Official cause of Officer Sicknick’s death finally announced – and it’s about as you suspected
No, Officer Sicknick didn’t die from a fire extinguisher to the head, thrown by Trump supporters on January 6th. Nor did he die from an allergic reaction to bear spray wielded by those same protestors. Here’s the actual story as announced by the medical examiner – which conforms to what for quite some time has seemed the most likely cause of his death to anyone paying attention to the facts:
Francisco Diaz, the chief medical examiner for Washington, D.C., told the Washington Post that Sicknick died on Jan. 7 after suffering two strokes and that he did not suffer an allergic reaction to any chemical irritants.
The medical examiner’s office told the Washington Examiner that Sicknick’s “cause of death” was “acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis” — a stroke — and the “manner of death” was “natural.” The office said Sicknick was sprayed with a chemical substance around 2:20 p.m. on Jan. 6, collapsed at the Capitol around 10 p.m. that evening, and was transported by emergency services to a local hospital. He died around 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, the office added.
But the political damage was done by the Times reporting the lies about Sicknick’s death, and those lies almost immediately getting halfway around the world. I bet a lot of people will never read Officer Sicknick’s actual cause of death, and will instead continue to believe the lies.
And that’s the purpose of the lies in the first place.
I’ve written many times about Officer Sicknick’s death. It was already known shortly after he died that a stroke might have been involved. As early as January 11th, for example – just a few days after the January 6th event and Sicknick’s January 7th death – I wrote a post that included these words:
The cause of death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick is still unclear. Early reports that it was from an injury have not been confirmed, and there are some reports that he died of a medical condition. I assume that some day we’ll learn more.
On January 26th I revisited the case at some length. We still had no further evidence about the cause of Sicknick’s death, but the fire extinguisher story had become even more suspect. By the time I wrote this January 30th post, I had learned that the original source for the fire extinguisher story had been anonymous “officials” talking to the NY Times. I also learned that ABC had reported much earlier on the stroke possibility, although by late January the MSM seemed to have conveniently forgotten about it and instead the fire extinguisher story was stated just about everywhere as though it were a proven fact.
My writing about this back then wasn’t an example of ESP on my part. Nor did it demonstrate amazing deductive skills. I was merely relying on basic information that had been right out in the open, easily available to anyone with curiosity and the ability to do a few searches. And yet there were very few people questioning the fire extinguisher story at the time, even on the right.
The WaPo story from yesterday that announced Diaz’s findings also says this:
The ruling, released Monday, likely will make it difficult for prosecutors to pursue homicide charges in the officer’s death.
Yes indeed, it’s often “difficult to pursue homicide charges” when no homicide has occurred. But where there’s a will, there’s a way – as we’ve seen in the Chauvin trial, for example.
More:
Diaz also said there was no evidence of internal or external injuries.
No blow to the head. Nothing even remotely resembling the fire extinguisher story.
The WaPo article goes on at some length in describing the earlier reports about Sicknick having been injured. They even include this from Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey:
The senator described Sicknick’s death as a “crime” that “demands the full attention of federal law enforcement.” He said that “when white supremacists attacked our nation’s capital, they took the life of one of our officers. They spilled his blood, they took our son away from his parents. They took a sibling away from their brothers.”
I believe that is the narrative most people will continue to take away from this.
[NOTE: Glenn Greenwald, who has written a lot about the Sicknick case, has an excellent article about yesterday’s announcement, in which he states this:
It was crucial for liberal sectors of the media to invent and disseminate a harrowing lie about how Officer Brian Sicknick died. That is because he is the only one they could claim was killed by pro-Trump protesters at the January 6 riot at the Capitol…
…[C]able outlets and other media platforms repeated this lie over and over in the most emotionally manipulative way possible…
As I detailed over and over when examining this story, there were so many reasons to doubt this storyline from the start. Nobody on the record claimed it happened. The autopsy found no blunt trauma to the head. Sicknick’s own family kept urging the press to stop spreading this story because he called them the night of January 6 and told them he was fine — obviously inconsistent with the media’s claim that he died by having his skull bashed in — and his own mother kept saying that she believed he died of a stroke.
But the gruesome story of Sicknick’s “murder” was too valuable to allow any questioning. It was weaponized over and over to depict the pro-Trump mob not as just violent but barbaric and murderous, because if Sicknick weren’t murdered by them, then nobody was.
Much more at the link, including the fact that Greenwald had been derisively labeled by MSM reporters as a “Sicknick truther.” They will not be saying any mea culpas about that, either, nor about the other lies they promulgated. They will just move on to the next one.]
The media is quite adept at alternating between arrogance and sociopathy.
Personally I’m still unclear about if anyone actually died specifically as a direct result of the actions of any Trump supporting rioter on January 6th.
An argument could be made that there were indirect consequences that may have resulted in deaths due to things like the whole event tying up emergency services or the creating of an intense situation that lead to that cop shooting Ashley Babbit. But as far as I know there were no deaths that directly and specifically could be assigned to the actions of any of the individuals making up the January 6th rioters.
Of course, most regular, moderate folks will likely go on believing that up to 6 people died by the hands of rioters. The truth doesn’t always permiate very well if it goes against a powerful narrative.
They’re also saying Greenwald is siding with “white supremacists,” whom they see around every corner.
Have to agree, few people who need to know will avail themselves of the official cause of death. Lies, or “mistruths” as they are increasingly known, will remain the dominant belief system.
