schadenfreudelicious side-order.
WaterGirl
pulling this one for awhile. i missed that mistermix had just posted.
Josie
Thank you, WaterGirl, for front paging this. I hope everyone takes the time to watch the video and share it where appropriate. These traitors must not be allowed to bury this story.
trollhattan
@Josie:
It’s quite the video.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: That 10-minute interview makes it all very real.
WaterGirl
Imagine having the presence of mind, as you are being attacked, to think through the fact that these people are trying to kill you, and that this is when you are allowed to use lethal force, yet realizing that there are so many people that that if you use lethal force to protect yourself, the situation can only be worse.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Thank you for front-paging.
JPL
@WaterGirl: I thought they were going to finish what the British couldn’t.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: I can’t imagine being that rational while being assaulted as he was.
They all need to be kept behind bars until their trials. All of them.
lowtechcyclist
January 6th, 2021: a day that will live in infamy.
Anyone who defends or excuses the insurrectionists and seditionists who were part of the mob that day is a traitor, as far as I’m concerned. Let alone the members of the mob themselves: we should repurpose Gitmo for them.
(Speaking of repurposing, I haven’t heard and can’t seem to find any better words than those that FDR used to describe the attack on Pearl Harbor. They fit this moment.)
Betty
The political leaders of this travesty have to be called to account as well.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: There is a certain tone in Officer Fanone’s voice whenever he says “the 6th” that reminds me of the tone we used at first when talking about “September 11th” before it was shortened to 9-11 and the reverence was dropped.
WaterGirl
What I don’t know is what we can/should do about it. Do we call our congress critters every day? That hardly seems like enough.
WaterGirl
OT, but I can’t find today’s press briefing with Jen Psaki. I wonder if there isn’t one because of the president’s speech tonight?
trollhattan
Related: one of the capitol invaders is invoking the “Moops” defense for the note he left Nancy Pelosi. Seriously.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: What is a moops defense? Even the google wouldn’t tell me.
geg6
I saw several clips from that interview and thought that Don Lemon did a great job with it, surprisingly enough.
And I cannot possibly love Officer Fanone more. My heart breaks for him and all of the good Capitol cops.
Taken4Granite
@WaterGirl: It’s a Seinfeld reference.
WaterGirl
@geg6: Don Lemon mentioned at the top of this particular video that he (Don) didn’t expect this interview to be so hard, and mentioned that he and the officer had become friends since Jan 6.
Jay
@WaterGirl:
it’s a Seinfeld reference, a variation on the South Park Chewbacca Defence.
WaterGirl
@Taken4Granite: Ah, thank you!
I don’t think I have ever mentioned how much I like your BJ nym.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl:
If you really want to know, UrbanDictionary has several potential answers.
HTH!!!1 ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Thank you! I googled “moops defense” which is probably why nothing came up.
Mike in NC
Will tune in tonight to see President Joe Biden confront the disloyal opposition tonight. I hope he makes it clear that the Attorney General is going to prosecute the fascist mob that the Orange Clown instigated to attack the Capitol, including members of Congress where appropriate.
No doubt Cruz and Hawley and others will be too busy to attend.
Another Scott
Another interesting word trending today – Banjaxed.
Ed Meese is cackling at the thought*…
Grrr….
Cheers,
Scott.
* – Yes, remote learning has expanded “school”, but teachers and administrators need to grow up.
rikyrah
The interview was powerful
gene108
@hueyplong:
What we really need is prosecutors working their way up to Congressional staff, and maybe even a Congress person or two.
I view January 6, 2021 as a test run.
Not only does the leadership of the Oath Keepers, III%’s, etc. need to be decapitated, any sympathetic Republican official needs to pay a price.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I remember watching this officer being interviewed right after the riot. He said toward the end of the attack, they were yelling at him that they supported him and the police, and he responded saying something like, “Then why are you trying to fucking kill me?”
Ken
@WaterGirl: It was used around here a lot, back when the ACA had its first big Supreme Court case. IIRC that was based on a legal “theory” requiring an immensely strained “literal” reading of part of the statute, and the general assumption was that the five conservative “justices” would leap on that as an excuse to strike the whole thing. “Sorry, the law says ‘Moops’, whole thing has to go.”
Rocks
And in case nobody mentioned it yet, banned from owning or possessing any guns whatsoever for the rest of their lives.
J R in WV
@Rocks:
I think a federal felony conviction and 10 or 20 years in prison will take care of that gun ownership thingy. Ex-cons can’t legally obtain a firearm. Good thing, too.
Hope the feds can find enough evidence to nail a big group of Republikkkan congress members also too.
WaterGirl
@debbie: He is a good communicator. Clear and to the point.
WaterGirl
@Ken: Huh. I never noticed that and I was definitely here for the ACA.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: I don’t think it was common, but it was mentioned in this Mayhew thread.
(Not that I remembered either, of course. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.