• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Alexa, change the president.”

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The willow is too close to the house.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

We are aware of all internet traditions.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

We still have time to mess this up!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Second rate reporter says what?

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

T R E 4 5 O N

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Two arrested in assault on police officer Brian Sicknick

Two arrested in assault on police officer Brian Sicknick

by TaMara|  March 15, 202111:34 am| 66 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

Breaking WaPo: U.S. authorities have arrested and charged two men with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. https://t.co/dF6qULW0DP

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 15, 2021

Two arrested in assault on police officer Brian SicknickWaPo link.

U.S. authorities have arrested and charged two men with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but have not determined whether the exposure caused his death.

Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39 of Morgantown, W.Va., were arrested Sunday and are expected to appear in federal court Monday

“Give me that bear s—,” Khater allegedly said to Tanios on video recorded at the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol at 2:14 p.m., where Sicknick and other officers were standing guard behind metal bicycle racks, arrest papers say.

Open thread

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Things That Don’t Concern Me
Next Post: Are NFTs As Stupid As They Sound? »

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  1. 1.

    waspuppet

    March 15, 2021 at 11:38 am

    Sure, but if they did it because they love this country, that’s OK, Ron Johnson says.

  2. 2.

    JPL

    March 15, 2021 at 11:40 am

    That’s good news, and I hope that they continue rounding up the white supremacists.

     

    OT how are the ducks?

  3. 3.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    March 15, 2021 at 11:43 am

    Fair trial, fine hanging. Okay, I’d accept Fair Trial, rest of life in a fed penitentiary with no chance of parole.

  4. 4.

    PaulWartenberg

    March 15, 2021 at 11:48 am

    Glad to know that the investigation is getting results, and now it’s a question of getting the Congressional Republicans to admit they are in league with murdering radicals.

  5. 5.

    The Moar You Know

    March 15, 2021 at 11:49 am

    We are such a nice country, at least to right-wing terrorists.  In most nations, participating in a coup against a legitimate government is a one-way trip to the gallows or firing squad.  And should be.

  6. 6.

    Mai Naem mobile

    March 15, 2021 at 12:00 pm

    So does John know this Tanios guy? I mean like everybody knows each other in WVa right?

  7. 7.

    Bobby Thomson

    March 15, 2021 at 12:09 pm

    @Mai Naem mobile: 
    He’s really from New Jersey. So is the other guy.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    March 15, 2021 at 12:09 pm

    Lock ’em up!

  9. 9.

    justawriter

    March 15, 2021 at 12:14 pm

    Ever since Gordon Kahl, Branch Davidians, and Ruby Ridge, I have been waiting for Democrats to start painting the right wing as baby-raping cop killers, or at least being supporters. Perhaps we are finally starting to become uncivil enough to paint a true picture of these “patriots”.

  10. 10.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 15, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    @Baud: Slap them with their own skeletons!

  11. 11.

    Benw

    March 15, 2021 at 12:19 pm

    @waspuppet: My clients are only guilty of one thing, your honor. Guilty of loving this country too much!

  12. 12.

    Redshift

    March 15, 2021 at 12:19 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    We are such a nice country, at least to right-wing terrorists.  In most nations, participating in a coup against a legitimate government is a one-way trip to the gallows or firing squad.  And should be. 

    No it isn’t. Most nations have abolished capital punishment.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    March 15, 2021 at 12:21 pm

    @Benw:

    If trying to violently overthrow a democratically elected government because my candidate lost is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

  14. 14.

    Paul M Gottlieb

    March 15, 2021 at 12:30 pm

    @Benw: Oh! and murder. So that’s two things: Loving my country too much and murder

  15. 15.

    Bobby Thomson

    March 15, 2021 at 12:33 pm

    @justawriter: By prohibiting Sunday voting, Republicans in Georgia are objectively working against Christians.

  16. 16.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    March 15, 2021 at 12:33 pm

    @Paul M Gottlieb: “Let’s not bicker and argue about who killed who.”

    -Monty Python

  17. 17.

    Death Panel Truck

    March 15, 2021 at 12:39 pm

    @Redshift: According to Amnesty International, although most nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world’s population live in countries where the death penalty is retained, such as China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran,  Japan, and Taiwan.

  18. 18.

    Benw

    March 15, 2021 at 12:41 pm

    @Baud: @Paul M Gottlieb: furthermore, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as you know many a jury has refused to convict a racist, killer cop; can you not do the same for these racist cop killers!?

  19. 19.

    E.

    March 15, 2021 at 12:45 pm

    I am no fan at all of the felony murder statutes but so many POC would have been instantaneously charged with it in circumstances where a fatality was much less foreseeable than this one. If you are fighting over an opportunity to bear spray a very outnumbered cop during a riot attended by hundreds of people in military gear who are erecting gallows and shouting their desire to execute people, and then that cop is indeed murdered by your crowd, well . . . .

  20. 20.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 15, 2021 at 12:45 pm

    @waspuppet: They’re actually Antifa and BLM activists. No real (White Christian) patriot would engage in such reprehensible behavior. /s

  21. 21.

    bluefoot

    March 15, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    @PaulWartenberg: they don’t have to admit it if investigation can prove it.  If Comgressional Republicans provided support, then we put them on trial and throw them in jail or execute them for treason.

  22. 22.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 15, 2021 at 12:47 pm

    @Mai Naem mobile: I mean like everybody knows each other in WVa right?

    No no no – everybody is related to everyone else in WV.

    (Central question on WV Bar Exam: If a WV man and WV woman get married and then get divorced, are they still brother and sister?)

    You laugh (at least I hope you laugh) but swaretaDog, one of my very best friends married a WV girl many years back – & after their divorce, when she remarried it was to her first cousin.

