Sorry Justin Bieber. Uploading your mug to millions of followers is now deemed officially annoying. That’s because “selfie” tops the 2013 List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse, and General Uselessness. The annual…
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'Make a shield wall!': New indictment charges growing number of violent Capitol rioters
June 24, 2021
Federal authorities continue to make new arrests in the Jan. 6 breach of the US Capitol, including individuals accused of frenzied assaults on law enforcement officers.
Geoffrey Sills, a 30-year-old man from Mechanicsville, Va., "threw multiple objects, including pole-like objects, at law enforcement officers" as rioters overwhelmed police on the lower west terrace of the Capitol, according to a US Justice Department press release. According to the government, Sills was among the first group of rioters to enter the tunnel around 2:41 p.m. Surveillance footage reportedly captured him holding up his phone as if he were recording, and investigators later discovered "the same activity […] captured in video footage posted to the defendant's Instagram account." The government also alleges that while Sills was inside the tunnel, "he repeatedly struck multiple police officers with an extended baton while using a strobe light, apparently to try to disorient the officers."
The counterterrorism section at DOJ is assisting the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia with prosecution in Sills' case.
Sills was arrested in Virginia on Monday, according to federal court records, following his indictment on June 16, along with five other men. Sills was indicted on four counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a dangerous weapon, and other related charges.
The other defendants had been charged previously. The six men, including Sills, charged in the third superseding indictment are accused of committing some of the most violent assaults on officers during what the government describes as "an intense and prolonged clash between rioters and law enforcement" at the lower west terrace and a tunnel leading from the terrace into the Capitol building.
In addition to Sills:
• Patrick McCaughey III is accused of pinning MPD Officer Daniel Hodges against the lower west terrace door with a riot shield as another rioter riped off the officer's gas mask, exposing his bloody mouth. Numerous other rioters behind and around McCaughey reportedly pressed up against him, putting pressure on Officer Hodges.
• Christopher Joseph Quaglin, of New Brunswick, NJ, is accused of shoving and striking officers on the police line, and grabbing one of them by the neck. In another incident, Quaglin is described in a government affidavit as being part of a group of rioters that pushed down officers and picked up their riot shields. Later, after breaching the Capitol, Quaglin allegedly sprayed a chemical irritant directly into the eyes of an MPD officer.
• Tristan Chandler Stevens is accused of using a riot shield to push against a line of officers at the tunnel entrance, striking one officer in the helmet with the shield, and trying to wrest a baton away from another officer.
• David Lee Judd, of Carrollton, Texas, is accused of lighting an object on fire and throwing it at a line of officers guarding the lower west terrace doors.
• Robert Morss, of Glenshaw, Pa., is accused of trying to wrest a helmet visor away from an officer, stealing a shield and passing a stolen baton to another rioter, as well as issuing verbal commands to other rioters to form a "shield wall." According to the affidavit supporting Morss' arrest, he was part of a group of rioters yelling "heave ho" and pushing in unison against officers guarding the doors while McCaughey pinned down Officer Hodges with the stolen riot shield.
"Hey, everyone with a shield, back up and organize!" Morss yelled to other rioters in the tunnel. "Make a shield wall! Organize right now and make a shield wall. Where are those fucking shields!"
The narrative description in charging documents for the six defendants is striking for the level of coordination and improvisational planning attributed to the rioters clashing with officers.
"As captured in YouTube Video 1, inside the tunnel, rioters use police riot shields and police riot batons to combat uniformed law enforcement officers," one investigator wrote in an affidavit supporting charges against Stevens. "Unidentified rioters can also be overheard planning and implementing a rotation of rioters to have the 'fresh' rioters up front to combat law enforcement, with various unidentified individuals yelling 'we need fresh patriots in the front' and 'we need fresh people.' Unidentified rioters are heard instructing the front line of rioters to make a 'shield wall' to prevent law enforcement from controlling rioters with oleoresin capsicum spray. Around the same time, Stevens can be seen grabbing one of the riot shields that is being passed forward in another video posted to YouTube."
To date, about 465 people have been arrested on charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, with almost a third accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
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Video shows Homeland Security threatened to arrest people passing out water to people in 100-degree heat
June 24, 2021
Department of Homeland Security police were captured on video threatening to arrest people offering bottles of water to those standing in the Florida heat at the Miramar, Florida ICE check-in center.
Ron DeSantis agitator Thomas Kennedy posted the video Thursday showing good samaritans offering the water on a day that had 100-degree temperatures and south Florida's typical humidity.
"They can come over and get the water if they want it but you cannot pass out the water," the officer says.
"Even on the grass?" the woman asks.
"Even on the grass, yes, ma'am," the officer says.
He told her she has to go to the "First Amendment Area" and threatened to charge them with trespassing.
See the video below:
Watch & share: DHS police threatened to arrest folks passing out water to people waiting for hours under the Florid… https://t.co/j1GDWlago4— Thomas Kennedy (@Thomas Kennedy) 1624494184.0
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Former President Donald Trump responded to the news that his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was suspended from practicing law in New York after a court determined he made false statements in challenging the results of the 2020 election, saying the state of New York is conducting "nothing but a Witch Hunt," adding: "They should be ashamed of themselves."
But in a series of tweets this Thursday, Republican lawyer and anti-Trump activist George Conway said Trump is focusing his ire on the wrong entity.
"Former guy today attacked 'New York' for conducting a 'Radical Left' 'Witch Hunt' against 'American Patriot' Rudy," Conway tweeted. "But his beef isn't really with the state; it's with the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, First Department, which ordered Rudy's suspension."
"That happens to be the same court that would handle any appeals in any prosecution the Manhattan DA may bring against the Trump Organization or any of its principals or employees," Conway added.
The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court temporarily suspended Giuliani's law license in response to a request from an attorney disciplinary committee, which accused Giuliani of making false statements in court and elsewhere about alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Giuliani's attorneys said they expect he will be reinstated after the "issues are fully explored at a hearing."
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