VIDEO & ARTICLES: SO YOU SAY YOU "BACK THE BLUE" AND DRUMPF'S/TRUMP'S 6JAN PARDONS? MEET OFFICER CAROLINE EDWARDS & WATCH: Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards gives opening statement in Jan. 6 committee hearing .....

 

IT is very appropriate, on the 250th Anniversary, the Semiquincentennial, to remind all who voted for and still support neo-nazi fascist NOT MY pres drumpf/trump that we almost lost our democratic Republic on 6 JAN 21. We are still struggling to stop, contain and reverse the damage traitor drumpf/trump and his treasonous sycophants inflicted and are inflicting on our nation while the police officers who bravely resisted the attempted coup are still dealing with the personal injury and damage they received in the line of duty. Everyone who voted for and supports drump/trump-vance and gop / guardians of pro-fascism republicans are also complicit in the treason and crimes they are committing on and against America. The video and article are from PBS , find more on the 6JAN21 insurrection in this blog by searching 6JAN21.....

CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER CAROLINE EDWARDS GIVES OPENING 

STATEMENT IN JAN. 6 COMMITTEE HEARING

Jun 9, 2022

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards said in her opening statement June 9 before the House Jan. 6 committee that on the day of the attack and in the days that followed, she was called a number of names, including “Nancy Pelosi’s dog,” “incompetent,” “hero,” and “villain.” “In actuality, I was none of those things. I was an American, standing face-to-face with other Americans, asking myself many, many times, how we had gotten here,” Edwards said. She recalled her grandfather, a marine who fought in the Korean War, and "would like to think that he would be proud of me, proud of his granddaughter that stood her ground that day and continued fighting, even though she was wounded, like he did, many years ago,” Edwards said. “I am my grandfather’s granddaughter, proud to serve my country.” The hearing June 9 was the first of several planned by the Jan. 6 committee in the coming weeks. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day. Edwards was the first witness to testify in a public hearing, along with filmmaker Nick Quested, who documented much of the violence that day. The hearing June 9 was the first of several planned by the Jan. 6 committee in the coming weeks. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Who is Caroline Edwards and why did she testify in the Jan. 6 hearings?

Updated on Jun 10, 2022 2:00 PM EDT — Published on Jun 9, 2022 12:21 PM EDT

By —

Kenichi Serino

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards was one of two witnesses called to testify June 9 at the first public hearing of the Jan. 6 Committee.

Edwards was on duty at the Capitol on Jan. 6 when pro-Trump rioters attacked the Capitol as Congress was in the process of certifying electoral college votes in the 2020 presidential election.

Edwards detailed her injuries for the committee, and the work she did despite those injuries to protect parts of the Capitol from rioters.

"What I saw was just a war scene. It was something like I had seen out of the movies. I couldn't believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing up," Edwards said. .

"I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people's blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos. I can't, I can't even describe what I saw."

Edwards was a four-year veteran of the U.S. Capitol Police when the Jan. 6 attack took place, according to USA Today. However, she told the committee nothing in her training would have prepared her for the events of that day.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle. You know, I'm trained to detain, you know, a couple of subjects and handle a crowd. But I'm not combat trained," she said.

"And that day it was just hours of hand-to-hand combat, hours of dealing with things that were way beyond any law enforcement officer has ever trained for."

Edwards was present at the Capitol steps when members of who she identified at Thursday's hearing as the Arizona Proud Boys and one of their leaders, Joseph Biggs, began to approach the building.

Edwards said Biggs began to shout at her, "turning the tables on us" something she identified because she had worked hundreds of "civil disturbance events."

"I know when I'm being turned into a villain. That is when I turn to my sergeant and I stated the understatement of the century. I said 'Serg., I think we are going to need a few more people down here,'" she said.

Edwards said Biggs and the other Proud Boys began to confer amongst themselves, approached a police barricade made of bike racks, before charging ahead.

She testified on June 9 about how she worked to keep the Proud Boys contained next to the bike racks. Though she knew she did not have the strength to stop them, she hoped to delay them long enough for more police to arrive for back up. As the barricade was forced forward, she fell backward and was knocked unconscious.

