Michael Byrd, the until-recently unidentified Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Capitol insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, says he’s received threats as ex-President Donald Trump and his allies have sought to paint Babbitt as a martyr.
Now that all the details have come out, and this officer has been able to tell his side of the story I am sure that Republicans everywhere will “Back the Blue.”
Of course the man who single-handedly* ended the insurrection by justifiably killing one of its terrorists is receiving death threats. They think overthrowing the government is a good thing! Even though they all pussied out on actually carrying through with it as soon as word got out that they could actually get shot and killed for that shit.
*Technically, it was a two-handed shooting stance that brought an end to the insurrection, but you know what I mean.
ETA: Had dumb terrorist Ashli Babbitt survived getting justifiably shot while attempting to climb through a barricaded window leading into the hallway immediately outside the House chamber where dozens of members were still holed up waiting to be evacuated, she would be facing at a minimum felony charges for obstructing an official proceeding. And her pre-J6 statements and conduct are vile enough that it’s entirely plausible she would be on the hook for conspiracy charges that would make her liable for the conduct of her fellow conspirators, which includes multiple assaults on cops. Honestly, I wish she had survived solely so she could have spent a decade or more in maximum security federal prison.
Trumpism: The Terrorism Within
I wonder if he’s one of the 7 Cap Cops suing TFG and his minions? I hope so. Even if not, he’s got a good defamation case against El Gordo Naranjo.
[h/t @epicurus]
That’s “El Gordo NaranjO.” (Spanish adjectives will change depending on the gender of the word being modified.) Works for me, either way.
It’s really brave of him to step out like this and tell the story of why he had to do what he did. He really had no choice, without his actions that mob would have broken down the door and charged towards members of Congress, possibly getting to them, possibly being mowed down by the other security officers. That one shot saved countless lives.
The fact that he’s Black is going to make the response from Trump supporters even worse…a Black man shooting a white woman and stopping Trump from becoming dictator just rubs it in that Trump lost and couldn’t overthrow the government.
I thought so. Thanks!
ThEre sEEms to Be a Lot oF blaCk men Executing white peoPle:
The centraL park 5 execute womaN
BlaCk Man executeSSusan Smith’s Kids
EmMett TiLL attempted Exwuction Of white woman
Pervis paYne execution of white woman and child
List Is on and oN
Workin’ hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin’ anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win
Some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on, and on, and on
Also potentially preventing trumps mob from hurting or killing members of Congress. It’s hard to fathom where things would have gone from there.
He wasn’t any less courageous before he came forward, IMO. He was totally within his rights to remain un-named.
He is not suing. And there’s a lot more than just the 7 who filed suit yesterday. I think that’s the fourth such lawsuit filed by the cops against Trump, et al.
I think it’s different…before, it was people making statements about the anonymous Black officer that shot her, so it was disconnected rage. Now they have a real target, and you can bet that he and his family have already received a slew of death threats since the interview. And, that it going to last for years, and he has to keep looking over his shoulder for a long time.
“They talked about killing me, cutting off my head,” Byrd told NBC News…
ISIS-R.
He certainly did not have to go public himself, but the public should be entitled to know the identity of any cop – really, any person, period – responsible for killing another human being. The idea that any cop gets to shoot and kill a person and have their identity remain some sort of official police state secret is more than a little disturbing.
You can’t spell Crazy Crisis without R-ISIS-AZ.
I think objectively there’s no gray area here. That was a ravening mob in that stairwell, in a frenzy, trying to get to their potential victims, and there weren’t enough officers to hold them back if they came through the doors. There was only one way to change the dynamic. When a cop points a gun at you and says “get back” repeatedly and you keep coming, you’ve made the decision yourself what the outcome will be. I don’t care how many brownies the damn woman baked for the PTA.
CRISIS
Christian Republican ISIS- USA
My initial reaction on J6, upon learning that a woman had been shot and killed, was that some cop had probably gotten trigger-happy. That was based solely on the fact that there were obviously shit-tons of people who plainly deserved to get shot by the cops that day, but everybody else had the discipline to keep their sidearms holstered.
Then the videos came out the next day, and it was immediately obvious that shooting the terrorist Ashli Babbitt was justified, necessary, and righteous. And I know this wasn’t Ofc. Bryd’s intention when he pulled the trigger, but killing that dumb terrorist lady deservedly dead almost immediately transformed the internal mob’s attitude from “Woo hoo! We’re in the Capitol, baby! Where’s Nancy?” into “Uh-oh, this shit is real. How do I get out of here?”