Two men arrested and charged for assaulting Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick
Washington (CNN)Two men have been arrested and charged for assaulting US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after responding on January 6 to hundreds of rioters who stormed the Capitol, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, of West Virginia, are alleged to have worked together to spray police, including Sicknick, with a toxic chemical spray during the Capitol riot. Khater called what was in the cannister “bear sh*t,” according to court records, but the Justice Department on Monday said the spray is unknown.
Each time you read a new story about some insurrectionist being arrested, like Khater and Tanios, start looking for the connections to the leaders on the right.
The defense of Khater and Tanios will be,”It was just pepper spray! They didn’t shoot him with a GUN or anything really dangerous!” The defenders of the inciters will seek to distance themselves to any connection with these two. (I wonder which politicians in Pennsylvania and West Virginia will be scrambling to disavow photos of them posing with Khater and Tanios?)
Remember, there are 800 others who entered the Capitol and over 300 who’ve been charged. Each of those people might have connections to leaders on the right, including those who just happen to be politicians. That is when the word conspiracy becomes more than a theory.
There needs to be justice for those who incited, aided and abetted this assault, not just for those who squeezed the bear spray trigger.
We must keep pushing for the truth of what happened and how leaders on the right are connected and implicated. The right will keep doing what they have been doing until they get busted in a such a serious way that it makes the cost of cheating, bribing, and threatening more painful than just stopping after being defeated in venue after venue. It needs to cost them money, power and their freedom.
At times I wonder why the establishment left doesn’t drive harder for justice for the people on the right who have broken countless laws. I have some theories ranging from fear of looking like Trump, threats we don’t know about, people in institutions being concerned they too are implicated, wishful thinking, lack of support from political leaders on the left who want “unity” being overwhelmed by the scope and waiting for the new AG to be sworn in.
In our modern political battles we use actions like protests and voting as well as words and thinking using our ideas, the media, social media and political pressure. We also use the written law, policies and even social norms that still exist.
But for some the action of ‘voting the horrible man out of office’ isn’t as satisfying. People still want to punch the horrible man in the face. (I’m sure some would like to defeat him in “trial by combat.”)
(From Season 1 Episode 3 of Lost In Space, written by Zack Estrin & Vivian Lee )
In a lot of the science fiction I watch who wins comes down to who is the better fighter. This is a function of the “action entertainment” genre, so it was a nice change to see in the Lost in Space reboot that the winner was often the person who:
1) Avoided the fight all together
2) Was smarter about their fighting, using various tools or strategies to win based on their opponents weaknesses or natural tendencies
3) Solved the fight/issue by thinking of a solution that used science, not punching
But one of the things that I’ve learned is that in the current world we still punish certain people for violence. (Not all, see the rich, white & cops.) We can use this acceptance of punishing people who use violence in this specific area to our advantage.
To keep beating & defeating the right we need to use their violent actions against them. We need to link the violent actors to the leaders on the right.
During the process we will almost certainly discover that leaders on the right have used trickery, bribery and threats to achieve their success. Often their trickery, bribery and threats are CRIMES. And when that happens there needs to be justice.
That is what this next phase is about. I know it’s not as entertaining (or as satisfying) as punching the bully, who we are told “stays down” when punched. These bullies don’t stay down. They get up and start planning their revenge. They convince the losers that they really didn’t lose and that they didn’t even do anything wrong! (And if they did, well, “So did the the other side!” They demand we look at wild, unproven accusations, that don’t stand up in a court of law.
Bottom line: Criminals, who happen to be politicians, need to be prosecuted.
Modern battles involve multiple types of fighting and defeating different types of leaders. And we need to know who those leaders are so they can be defeated.
As Ben Jealous, the President, of People For the American Way, said during the Senate Hearing on Federal Courts and Special Interest Group Money.
It’s time to end the “throw the rock and hide the hand” approach to politics in our country.