New video of attack on Capitol Police released by DOJ

Former Marine and NYPD officer charged with seven felonies

This is where the proverbial rubber meets the proverbial road with congressional Republicans who oppose an independent commission to investigate the violent assault on the Capitol on January 6.  They contend the assault wasn’t violent? It was just a bunch of peaceful protestors with a few bad apples? The images below are stills taken from a new video https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/06/17/violent-capitol-riot-video/ released by the Department of Justice showing former Marine and NYPD officer Thomas Webster violently assaulting a Capitol police officer. 

In the first image, shown here:

Webster, in the red, white and black jacket and carrying a flag, is approaching a line of Capitol police standing behind a police barricade in front of the Capitol steps.  In the video, Webster can be heard shouting obscenities at the officers as he waves a Marine flag over his head repeatedly calling the officers “commie fucks” and “you commie motherfuckers.”  He shouts at them to “take this shit off,” pointing to their riot gear, which includes helmets, face shields, body armor, and gas masks.

He then jabs his metal flag pole at one of the officers, who grabs it and rips off the flag as they struggle over the pole. Webster regains control of the bare pole and begins swinging it at the officers. One officer grabs the pole from him backs away from the barricade. At that point, Webster crosses the barricade and assaults the officer, grabbing his gas mask and shouting obscenities, pushing him to the ground, shown in a still taken from a video here:

The video captured with the officer’s body cam shows Webster continuing to assault him on the ground, pounding him with his fists and shouting obscenities. 

It is noteworthy that while Webster is shouting at the officers to “take this shit off,” one of the insurgents can be seen in the first photo just to the right of him in military-style gear very similar to that worn by the police: olive drab helmet, face mask, goggles, and body armor.  The man immediately to Webster’s left is wearing so-called “tactical” gloves with padding over the knuckles to protect them when hitting something or, more likely, someone.  Numerous other insurgents in other videos can be seen attired in combat gear, including body armor, helmets, goggles, carrying flag poles which they, like Webster, quickly turned into weapons.  One such pole flying a blue “Trump 2020” flag can be seen right behind Webster.

The scene released on video by the Justice Department yesterday depicts assaults by insurgents on police officers as they defended the bottom of the Capitol steps.  The assaults continued as the officers retreated up the steps and formed another line to protect the Capitol doors. 

Other videos show officers being grabbed by insurgents and dragged away from the Capitol doors and assaulted with flag poles, at least one of them flying the American flag.  It was just outside the doors to the Capitol that Capitol Hill Police Officer Michael Fanone was beaten unconscious with a flag pole and hit with a taser, causing him to suffer a minor heart attack and numerous bruises and abrasions.  Fanone is the injured officer who attempted to shake hands with Republican representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who famously referred to videos of the Capitol assault as showing a “typical tourist visit” and voted against awarding Capitol Police officers the Congressional Gold Medal for their heroism on January 6.  Clyde recently refused to shake Fanone’s hand when he visited congressional offices and began recording him with his cell phone, as if he was making a record of an attack on himself.  Fanone just stood there, peacefully asking him why he wouldn’t shake his hand.

Webster, the former NYPD cop, faces charges of assaulting police, unlawfully entering Capitol grounds with a dangerous weapon and engaging in physical violence.  At a court hearing yesterday, his lawyer told the judge in Webster’s defense that he was only reacting to being punched by a police officer.  Prosecutors responded by telling the judge that they had examined 10 minutes of video leading up to Webster’s violent assault on the Capitol police, and there had been no provocation by police officers or punches thrown at Webster prior to the assault. The judge refused bail and remanded Webster into federal custody.

Democrats need to print out these images on posters and show them on the floor of the House and the Senate and at any further hearings they hold on the Capitol attack.  Republican attempts to play down the insurrection and minimize the violence should be fought with the video of Webster’s assault on the police officer as well as images of the assault on Fanone and other officers.

More than 140 police officers were injured during the assault on the Capitol, some like Fanone seriously.  At least one officer lost fingers in the attack.  Others suffered concussions and cuts to their faces, heads, hands, and arms.

Nineteen of those arrested in the attack on the Capitol were active duty or former law enforcement officers.  Even more were former members of the military. 

These facts and images should be in the campaign arsenals of every Democrat running for election or reelection in 2022. These are the people Republicans are defending as patriots and heroes. Democrats need to let voters in every state of the Union know exactly who they are and what they did. Republicans cannot be allowed to turn the violent assault on our nation’s Capitol into “just another day of tourist visits.” It was an assault on the citadel of our government and the soul of our democracy.