The family of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was attacked and injured during the January 6 insurrection and died the day after, has issued a damning statement denouncing Fox Corporation’s decision to air cherry-picked video portraying the attack on the Capitol as largely peaceful and reframe the events the led to Sicknick’s death.
“The Sicknick family is outraged at the ongoing attack on our family by the unscrupulous and outright sleazy so called ‘news’ network of Fox News who will do the bidding of Trump or any of his sycophant followers, no matter what damage is done to the families of the fallen, the officers who put their lives on the line, and all who suffered on Jan 6th due to the lies started by Trump and spread by sleaze slinging outlets like Fox,” the Sicknick family’s statement begins.
“Fox has shown time and time again that they are little more than the propaganda arm of the Republican Party and like Pravda, will do whatever they are told to keep the hatred and the lies flowing while suppressing anything resembling the truth. Fox does this not for any sense of morality as they have none, but for the quest for every penny of advertising money they can get from those who buy airtime from them. It is well past time that we move past Trump, the GOP, and all of the lies which have severely weakened and divided us as a nation and start seeking truth.”
CNN reports that Tucker Carlson on Monday night “aired never-before-seen surveillance footage that he said showed Sicknick, who died one day after the January 6 insurrection. Carlson said he focused on this because Democrats have turned Sicknick into a ‘prop’ and a ‘martyr’ by overstating the links between his death and the insurrection.”
“Carlson used the new video to try to undermine the known facts surrounding Sicknick’s death, and to argue that January 6 was less violent and ‘deadly’ than it has been portrayed.”
Carlson claimed the video was of Sicknick after he was attacked, walking around normally. The video strangely has no timestamp. Carlson described the insurrectionists as “sightseers.”
“By all appearances, Sicknick is healthy and vigorous,” Carson says of the blurry video allegedly of Sicknick, in full uniform with his face hidden. “He’s wearing a helmet, so it’s hard to imagine he was killed by a head injury.”
Initial reports said Sicknick died after being battered with a fire extinguisher, but later reports made clear he died after several strokes one day later. Carlson ignores the later reports.
In response, the Sicknick family said, “Tucker Carlson claims that Fox has been looking over the video feeds from the Capitol, with full access supplied by our disgusting excuse for a House Speaker for the truth. Carlson’s ‘truth’ is to pick and choose footage that supports his delusional views that the Jan 6th Insurrection was peaceful and that Ashley Babbit was some kind of martyr because she was shot in the process of breaking into the Capitol Building.”
“While making a criminal out to be a martyr, he is also downplaying the horrid situation faced by the USC and DC Metro Police who were incredibly outnumbered and were literally fighting for their very lives. One officer, Brian Sicknick, lost that fight the following day and several more officers lost that fight in the following weeks. On video, Officer Sicknick looks like he managed to shake off the chemical irritants and resume his duties. That he did, but his sense of duty and incredible work ethic were the driving force which sent him back in spite of his injuries and no doubt contributed to his succumbing to his injuries the following day.”
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In January, CNN reported that a man who assaulted Officer Sicknick with pepper spray on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to 80 months behind bars.
“Julian Khater pleaded guilty in September to two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon. His co-defendant, George Tanios, pleaded guilty last summer to disorderly conduct and entering and remaining in a restricted building. Khater was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $2,000 in restitution,” CNN reported. “Khater took a white can of bear spray from Tanios’s backpack, walked up to the line of officers and, as rioters started pulling on the bike rack barrier separating them and the police, Khater sprayed multiple officers – including Sicknick – who had to retreat from the line.”
CNN also reported that Officer Sicknick died the day after the January 6 insurrection, “after suffering several strokes.”
“Washington, DC’s chief medical examiner, Francisco Diaz, determined that the officer died of natural causes and told The Washington Post that the riot and ‘all that transpired played a role in his condition.'”
In their statement Monday, the Sicknick family asked: “What will it take to silence the lies from people like Carlson? What will it take to convince people that the Jan 6th Insurrection was very real, was very violent, and that the event was orchestrated by a man who is every bit as corrupt and evil as Vladamir Putin?”
“The Sicknick Family would love nothing more than to have Brian back with us and to resume our normal lives. Fictitious news outlets like Fox and its rabid followers will not allow that. Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it. Leave us the hell alone and instead of spreading more lies from Supreme Leader Trump, why don’t you focus on real news?”