On Tuesday, four officers who protected the US Capitol against a mob pro-Trump insurrectionists attacked them verbally and physically.The officers spoke before a House committee investigating Jan. 6 Capitol attacks. They described being punched, kicked and electrocuted.DC Metropolitan Police officers Daniel Hodges, Michael Fanone, and Capitol Police Sergeants. Harry Dunn, Aquilino and Gonell were emotional when they described the violence that occurred on Jan. 6 and how it affected their physical and psychological health. They also expressed their frustration with the elected officials who downplayed the event.According to authorities, 140 officers sustained injuries when they were trampled on, sprayed chemical irritants and beat with weapons made from flagpoles and metal barriers and bats.Dunn and Gonell also testified to the racist insults and slurs Trump supporters used against them during their storming of the Capitol.Officers recalled the crowd calling them "traitors" while chanting "fucktheblue."Video footage taken during Tuesday's testimony revealed the type of insults and taunts officers received during the attack. It included shouts like "Traitors! How do you live with yourselves?" "Die, traitors!"One rioter shouted "You should also be mad, fucking traitors", while others said to the officers, "You are on the wrong side" of freedom.One woman shouted at officers who were protecting the Capitol, "Fuck you guys! You can't even be called American!" "You violated your fucking vow today. 1776Continue the storyThese are some of the things the officers heard the insurrectionists shout at them during their attack."This nigger voted Joe Biden."Dunn, an emotional witness, described how he and other Black officers were subject to racial slurs including the n word, while protecting the Capitol.Dunn stated that rioters wearing MAGA hats, shirts with the words "Trump 2020", and MAGA shirts told Dunn that Trump invited them to the Capitol. They were there "to stop the theft." He said that he heard them saying "Joe Biden, not the president."Dunn stated that, despite his efforts to keep politics out his job as an officer in law enforcement, his taunts led him to tell the rioters he voted to support Biden."Does my ballot not count?" Are you not mine? Dunn was recalled telling them.He said that this triggered a torrential outburst from the mob.A pink MAGA shirt-clad woman shouted, "You know what guys?" Dunn said that this nigger voted in Joe Biden.The crowd began to chant "Boo, Fucking Niger" and he responded.Dunn stated, "No one has ever called my a nigger when I'm wearing a uniform of a Capitol Police Officer," and that other Black officers also shared the racial abuses they were subject to.Dunn was told by one officer that he had never been called the "n-word" to his face before Jan. 6. Dunn said that another Black officer told Dunn that rioters had told him to "put down your gun and we'll prove you who you really are.""You are not an American."Gonell, who came from Dominican Republic to the US in 1992, was a US Army Veteran serving in Iraq and said that the rioters saw his skin color through his mask. They then told him that he wasn't an American.Gonell stated that he was more afraid to work in the Capitol than he was during his entire deployment in Iraq. He also said that nothing he had learned in the army nor as a law enforcement officer prepared Gonell for the challenges awaiting him on Jan. 6.He said that he was being accused of "betraying my oath" and choosing his paycheck over his loyalty to the US Constitution. He claimed that he was a traitor, a disgrace, and that he was being executed by the crowd.Gonell stated that some of the rioters "had the audacity" to tell him it wasn't personal.He claimed they were using "menacing languages" and threatened to shoot at officers and run them over.Gonell said that he heard some rioters asking officers to join their cause, while hearing "specific threats" to the lives of Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, and Mike Pence, then vice president.Gonell described the violence as a "medieval struggle" and said that it was "horrible and devastating."He said, "We were punched and kicked, shocked, sprayed with chemical irritations, and then we were sprayed."Gonell said he heard the rioters shout Trump had sent them, and asked officers to "pick right side."He claimed that he heard his fellow officers screaming out in pain and agony while he was being crushed by the rioters.Gonell stated, "I felt like I was losing oxygen""Kill him using his own gun."DC officer Fanone stated that he hears the words "Kill him using his own gun" in his head.He said that he was "grabbed and beaten and tased while being called a traitor against my country."He claimed that the rioters tried to take his firearm and threatened him with death. Fanone stated that they took his radio and ammunition and beat him with fists and other hard metal objects.He said that some of them started chanting "get your gun, kill him with your own gun!"Fanone claimed that he was repeatedly electrocuted using a stun gun, and that his body camera captured the moment he was "assaulted" and almost killed by the mob when he attacked the Capitol on that day.He said, "During those moments I remember thinking that I would be torn apart and shot with my own gun."Fanone claimed that he tried to appeal at some of the rioters humanity in his desperate situation, telling them "I have children"He was then carried to safety by a crowd member.Fanone stated that he was unconscious at that time and that he remained that way for four minutes. He was taken to the hospital, where he was informed that he had suffered both a heart attack as well as a concussion.Fanone stated that, even though his injuries from the attack began to heal, he was still left with psychological trauma and anxiety after such an horrific experience."You will die on your knees."Hodges testified to the fact that he held onto his baton, despite being beaten by a rioter, and the man shouted at Hodges "You're on wrong team!" While another rioter shouted, "You will be on your knees."Hodges, as he marched with his colleagues to defend the Capitol, recalled people laughing at them and saying, "Here are the boys in blue...so courageous."Hodges recalls that another woman called them "storm troopers" while others shouted they were traitors.Hodges, who called Trump supporters "terrorists", in his testimony said that one of the men threw something on Hodges and kicked him to death. The crowd then chanted "USA!"He also described how he saw some mob members carrying pro-police Thin Blue Line banners while the crowd attacked law enforcement officers.Hodges claimed that he heard a man wearing a QAnon hoodie say, "This time to choose which side of history to follow." While another berated Hodges for not taking off his gear, and warned him to show solidarity with the rioters"You think that your little pea gun guns will stop this crowd?" Hodges remembered a man telling him. Hodges recalled a man telling him, "No, we're going into the building."Hodges also shared the harrowing moments captured on a now viral video in which he was crushed against the door by a mob of rioters pushing back against a line police officers.Below is footage taken inside the "meat grinder" tunnel that Officer Daniel Hodges called on Jan. 6, 2002, at 02:46 PM - 27 July 2021He claimed that a rioter in the front grabbed his gas mask's front and used it to beat him against the door, making "guttural screamings" and "foaming at his mouth."Hodges stated that Hodges switched to removing the straps from my head and putting them against my skull, straining my neck.To make it easier for Hodges to attack, the man put his cellphone in his mouth. The officer stated that he also removed Hodges' gas mask and exposed him to chemical irritants spray by the mob.Hodges claimed that another rioter grabbed Hodges’ baton and blasted his head and face. He was left with a broken lip and additional injuries to his skull.Continue reading
