Officer Goodman’s Bravery at the Top of The Steps
If you have ever worked club security, you’ve seen this dumb look from a drunk patron
Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash
The storming of Capitol Hill on January 6th of this year is a day that will live in infamy.
A coked-up Don Jr. on The Ellipse urged “Patriots”, fomenting violence with “you can be a HERO, or you can be a ZERO”. Those that have been bullied by jocks or abusive Dads (I’m talking about his Dad, not mine), uncles, and sundry assholes are familiar with this bullshit ‘bootstrap’ mentality.
The absolutely wretched and disgusting video selfie he made from the video production tent before the Deadly Terrorist Attack makes me want to fucking retch. Scary shit like the first time you are REALLY scared to see Nazis in a movie as a kid because you understand the threat. Now…the Nazis are full-on in the here, they are our neighbors, and now they have chosen to storm OUR fucking gates? How is this even possible?
Junior’s screaming paramour Kimberly Guilfoyle oddly dances to “Gloria”.
World’s Worst Chief of Staff™️ Mark Meadows is “…an ACTUAL fighter, one of the few”.
The music that has chosen for these Trump rallies never seems to fit right with the occasion, whether there is permission from the artist or not (almost always the artists or estates claim to denounce the inclusion). All of those videos of DJT TikTok dancing to ‘Y.M.C.A.’? What the glittery fuck?
Someone on Twitter pointed out a pair of boxing gloves on the outgoing disgraced and twice impeached President. Leave it to these complicit terrorists to have a fucking media tent with heat lamps. I have used these tents for catering and band dressing rooms. I should say, I’ve been allowed to use these kinds of tents, frequently they are multi-purpose and house different departments from sound to video to snacks and wardrobe. This video captured literally behind the scenes of a coup captures a pre-show vibe pretty well. Only “Stage Time” on this fateful day would lead to an angry mob attacking a marble, glass, stone, and concrete institution of democracy, the Capitol Building.
instagram.com/claynferno
I shared an Instagram post that day about visiting House in session when I was a kid. You can check that out here.
I can not imagine what it must feel like for Black and Brown people to see a noose and gallows in front of the Capitol. But here we are, they did it! On top of that, they brought the heinous Dixie flag into the halls after the bloody and fatal breach for the first time in American history. We all know that ‘security’ was loose…we will find out why…but are you ALLOWED to set up gallows in public? Would you be questioned if you were carrying a giant blade and 2x4s in a wheelbarrow to set up a guillotine? Maybe you bring your Mom to carry the screws, rope, and whatnot needed in one of those orange Home Depot buckets that you can later use for the head.
Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman has my heart. As do all of the brave men and women that acted accordingly and did not take selfies and guide the Domestic Terrorists toward their nefarious goals. If members of Congress are involved in the planning they should be prosecuted, disbarred, shunned, and imprisoned.
Washington Post: For 85 tense seconds on Jan. 6, Goodman tried to hold back dozens of rioters, according to the video, twice retreating up a flight of stairs. Police experts say he wasn’t fleeing, but luring the mob away from the Senate chambers, where lawmakers were sheltering and armed officers — including one with a semiautomatic weapon — were securing the doors.
This is the moment I’d like to talk about when the Officer from Maryland was facing this first dickhead right here. If you have ever managed crowds or kicked out a belligerent guest at a kegger you’ll know this slack-jawed look from the Terrorist in front. The two side by side videos of these moments in the attack is difficult to watch.
WhatDoYouMeanImNotEvenDoingAnything
twitter.com/igorbobic
Beanie “Q” Terrorist is giving Goodman what I call the “WhatDoYouMeanImNotEvenDoingAnything” defense that I got from hundreds of drunk assholes trying to come BACK into the nightclub after being kicked out.
On a small club security team, you will hopefully have 1-2 support people heading this guy BACK OUTSIDE. It’s the circular logic they are spitting in your face, the long explanations and pleads to head back into the shitty techno night for only like 15 more minutes.
“You let my friend back in…”
”…I left my coat in coat check”
“…I didn’t do _______”
”I didn’t do ANYTHING…”
On and on and on…to wear you out and it kind of works if you can’t close and lock the doors. Sometimes you are just a patient fucking goalie standing there. That’s why a lot of bouncers are so big they can block most of the doorway with their huge frames.
This Domestic Terrorist is using Nightclub Drunk tactics from his body language. His arms are by his side, I’ve had many escalations like this, where Nightclub Drunk won’t put his hands up, all to trap you into a “you touched me” argument when you try to get them to leave, and sometimes by force or a push at last resort.
This kind of tattle-tale logic makes Nightclub Drunk think he is assembling discovery for a court case that will never happen.
He’s his own lawyer and his own judge and you are held hostage listening to the whole thing. I don’t know for a fact that this Domestic Terrorist is a racist but his body language is a tell. He’s the guy that will say stuff like “Hey, man me and thousands of my friends here are here to undemocratically disenfranchise the will of The People but I work with a Black Guy and we are cool so don’t think I’m racist or whatever”.
Propublica.org
But also, the Domestic Terrorist here is legitimately scared that he is this close to a Black officer and I think maybe realizing he is in WAY DEEP. “No backing away from this Domestic Terrorism now”! In fact, I think him noticing the video being shot by Igor Bobic is also freaking him out a bit.
By the way, my company’s office has a lot of security cameras around, why are there none in the Capitol? I hope they are there but maybe are secret? A discussion for another time I think. The FBI is doing its job.
I’ve had the same shitty conversation with hundreds of these guys acting like Q Terrorist at the end of a long night of drinking brown party liquors. I’ve seen DTs opening doors involuntarily with their heads by Officers, Tour Managers grab dudes by the scruff of their necks and tossed the offenders’ phone in the dumpster and so much more.
I can not imagine the sense of duty, fear, bravery, and quick thinking Officer Goodman was being overwhelmed by. Officer Goodman makes me proud to be an American.
AP: Officer Eugene Goodman isn’t saying whether he thinks he saved the Senate, as many of the millions who’ve viewed the video believe. In fact, Goodman isn’t saying anything at all publicly — not to reporters, not on social media. And he’s asked the force’s union, bosses, family, and friends to help him maintain his privacy and not publicly discuss the events of Jan. 6.
Whatever his reasons for staying quiet are fine with me, for they may be many.
I can only say that after dealing with Nightclub Drunks that are more slippery than fish when they want to breach entry, that there is a face-to-face instinct that takes over as the adrenaline kicks in. There is a lot to be taken from the mere seconds in the confrontation at the top 3 stairs when you watch the videos. Fucking 3D Chess.
By no means am I a security or strategy expert, I am just trying to put my feet in his shoes for these scary seconds. Goodman is a veteran of The XVIII Airborne Corps (Army). Capitol Police probably sounded like a great way for him to keep doing Service for his country and I’m glad he did and acted on instinct on this scary day for America and our duly elected leaders.
--
Clay S. Fernald
17 January 2021
Update, Inauguration Day.
