He ripped open a dark ugly sore in America that ran from sea to shining sea. Before Donald Trump conned his way into the presidency, there was still racial prejudice, but it lay festering beneath its scar of fake politeness or silence. The source was something amorphous, something indescribable.
These angry people poured out of their contaminated ship and raced toward the nation’s Capitol armed with weapons of opportunity — an American flag pole still carrying America’s banner, bricks, cans, etc. These were Trump’s core supporters, and this was exactly how the wealthiest control people, by pitting them against one another so they will ignore devious incorrigible acts.
For generations, people have been beaten back with unfairness, income inequality, and abject cruelty. That metastasized into anger directed at Blacks and people of color and was passed from one generation to the next.
But a true appreciation for diversity had appeared and taken root in this new millennium. U.S. Capitol Police Office James Blassingame has been protecting government officials and staff members for 17 years. He sat down for an interview with PBS News Hour’s Lisa Desjardin to explain how January 6 affected him.
Both Blassingame and one other officer have sued Trump for physical and mental injuries that fateful day. He explained:
‘[I]f the most powerful human being on the planet can — is not held accountable, can do whatever they want to do, what does that say about our democracy as a whole?’
Blassingame had never called had the n-word directed at him during his entire 39 years:
‘That streak ended on January 6. I was called a n****r. I was called a traitor. I was called various epithets. I was like ok, this is it (using his weapon for the first time). And the only reason why I didn’t do it. was because the mentality was, this is a four-alarm blaze. And if I pull my gun out and start shooting, I’m throwing kerosene on it. Maybe there’s a chance I survive if I don’t pull my weapon, but, if I do, I’m probably not going to make it out of here alive. You don’t have enough bullets.’
Desjardins next showed clips of congressional Republicans incredulously discrediting the riot. One said:
‘If you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.’
“What do you say?” Desjardins asked. He replied:
‘I would think certain things are above politics. I mean, it’s deplorable to say — as bad as it looks on film, believe me, it was much worse. They can stitch together as much footage as they want to, but I’m telling you, and anybody in that was in that scrum will tell you, it was much worse in person than anything you’re ever going to see on film.’
‘And for the narrative to be modify or changed, so that it’s trying to make it seem something other than what it was, it’s disheartening, especially — we go to work every day and we have to protect members of Congress. And for them to come and say, thank you for your service, and appreciate what you do, but you don’t, because this is very simple, just having a commission to find out what happened, so this doesn’t happen again. Because I personally feel that, again, this is something that there’s a very real threat moving forward.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