Edwards was the first law enforcement officer injured by rioters who attacked the Capitol, leaving her with a brain injury, according to a statement issued by the Jan. 6 Committee. Though injured, she continued to patrol the Capitol and prevented more rioters from entering the building.

Edwards has already made official statements on what happened to her on the day, including in court documents filed in the case of one of the Jan. 6 rioters who allegedly attacked her.

FASCIST FOTZE TRUNT SPEAKER mikie johnson r-LA DISPLAY THE PLAQUE HONORING THE POLICE OFFICERS WHO DEFENDED THE US CAPITAL ON 6JAN21

THE neo-nazi fascist fotze trunt mikie johnson is a disgrace as are the members of the house that are allowing him to not to have this hung in the Capital. I sent Minority Leader Rep Hakeem Jeffries D-NY a message ( included Rep Sewell D-AL and Rep Suhas Subramanyam D-VA, my rep ) on BlueSky suggesting he find the actual plaque and make it available to all reps who want to display it on an easel while speaking on the House floor, and to just dare fascist fotze trunt Rep mike johnson r-LA to challenge his right to do that. E mail your representative and senators telling them to insist this plaque be prominently displayed in the US Capital building and to hang a copy of the plaque outside their congressional offices.

Over 100 members of Congress have mounted replicas of a plaque honoring the police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the January 6th insurrection outside their offices -- because House Speaker Mike Johnson has disgracefully refused to install the official one. The plaque's message is simple yet profound, a long overdue recognition of the officers' courage and sacrifice: "On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten."

Among the House members honoring these courageous officers -- nearly 140 of whom were assaulted by violent rioters during the insurrection -- is Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama, pictured here, who wrote: "Congress voted to honor the brave officers who defended our democracy on January 6th with a memorial plaque in the U.S. Capitol. Speaker Johnson is refusing to install it, so I'm hanging a replica outside my office. We won't let their heroism be erased."

The plaque's creation was an official act of Congress, passed as part of the 2022 government funding bill and signed into law on March 15, 2022. It was due to be installed by March 2023. The Acting Architect of the Capitol has testified that the plaque is complete and ready.

Rep. Joe Morelle of New York eventually hunted it down last May -- finding it shoved into a Capitol basement room alongside a mini-fridge, a scooter, and old lockers. It has been sitting there for two years, waiting for Johnson's approval. That's how much he values honoring these officers.

When asked about the long delay, Johnson's office has offered the vague excuse that hanging it is "not implementable." Johnson has also failed to personally recognize today's fifth anniversary of the January 6th insurrection or organize any bipartisan memorial for the House.

His actions should surprise no one. Johnson himself was a central figure in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He organized an amicus brief signed by over 100 House Republicans supporting a lawsuit to throw out election results in four swing states. And on the night of January 6th itself -- after the riot was quelled and the blood was mopped from the Capitol floors -- Johnson voted to object to certifying the electoral votes.

In response to Johnson's defiance of the law in failing to install the memorial plaque, two officers who fought the mob that day -- former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges -- filed a lawsuit last summer. Their complaint is damning: "By refusing to follow the law and honor officers as it is required to do, Congress encourages this rewriting of history. It suggests that the officers are not worthy of being recognized, because Congress refuses to recognize them." Trump's Department of Justice is currently seeking to have the officers' case dismissed.

Disgusted by Johnson's block on even a simple memorial plaque, Reps. Joe Morelle, Jamie Raskin (MD), and Jim McGovern (MA) circulated a letter to their colleagues announcing the replica effort. They did not mince words: "If you're frustrated, like we are, with this embarrassing violation of law and spectacular disregard for the valor, honor and sacrifice of our police officers who responded on that day, please join us by displaying a poster replica of the plaque outside of your office."

Over 100 House members -- all Democrats -- answered the call. The Capitol complex is now awash with replicas of the memorial plaque, a testament to both the officers' heroism and the Republican party's shameful refusal to acknowledge it. As Rep. Morelle observed: "I guess that's the irony -- that it's displayed far more because of [Johnson's] reluctance to follow the law than it would have been had he just done the right thing." Instead of one plaque, he wryly noted, they've "now got 100."

