"The streets were jam-packed, of everyday people: grandmas, children, families, lawyers, doctors, people from all walks of life. This was an American crowd," said Bill.
They Were Hitting Old Men and Women
"These families moved to the interior barricades, it wasn't aggressive, just peaceful. This is where the cops came in and used overwhelming force. We were on the line with the barricade and out come the metal batons and they started hitting Trump protesters as hard as they possibly could. They were hitting old men and old women, people who for some reason brought their families to the event. I couldn't believe that there were young kids walking in this crowd, but the police were targeting the kids and hitting them with a baton across the head. It was vicious." according to Charles.
"They were regular police at this point," said Bill.
This action by police brought the crowd to a fever pitch, where they were demanding that they be treated respectfully, but instead, the police began either pepper spraying or tear-gassing the crowd. They then fought their way through four layers of barricades.
As they were storming the Capitol, "There was one guy who climbed up a tower and could oversee the entire battle, he knew exactly what to say, and he was steering people into the Capitol. It was straight out of the movie
'Enemy at the Gates' when the Soviet Commissars were shouting at people to move ahead. He was super old, this guy was clearly a combat vet. I can still hear him, 'if you don't move forward, Biden moves in!' - This guy was a real pro, and was shouting at people that "every step forward" and to "close the gaps" and that turning back was turning our backs on Trump. He said if we didn't move forward, that Pence was going to give us Biden Communism. He was 50 feet in the air and commanding the whole scene. He was telling people to pass bottled water ahead and other resources." said Charles.
I saw one older woman bleeding profusely, it looked like her eye came out of the socket.
"We could tell that the 200 riot police were being very careful to stay behind the barricades, so we thought that denying that to them would cause them to be less vicious. There were metal connectors that we grabbed and then threw back at them like javelins. That then caused the barricades to come loose and by then, people were so angry that they started beating up the cops for attacking the kids and grandmothers.
There was one very obese cop in particular, he was shooting people on purpose in the eyes with pellet pepper packs that was causing horrible injuries. I saw one older woman bleeding profusely, it looked like her eye came out of the socket. We were coming for that asshole when we tore down the barricades, but later
when they saw that it turned into a fair fight, they fled," said Bill.
"They tried to gas us. I've experienced tear gas before, and this wasn't normal
. It smelled different, its color was different in the air, and it stung a lot more. You couldn't breathe. But what was happening was that it was just windy enough where it was kind of hitting the front line guys hard but then dissipating through the crowd and not having the intended effect," said Bill.
This was when, according to the small group, protesters started disassembling the metal barricades to protect the police.
The pandemonium of the police running away from the crowd and being attacked by some,
revealed that a larger force was 'flanking' them on one side, expecting to come in and trap the large group of angry protesters whipped up by police brutality. Just then, they were hit by repeated concussion grenades or 'flash bangs' of some type that stunned them all.
"It was coordinated on all sides, the cops were hitting us with six cans of tear gas at once, and multiple grenades. They were shooting at the same time. It felt like a shooting gallery, and they were the aggressors. They were shooting into the crowd several rows back really for no reason," said Charles.
After the barricades came down and one of the last grenades exploded, "It caused me to kind of reset and wake up, and my ears are ringing and then in the sunlight, you see the Capitol right in front of you and you realize what has to happen next," said Adam.
The police were moving forward and advancing, and about to take control of the protesters.
"So we see this happening, and we realize what's about to happen, these vicious cops are about to hurt all these people and then likely arrest us all and there's no way to retreat without being trampled, so I turn to the guys around me and yell out, 'Mama didn't raise no bitch' and so we threw the barricades aside and rushed the Capitol. We had them on the run and we knew they couldn't stop us. We used the scaffolding from Biden's inauguration platform to get into the complex," said Doug.
