My Three Take-Aways From The First Jan. 6 Insurrection Hearing

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​MY THREE TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE FIRST JAN. 6 INSURRECTION HEARING

   Last Thursday night I, along with much of of our nation (at least I hope much of our nation), watched the first televised hearing of the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol.

      The following day the commentary on the news sites was plentiful, with with a number of  analysts distilling into "takeaways" what they considered the most important and meaningful findings from that first hearing:

       I came away from watching the hearing with some takeaways of my own, not necessarily the most critical or newsworthy revelations made by the Committee, but rather several things disclosed during the hearing or brought up during the TV commentary immediately afterwards that struck me. These were the words and images I took away because I couldn't leave them behind, and they've kept me thinking, pondering, and shuddering ever since.
     And so I'll add to the editorial pot three more takeaways - that is to say, the three that most struck me, or shocked me - from the first hearing on the Jan. 6 insurrection against the United States Capitol:

       1. The Insurrection Against The U.S. Capitol Was Planned And Coordinated In Advance, With The Proud Boys  Ready And Waiting To Spearhead The Attack. 
         Nick Quested, a journalist who was in  the midst of creating a documentary on the Proud Boys, followed a group of Proud Boys on January 6, 2021, to Washington D.C. where it was his understanding that they were going to attend the Donald Trump rally. 
          Mr. Quested was subpoena​ed  before the Committee, 

...where he testified that the group of Proud Boys he was documenting arrived at the Capitol an hour and a half before Trump was to speak. But instead of gathering at the Ellipse, the area where the rally was to take place and where Trump would speak, this group of between two and three hundred headed in the opposite direction towards the Capitol building. This confused Mr. Quested, as he believed that the Proud Boys had come to attend the rally and hear Donald Trump speak. However they instead appeared at first to be scoping out the area around the Capitol building, and then they gathered at the barriers in front of the building.
      And here, in front of the barriers, where there were initially not more than a dozen Capitol Police officers on duty, the Proud Boys waited until the thousands of rallying Trump supporters would be whipped into a mental state of high anger and attack by Donald then commanded by him to march down Pennsylvania Avenue - to where the Proud Boys were waiting - and "Fight like hell."
       And it was those angry thousands, fueled by Donald Trump, who launched the Proud Boys' planned insurrection against the Capitol as they followed blindly behind them and gave the assault the thrust and strength of overpowering numbers.   

 
       2.  There Are Those Who Love Donald Trump Obsessively And Would Do Anything For Him
       During the hearing recorded testimony was played from several men who've been charged with or convicted of criminal offenses from their part in the assault on the Capitol. The thread that ran through all of their testimonies was that they did what they did because Donald Trump asked them to. 
​           One man, Eric Barber, circled below,​

...who's charged with theft and unlawful demonstration at the Capitol, said of Donald Trump, "He personally asked us to come to D.C. that day. And I thought, 'For everything he's done for us, if this is the only think he's gonna ask of me, I'll do it.'"
​       Another man, Robert Schornack, below,

...who was sentenced to thirty-six months' probation for breaking into the Capitol, said, "Trump asked us to come. Trump has only asked me for two things: He asked me for my vote and he asked me to come on January 6."
     The words of these two men struck me as the words that would come from  an obsessed besotted lover. Or maybe from a child bound by an overwhelming love and duty - as well as an overwhelming desire for parental love - to carry out an unreasonable demand by a tyrannical parent. Or from a religious devotee showing his personal love and devotion to his God by doing whatever his God commanded him. 
       That these men - and obviously many others in this country - have in their minds this deep personal loving relationship with Donald Trump, as if he were their  beloved, their loved parent, their religion, or perhaps an amalgam of all those things, this struck me as so strange. And so terrifying.
​
​         3.  A Tale Of Two Police Forces
         Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, in her testimony before the Committee members,      ​

...told of standing behind the barricade in front of the Capitol building on January 6 facing a crowd of thousands. She told of how, though being outnumbered many times over she and her fellow officers attempted to hold back the barricades against the attackers. But they were overwhelmed. 140 police officers were injured. Five officers were killed.
      Video was shown of Officer Edwards, in her attempt to hold back the insurrectionists, being  knocked down by the mob onto the Capitol steps then pinned beneath a barricade.

     Officer Edwards was knocked unconscious in her fall against the steps, however when she came to she continued assisting her fellow officers and washing out the eyes of those who had been pepper-sprayed by the insurrectionists. She saw Officer Brian Sicknick in distress, his face as white as a sheet of paper. Officer Sicknick would die the next day. Officer Edwards described the scene outside the Capitol building as a war zone. "There were officers on the ground," she said. "They were bleeding, they were throwing up ... 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 even describe what I saw."
     Officer Edwards would sustain further injuries that day, and her fall onto the Capitol steps resulted in a traumatic brain injury that has so far prevented her from returning to the Capitol Police Force. 
       Now, as moving as Officer Edwards' testimony was, still it was a post-hearing observation made  by MSNBC commentator Lawrence O'Donnell that struck me as truly perceptive and thought-provoking.

    Lawrence O'Donnell commented that over the years his work has brought him often to the Capitol, and that the Capitol Police Force always struck him as a polite, friendly outfit whose purpose was to be helpful to visitors to the Capitol. "More like glorified doormen," was Mr. O'Donnell's description of his impression of the Capitol Police. 
      These folks, according to Mr. O'Donnell, were the last police force in the world one would have imagined taking on a violent mob of 2,500 insurrectionists invading the United States Capitol. And yet these police officers did take on the attackers, though, as Caroline Edwards pointed out, she and her fellow officers were not trained for combat, which was what this was. But, as Officer Edwards also pointed out, on this day they were doing their duty to their country. They were protecting Democracy.  
       Mr. O'Donnell then juxtaposed the brave, heroic response of the Capitol Police to the attacking mob of insurrectionists,   

...and the cowardly response of the Uvalde Police, who allowed nineteen children and two teacher to bleed to death while they loitered around outside the school building because they were afraid to go inside and confront the gunman.

      One never knows where heroism will spring to life  or where it will wither miserably.