The January 6th insurrection was one of the greatest acts of political violence in modern American history. The law enforcement officers on the front line -- defending democracy and protecting members of Congress -- paid the greatest cost. Violent rioters assaulted 138 police officers that day. Fifteen were injured so severely they had to be hospitalized. Officers suffered concussions, cracked ribs, and wounds from being beaten with pipes and crushed in doorways. And yet Johnson cannot bring himself to hang a plaque.

But it gets worse. As one of his first acts after being inaugurated on January 20, 2025, Donald Trump granted full pardons to all those convicted in the January 6th attack — over 1,500 rioters in total. That includes the 123 individuals charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to a police officer. It includes those convicted of seditious conspiracy, the gravest charge against the republic.

Trump has called these people "heroes" and "patriots." He has called January 6th a "day of love." And today, his White House launched an official propaganda website that not only rewrites the history of January 6th but directly blames the Capitol Police for the violence. The site accuses officers of "deliberately escalating tensions" with "provocative tactics" that "turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos." It claims a Capitol Police officer "murdered" Ashli Babbitt "in cold blood" and falsely asserts that "zero law enforcement officers lost their lives" -- erasing Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after being assaulted by rioters, and the four officers who later died by suicide.

But those who were actually there that day refuse to let the White House's outrageous lies stand. As Rep. Jamie Raskin observed: "[Trump] accuses the Capitol Police of being the aggressors in the violence. And so he has attempted to whitewash the violence, but you're talking about the most photographed and documented violent assault on the Capitol in American history." Even Republican Senator Susan Collins rejected the White House's claims: "I disagree with that completely. I was there that day... I thought the Capitol Police were heroic."

Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who fought the mob firsthand, declared: "We can't move on until we acknowledge what happened correctly and without this administration trying to lie and rewrite what happened that day." And former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was evacuated as rioters hunted for her, called the website what it is: "a manifesto of lies."

So this is where we are: The officers who defended the Capitol cannot get a plaque installed in their honor. The rioters who attacked them have received presidential pardons, public praise, and a revisionist history propaganda website.

If Johnson and Trump won't honor these officers, grateful Americans across the nation will -- and we commend the House Democrats who have stepped up to give them the recognition they deserve. As Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who served on the January 6th Committee, put it: "They really saved my life, and they saved the democracy, and they deserve to be thanked for it." She added: "Think about the dates in American history that we know only by the dates: There's the 4th of July. There's December 7th. There's 9/11. And there's January 6th."

And if Johnson won't act, former Speaker Pelosi made clear today that Democrats will: "Just wait 10 more months, Hakeem [Jeffries] will be speaker and we will place it in the place of honor. Yes, we will."

For a disturbing video showing just how violent the insurrection against the U.S. Capitol was on January 6, you can watch footage released by the Jan. 6 Congressional Committee at https://tinyurl.com/mrxjjtfz

NPR has also created an extensive video archive of the January 6th insurrection at https://apps.npr.org/jan-6-archive/

For a first-hand account by another police officer who was assaulted that day, we recommend "Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781668007211 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4mWOHY5 (Amazon)

For an excellent book for kids about the events of January 6th and the importance of respecting the electoral process, we recommend "Losing is Democratic: How to Talk to Kids About January 6th" for ages 7 and up at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9798989493449 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4e6KFbB (Amazon)

For powerful books for tweens and teens about girls living in real-life oppressive societies throughout history where rulers didn't respect the rule of law, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426

For an inspiring book that looks at the long history of women in law enforcement through the stories of 16 real-life trailblazers, we recommend "Women in Blue" for teens and adults, ages 13 and up, at https://www.amightygirl.com/women-in-blue

To read more about the plaque honoring the police that Johnson has refused to display and the Democrats' response, visit https://www.npr.org/.../january-6-plaque-law-enforcement... and https://wapo.st/4bkMmmm