"a hitman sent them"

I would be remiss and negligent if I did not acknowledge the January 6 House Select Committee hearing yesterday

the four police officers who testified were asked in closing by Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi what they wanted the Select Committee to determine  

Sergeant Aquilino Gonell

                         I think in my opinion, we do need to get to the bottom of who incited, who brought those people here. Why did people were made to believe that the process was dragged? Along those lines. But going back to what Hodges said, I had, in my 15 years of service, given thousands of . . . I’ve given tour to thousands of people at the Capitol as an Officer, as a Sergeant, and even in plain clothes uniform. At no point in time did I ever got attack. I don’t know how will you call an attack on Police Officer a tour. When you see me bleeding, my hands, when you see other Officers getting concussion, getting maimed, getting fingers shatter, I got gouged. It’s indescribable. You’re defending the indefensible. . . And it demoralize not just the rank and file, but the future recruits that we are trying to get. So what do you think people considering becoming a law enforcement Officer think when they see elected leaders downplaying this, and why would I risk my life for them when they don’t even care? They don’t care what happened to the public. They don’t care what happened to the Officers. All they care is their job, their position. If they don’t have the courage to put their job on the line, because they want to feed some lies . . . feed somebody’s ego, or a like for a tweet, that’s not putting the country first.

Officer Michael Fanone 

                         . . . A lot of the events of January 6th and the days proceeding, I guess it’s interesting from a law enforcement perspective as a Police Officer, a lot of these events happen in plain sight. We had violent political rhetoric. We had the organization of a rally whose title was Stop the Steal, and that that rally occurred on January 6th, which I don’t believe was a coincidence that on January 6th members of Congress, you here in the room today, were charged with tallying the electoral votes and certifying the election of our President. . . . And in the academy, we learn about time, place and circumstance in investigating potential crimes, and those who may have committed them. And so the time, the place and the circumstances of that rally, that rhetoric and those events to me leads in the direction of our President and other members, not only of Congress and the Senate, but that is what I’m looking for, is an investigation into those actions and activities, which may have resulted in the events of January 6th. And also whether or not there was collaboration between those members, their staff, and these terrorists.

Officer Daniel Hodges

                        I think Fanone hit the nail on the head there. As patrol Officers, we can only deal with the crimes that happen on the streets, the misdemeanors, and occasionally the violent felonies, but you guys are the only ones we’ve got to deal with crimes that occur above us. And I need you guys to address if anyone in power had a role in this, if anyone in power coordinated, were aided or abetted or tried to downplay, tried to prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack, because we can’t do it. We’re not allowed to. And I think a majority of Americans are really looking forward to that as well.

Officer Harry Dunn 

                     There’s been a sentiment that’s going around that says everybody’s trying to make January 6th political. Well, it’s not a secret that it was political. They literally were there to Stop The Steal. So when people say it shouldn’t be political, it is. It was, and it is. There’s no getting around that. Telling the truth shouldn’t be hard. Fighting on January 6th, that was hard. Showing up January 7th, that was hard. The 8th, the 9th, the 10th, all the way till today, that was hard. When the fence came down, that was hard. When we lost our layer of protection that we had, and the fence came down and still nothing has changed. Everything is different, but nothing has changed. . . Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes, and while I agree with that notion, why? Because they told the truth? Why is telling the truth hard? I guess in this America, it is. Us four Officers, we would do January 6th all over again. We wouldn’t stay home because we knew it was going to happen. We would show up. That’s courageous, that’s heroic. So what I ask from you all is to get to the bottom of what happened. . . And that includes … I echo the sentiments of all of the other Officers sitting here. I use an analogy to describe what I want is a hitman. If a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, hitman goes to jail, but not only does the hitman go to jail, but the person who hired them does. There was an attack carried out on January 6th, and a hitman sent them. I want you to get to the bottom of that. Thank you.

1501,  Day-between-Two-Ts,  28  7. 21

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/january-6-house-select-committee-hearing-investigation-day-1-full-transcript https://www.democracynow.org/2021/7/28/jan_6_house_committee_police_officers?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=53d09624d9-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-53d09624d9-192501705