During the riot at the Capitol Building on January 6, a Capitol Police officer named Brian Sicknick was murdered. His killer remains at large. Dozens of other officers were injured, some seriously. One officer, Eugene Goodman, led rioters away from Mike Pence as they chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” Two other officers have subsequently committed suicide. The Capitol Police put their bodies on the line that day, and without them the riot would’ve been even worse. But more importantly, one of those officers really scared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and she told the world about it last night on Instagram Live.
Here’s just a brief segment of the 90-minute livestream:
.@AOC explains that her "near-death" experience at the Capitol Hill riot was actually just a police officer trying to help her pic.twitter.com/ui8vXn4N3E
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 2, 2021
…These men, or just a man, just one man, going, “Where is she? Where is she?” I start to look through the door hinge… and I see this white man in a black beanie open the door of my personal office and come inside the personal office, and yell again, “Where is she?” And I have never been quieter in my entire life… And then all of a sudden I hear my staffer G [Geraldo Bonilla-Chavez] yell out… “It’s okay, come out.” …
And I come out, and this man is a Capitol Police officer. But the story doesn’t end. It’s a Capitol Police officer. There was no partner. Was not yelling, “Capitol Police,” etc. But then it didn’t feel right, because he was looking at me with a tremendous amount of anger and hostility. And things weren’t adding up…
And at first, in my brain and in my mind, I’m thinking, “Okay, I just came from this super-intense experience just now. Maybe I’m reading into this. Maybe I’m projecting something onto him. Maybe I’m just seeing anger, but maybe he’s not trying to be angry.” But I talked to G, my legislative director, after the fact and he said, “No, I didn’t know if he was there to help us or hurt us either…” This man came with so much hostility that G was sizing him up and didn’t know if he was going to have to fight him. That is how aggressive the situation was in that moment. And we couldn’t even tell, we couldn’t read if this was a good situation or a bad situation….
So, like so many other communities in this country, just that presence doesn’t necessarily give you a clear signal if you’re safe or not. And so the situation did not feel okay. And then he just looks at me and yells at me, “Go down and go to this other building” … But we’re so rattled in that moment. The situation felt so volatile with this officer that I run over, I grab my bag, and we just start running over to that building.
Presumably, this was the incident AOC meant when she accused Ted Cruz of trying to have her murdered:
I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out.
Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed.
In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign. https://t.co/4mVREbaqqm
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
So here’s my question, and I don’t think it’s an unreasonable one:
Who is this officer?
It’s been a month now. A sitting member of Congress claims she was threatened in her own office by a Capitol Police officer. And yet all AOC has done until now was send some oblique tweets about it. Why don’t we know this officer’s identity? Has she called for an investigation? If not, why not?
As Americans, we must demand an investigation into this incident. If it’s true, it’s completely unacceptable. If a Capitol Police officer really did threaten Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or any other member of Congress, he needs to be identified. He needs to explain himself. If AOC is telling the truth, he should be fired.
If it’s not true… why did she say it? And what should happen to a member of Congress who would lie about such a thing?
