Democrats rewarded Michael Byrd for murdering Ashli Babbitt

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-12-07 16:34:41 | Updated at 2024-12-23 14:41:19 2 weeks ago

Democrats rewarded Michael Byrd for murdering Ashli Babbitt
Flopping Aces ^ | 12-07-24 | DrJohn

Posted on 12/07/2024 8:04:51 AM PST by Starman417

On Jan 6, 2021 Michael Byrd murdered Ashli Babbitt. He shot her as she attempted to enter the Speaker's Lobby in the Capitol through a window she did not break. For his actions, democrats rewarded him handsomely, even promoting him.

House Democrats pressured U.S. Capitol Police to provide special financial assistance and even a promotion to the officer who fatally shot unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer and charitable assistance not provided to other officers, according to internal emails reviewed by Just the News.

"He is very upset about how he is being treated. He wants us to figure this out and now," a top congressional aide to then-House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, wrote to Capitol Police in November 2021 pressing for more assistance to Lt. Michael Byrd after he killed Babbitt.

The records show that pressure also came from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff and from then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, causing Capitol Police to find any solution they could to make Byrd and Democrats happy. Despite the extraordinary assistance, Byrd expressed dissatisfaction and continued to insist he deserved more, to the chagrin of Capitol Police officials, according to records assembled by Congress.

"We play the game as you request and then once we’re in compliance You guys change the rules on us,” Byrd wrote to U.S. Capitol Police General Counsel Thomas DiBiase in November 2021 after being informed he wouldn't be able to immediately access charitable funds from a memorial fund for fallen or wounded officers.

Immediately, one wonders why Byrd was given access to a memorial fund for wounded or fallen officers as he was neither. Capitol police then set up a GoFundMe account for Byrd handing $160,000. Two years later Byrd was promoted to Captain.

All of this despite a significant disciplinary history:

A 2004 incident where Byrd, who was off duty, fired his weapon at a stolen vehicle as it was fleeing his residential neighborhood;
A 2015 "conduct unbecoming an officer" complaint filed by a fellow officer after Byrd, again off duty, confronted him while the officer was working at a high school football game in an incident with racial overtones;
A 33-day suspension in 2019 after Byrd left his service weapon unattended in a public Capitol Hill bathroom;
A failure to pass a routine background check shortly after Jan. 6 when attempting to purchase a shotgun for home protection, after the USCP worked to provide Byrd a department-issued shotgun instead, he failed the training; and
Three further referrals to the Capitol Police Office of Professional Responsibility for which records are reportedly missing.

None of this is sitting well with other Capitol police.

It's not too strong to assert that Michael Byrd murdered Ashli Babbitt. Jonathan Turley:

At the time, some of us familiar with the rules governing police use of force raised concerns over the shooting. Those concerns were heightened by the DOJ’s bizarre review and report, which stated the governing standards but then seemed to brush them aside to clear Byrd.

The DOJ report did not read like any post-shooting review I have read as a criminal defense attorney or law professor. The DOJ statement notably does not say that the shooting was justified. Instead, it stressed that “prosecutors would have to prove not only that the officer used force that was constitutionally unreasonable, but that the officer did so ‘willfully.’” It seemed simply to shrug and say that the DOJ did not believe it could prove “a bad purpose to disregard the law” and that “evidence that an officer acted out of fear, mistake, panic, misperception, negligence, or even poor judgment cannot establish the high level of intent.”

While the Supreme Court, in cases such as Graham v. Connor, has said that courts must consider “the facts and circumstances of each particular case,” it has emphasized that lethal force must be used only against someone who is “an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and … is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.” Particularly with armed assailants, the standard governing “imminent harm” recognizes that these decisions must often be made in the most chaotic and brief encounters.

Under these standards, police officers should not shoot unarmed suspects or rioters without a clear threat to themselves or fellow officers. That even applies to armed suspects who fail to obey orders. Indeed, Huntsville police officer William “Ben” Darby was convicted of killing a suicidal man holding a gun to his head. Despite being cleared by a police review board, Darby was prosecuted, found guilty, and sentenced to 25 years in prison, even though Darby said he feared for the safety of himself and fellow officers. Yet law professors and experts who have praised such prosecutions in the past have been conspicuously silent over the shooting of an unarmed woman who had officers in front of and behind her on Jan. 6.

Today on X Paul Sperry wrote: USCP cop Byrd who killed unarmed Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was cleared w/o an interview: “He didn't provide any statement to investigators and they didn't push him to make a statement,” attorney Terry Roberts told me. “It’s astonishing how skimpy his investigative file is" That brings us to a video posted last month.

(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...

TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: babbitt; byrd; j6

1 posted on 12/07/2024 8:04:51 AM PST by Starman417

To: Starman417

2 posted on 12/07/2024 8:08:12 AM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within ? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)

To: Starman417

Democrats reward murder. Period.

To: Starman417

Doing his sworn duty to protect congress from an unruly mob? Yes.

4 posted on 12/07/2024 8:12:15 AM PST by babble-on

To: Starman417

Maybe he needs to be tried for murder?

5 posted on 12/07/2024 8:12:33 AM PST by Eli Kopter

To: Worldtraveler once upon a time

I recall the video of the execution. Byrd was under cover in a doorway. Byrd exposed himself by leaving cover to move towards Babbitt. Byrd then aimed and executed Babbitt.

Protect Congress my ass. Byrd INTENTIONALLY broke cover to take a killshot.

Premeditated Murder no doubt.

6 posted on 12/07/2024 8:20:56 AM PST by OHPatriot (Si vis pacem, para bellum)

To: Starman417

We’re gonna put him in prison.

7 posted on 12/07/2024 8:23:36 AM PST by bigbob (Yes. We ARE going back!)

To: Eli Kopter

Yes he should be charged with 1st degree homicide,
tried, convicted and sentenced to the fullest
extent of the law.

8 posted on 12/07/2024 8:23:38 AM PST by StACase ("The Climate Crisis" is a text book example of "The Big Lie")

To: Starman417

I predict he’ll be pardoned as well

9 posted on 12/07/2024 8:26:01 AM PST by 38special (The government is ruining our country!)

To: Starman417

It’s high time we wake up and understand the reality what the left really is....Godless and evil.

Very similar to islam, they cannot be dealt with, they cannot be reasoned with and they both believe if you are not with them YOU must be destroyed.

10 posted on 12/07/2024 8:27:21 AM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)

To: Starman417

I never understood why he shot HER. I mean were their not dozens even hundreds acting similarly?

Sounds like he just lost his self control and went homicidal.

And that’s as nicely as I can say what I mean here….

11 posted on 12/07/2024 8:28:43 AM PST by Phoenix8

To: Starman417

Melanin privilge.

Compare this with the way Daniel Penny is being treated for actually protecting New Yorkers from a drug-addled, crazed maniac on the subway who was threatening to kill people.

12 posted on 12/07/2024 8:29:46 AM PST by Bon of Babble (You Say You Want a Revolution?)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Read Entire Article