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| Image from Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. |
The January 6th Committee hearings began this week on Tuesday. We heard testimonies from two Capitol Hill police officers, Officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and two of D.C.'s police: Officers Daniel Hodge and Michael Fanone. These were but four of the many officers that put their lives on the line when white domestic terrorists stormed the United States Capitol building in a failed coup attempt incited by loser, former President orange face, Donald Chump Trump. Sgt. Gonell and Officers Dunn and Fanone have been making the rounds over the past several months, speaking on CNN multiple times.
In Officer Fanone's latest conversation with CNN's, the officer gave his remarks on the very vulgar, profane laced voicemail that was sent to him while he was testifying on Tuesday.
Because officer Fanone is a white person that is telling the truth about what happened on Jan 6, his fellow white people view him as a traitor. Sure he could throw away his spine like the overwhelming majority of Republicans have, but he's sticking to his guns. Despite the crap Fake Fox News is giving him for speaking out, and despite the PTSD he still deals with, Officer Fanone has continued to let the truth of Jan 6th be known.
Some of you may be shocked by that racist, Trump supporter's message. That is not really shocking to me. That is the kinda treatment black people have to deal with on a regular basis in America. And if white people side with black people on racial inequality, white supremacist loving fools will be quick to let you know you of your treachery. Officer Fanone just happens to be the latest public example.
Minister James Reeb participated in one of the Selma to Montgomery marches during the Civil Rights Movement, spurred into action by the events of Bloody Sunday and Dr. Martin Luther King's call to ministers to get involved. After a failed march, James Reeb was beaten by white supremacists and died of his injuries. Reeb was killed by people of his own skin color because they didn't like that he sided with black people.
When white allies came out in droves to march with black people during last year's protests, we saw videos of not only police brutality on black people, but whites as well. Keep in mind that more than 90% of the protests last year were peaceful. To racist cops, it didn't matter that there were throngs of white people in these protests. They were taking a stand against police brutality against black people and in their mind, those white folks may as well have been black people, thus they were treated as such.
If you are white and you become an ally in this fight, your fellow white people will treat you the same way black people are treated every day in America. On some level, white people know this and it is one of the reasons they sit back and pretend that they don't see systemic racism. White people know black people are treated unjustly. Never in a million years would they trade places with a black person or want to experience the treatment blacks receive all the while turning a blind eye to it.
If you're reading this and you're one of those white people that got a nasty dose of police brutality for being an ally last year, I'm sorry. And if you were surprised by it, well, welcome to what it is like to be black in this country.
Marching feels great. Telling the truth of the horrible events of an insurrection can be uplifting. But it is not all sunshine and roses. White supremacy is a tough old bird and it will not be easily toppled. That angry message from that Trump supporter left to Officer Fanone? It won't be the last. But doing what's right costs something. I'm sure Officer Fanone and the rest of those officers that defended the Capitol on Jan 6 knew that speaking out would place them right in the cross hairs of right wing media and Trump supporters. But it hasn't stopped them. I believe Officer Fanone is what they would call a good example to be followed.
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