I completely missed the point that Sicknick was the only injury or fatality that could have possibly been caused by rogue protestors or “insurrectionists.” That explains so much.
@Kate: Democrat politicians tried to frame Candace Owens as a Nazi sympathizer and therefore labeled her a white supremacist. Now either that’s a special kind of stupid or just the work of delusional people coked up on the belief that white supremacy gained a strong uptick during Trump’s presidency. But then gain they also tried frame Brett Kavanaugh as a rapist so go figure.
Where was the family in all this? I see that Greenwald links to a Washington Examiner article stating that Sicknick’s mother said she was kept in the dark. How could they stand for that? And how could they allow his death to be used so grotesquely for political purposes?
RockMeAle – I wouldn’t put past federal law enforcement (FBI, etc.) to pressure the family to keep their mouths shut. Look what they did to General Flynn.
That is PURE speculation by me. I don’t have an ounce of evidence. But in this past 4 months, nothing would surprise me anymore.
RockMeAle,
I think they drug the autopsy report out as long as they possibly could. Three and half months? In the last month or so they spun the notion that there could have been some mystical toxin in the bear spray used on Officer Sicknick. What’s the family going to do? They did speak out on what they knew. The state is in control. Do not resist.
The family gave statements to the effect that Sicknick had called them that evening to say he was okay, that they thought he’d died of a stroke, and they requested his death not be made a political issue. Not wanting it to be political, they didn’t make the rounds of conservative media to keep talking about their loss.
Leftist media ignored family statements and family requests. Of course they did.
It was obvious within hours that the beating never happened. There were no videos. In this day and age with cell phone cameras ubiquitous, the gruesome assault would have been all over the internet, but not one surfaced.
Does this mean that they can now take down the fences and razor wire and send the National Guard home?
Recall the staffers in the Kamala Harris campaign donated money to free rioters on bail.
Note that the Repub Party is NOT raising a ruckus about conservatives being held without bail for minor trespassing crimes.
Note that the Repub Party is NOT making a fuss over the fact that Ashli was shot dead. She was not arrested. She was not told to raise her hands. She was not told to leave the area. She was simply shot dead.
It’s increasingly “open season” to attack traditional Americans.
Absent some evidence that they had some other agenda I’m not going to criticize the Sicknick family for not speaking out more forcefully. There is a good chance they were decent people caught up in a political maelstrom far beyond anything they had ever experienced.
RockMeAle – I wouldn’t put past federal law enforcement (FBI, etc.) to pressure the family to keep their mouths shut. Look what they did to General Flynn.
I wouldn’t either although they did speak out some. Why so long to get the autopsy report or even cause of death ? Why was he immediately cremated ?
I still have my doubts about the Seth Rich case. There was a GW medical resident in ICU when Rich was admitted, still alive. The resident was ordered out of his workplace. Why ? I would like to hear from him but don’t blame him for lying low.
Does this mean that they can now take down the fences and razor wire and send the National Guard home?
https://alchetron.com/cdn/pugsley-addams-c3bce0b2-5a1d-4fc0-9965-651ccac23d3-resize-750.jpg
Not only do they never suffer any consequences for telling their lies, they actually benefit from doing so. Thus lying has become a useful and common tactic.
TCrosse – “Does this mean that they can now take down the fences and razor wire and send the National Guard home?”
No the Praetorian Guard must remain to make Nancy feel safe.
There is one last shred of evidence of calling it an armed insurrection. The pipe bomber supposedly.
https://www.revolver.news/2021/03/fbis-ridiculous-capitolsiege-pipe-bomb-video-is-an-all-out-assault-on-common-sense/
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/30/proud-boys-organizer-fbi-antifa-inquiries-478456
We are finding out more and more the Deep State organizing a lot of internal false flag operations.
steve walsh:
Yes, there’s really no downside to it as far as they’re concerned. Now that they are activists who place party and politics above any journalistic integrity, lying becomes standard and widespread. They back each other up, except for rogue reporters like Greenwald. For people like that, the rest of them get together and accuse them of being racists, etc.. Once they’re been labeled that way, the public “learns” that there’s no reason to pay attention to the Greenwalds of the world.
Sicknick was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. the day after the protest. His body was cremated. I have not been able to determine when that cremation took place. I expect that only the next-of-kin can authorize a cremation, and that there would necessarily be a signed document. Given all the lies about the (?) “insurrection,” it is within the realm of possibility that Officer Sicknick’s body was cremated in a clumsy attempt to hide the fact that he was not extinguished by the Maga Mob. Does anyone have further information? I’ve subscribed to Greenwald on Substack, and suggest that others do so also.
The Sicknick family spoke out quite a bit. But I don’t think their statements were covered much by the MSM. I saw their statements, but I don’t remember where they were all published. And at the time they didn’t know much, either, and were waiting for authorities to tell them.
As an example of one article, though, on February 26 I wrote a post that started like this:
That’s how early the stroke story was known. The MSM and the Democrats chose to ignore it and to assert the opposite.
Ironic that while Pelosi got her Reichstag fire and her Horst Wessel, unlike Horst Wessel who was a Nazi, office Socknivk was a Trump supporter
Where looking through the looking glass
Sicknick
AVI – George Floyd is their Horst Wessel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_Wessel
As far as the family is concerned I am sure that they got “an offer they couldn’t refuse” and went silent. Just like the family of Seth Rich. They had another son who was probably involved too.
These people play for keeps. The way to counteract them is sunlight. Lots of it. If the families are shown to be complicit then let the blowback fall back on them too.