The week
Congress can give its greatest tribute to Capitol Policeman Eugene Goodman. But he was not the only ‘hero’.
A bipartisan group of three members of the House said on Thursday that it would nominate Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman for the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor awarded by Congress, for facing a crowd of demonstrators on Capitol Hill during the siege. January 6 and potentially saving the Senate. “He’s a hero!” said Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), who is presenting the resolution with the Reps. Nancy Mace (RS.C.) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). The Senate started evacuating a minute after Goodman drew a crowd of protesters away from a door near the chamber, according to a video by Igor Bobic of HuffPost. Goodman served in Iraq in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, but little else is known about him and he “isn’t saying anything publicly – either to reporters or on social media,” reports the Associated Press. But Goodman is not the only officer who showed heroism during the mafia siege and several reinforcements from the DC Metropolitan Police involved in the West Terrace battle told his distressing stories to The Washington Post. A Capitol Police officer was killed by the rioters and nearly 60 DC police officers and an unknown number of Capitol police officers were injured. go down the entrance stairs. “We were fighting 15,000 people,” not 50, he told the Post. “It looked like a medieval battle scene.” After the crowd hit him with a stun gun, the Post adds: “Fanone suffered a mild heart attack and lost consciousness.” Officer Daniel Hodges, 32, was captured in another viral video with his head being broken at a door. Protesters tried to gouge out his eyes before he even reached the West Terrace tunnel, he told the Post. “The fanaticism of these people is absolutely unreal,” he said, adding that he did not want to draw his weapon “because I knew they had weapons – we have been seizing weapons all day” – and “we would have lost” in a shootout. Rows of battered DC officers, then surrounding jurisdictions, defended protesters in hand-to-hand combat for hours. West Terrace was “one of the few places where the police prevented the rioters from invading,” reports the Post. “If those troublemakers were successful, officials said, thousands of people could have entered the Capitol, with possible catastrophic consequences.” Read more war stories and watch disturbing videos on The Washington Post. More stories from theweek.com Trump’s vaccine delay is getting suspicious The worst scenario for the immediate future of the United States for DC and Puerto Rico needs only 50 votes