    (signed) Son of WV Refugees With Many Cousins Still Back In “The Sticks”​​​

  23. 23.

    Tom Levenson

    March 15, 2021 at 12:48 pm

    @E.: Prediction is hard, especially about the future, but I note that the second linked article says that authorities haven’t determent yet whether or not the bear spray contributed to the officer’s death.

    Felony murder charges can still be filed, is what I’m saying.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    March 15, 2021 at 12:50 pm

    @JPL: That’s good news, and I hope that they continue rounding up the white supremacists. OT how are the ducks?

    Balloon Juice, where the full services we provide include occasional bouts of whiplash.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    March 15, 2021 at 12:56 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo: one of my very best friends married a WV girl many years back – & after their divorce, when she remarried it was to her first cousin.

    So she’d tried marrying one of those foreigners from more than 50 miles away, and when that didn’t work out (just like her parents had warned her), she went back to the traditions that had worked so well for centuries, and married a local boy?

  26. 26.

    Citizen Alan

    March 15, 2021 at 12:57 pm

    @Redshift: ​ 

    It is a testament to how much damage living in Trump’s America has done to my soul that I have reconsidered my once total opposition to capital punishment. I make an exception for violent insurrections.

  27. 27.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 15, 2021 at 1:01 pm

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    Weat Virginia Greeks aren’t like city Greeks – they’ll out-wingnut your most virulent wingnut, in my experience.

  28. 28.

    Chief Oshkosh

    March 15, 2021 at 1:05 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I hear you, and that’s my inclination. But it is all too easy to imagine how it would be applied to POC simply and non-violently exercising First Amendment rights.

  29. 29.

    Sebastian

    March 15, 2021 at 1:06 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    I am ok with them walking from Washington DC to Arizona and if some tears are shed during that, whatchamacallit, trail perhaps? and some stragglers shot by the side of the road … ah well, gotta break eggs and all.

    Also, how about we reuse Sheriff Arpaio’s tent camps and the first one to rat out the rest gets half a cup of water.

  30. 30.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 15, 2021 at 1:07 pm

    I’ll add this – the other dude is probably a Pennsyltucky Leb/Syrian – those guys are ALSO rabid wingnuts. They just happen to go to Situ’s (grandma’s) house for kibbee, tabouleh and baklawa every couple of months.

  31. 31.

    raven

    March 15, 2021 at 1:15 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
    George Tanios, operator of Sandwich U, arrested for role in U.S. Capitol riot

     

    And the Fat Sandwich menu!‘

    Cole knows this joint even if he doesn’t go there.

  32. 32.

    Cameron

    March 15, 2021 at 1:16 pm

    I normally try to promote restorative justice, but I’m not sure that works with these folks.  If they don’t get stepped on hard, they’ll assume they can get away with sedition.  And they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, since it appears that more than a few people in police or military uniforms agree with them.

  33. 33.

    Cermet

    March 15, 2021 at 1:16 pm

    @Ken: I believe that 26 States allow first cousins to marry so, WVA isn’t exactly and outlier in this regards.

  34. 34.

    Spanky

    March 15, 2021 at 1:16 pm

    @Tom Levenson: Two thousand years from now, little will be remembered of our culture, except for the quotations of our foremost philosopher, Yogi Berra.

  35. 35.

    FridayNext

    March 15, 2021 at 1:17 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    It’s actually quite a venerable tradition among wealthy white folks. FDR, Einstein, Darwin, David Lean, HG Welles, Poe, and a gaggle of royal folks married cousins. Even Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick are, like, 9th cousins or some such.

  36. 36.

    patrick II

    March 15, 2021 at 1:24 pm

    @FridayNext:

    The majority of us might be 9th cousins or some such.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    March 15, 2021 at 1:26 pm

    Breaking WaPo: U.S. authorities have arrested and charged two men with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

    Where possible, it should be emphasized that the attack on the Capitol and the Capitol police was not just a political stunt or misunderstanding or prank.

  38. 38.

    Ken

    March 15, 2021 at 1:28 pm

    @Cermet: Sorry, I didn’t mean to single out WV; more the attitudes that keep so many young people trapped in their home town with few prospects.

  39. 39.

    E.

    March 15, 2021 at 1:31 pm

    @Tom Levenson: With felony murder it doesn’t matter if the bear spray actually contributed to the death, only that the death occurred and was foreseeable from the commission of the felony, which is assault on a police officer.

    My favorite case is the news helicopter that crashes while filming a black guy fleeing police. Bingo, felony murder. Shoulda known a news helicopter might crash when you went for your joyride.

  40. 40.

    cain

    March 15, 2021 at 1:33 pm

    Can’t for these men to be outed as antifa to the chagrin of their friends. That’ll probably just add indignity to the whole affair. They’re house is probably festooned with blue lives matter flags too.

  41. 41.

    CraigM

    March 15, 2021 at 1:35 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I have had the exact same thoughts about capital punishment, but I keep coming back to two things – first, whether an action is right or wrong doesn’t depend on my personal distaste or antipathy toward the person being punished, and second, our long history of killing people because they are so damned awful has not ever been effective in reducing the percentage of assholes among us.

  42. 42.

    citizen dave

    March 15, 2021 at 1:46 pm

    You guys made me think of the great “second cousins” verse in Choctaw Bingo.

    Re: Vaccine proof to fly, the U.S. industry last week asked the Biden administration to create something: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/03/09/covid-travel-airlines-ask-biden-create-standardized-documentation/4641104001/

    Maybe tie it to Pre-Check or something?  Was wondering the other day how I proved vaccinations for Cambodia and Vietnam, and realized I sent the proof to the people getting me my visa.  Seems like this is going to be a big job, verifying millions of travelers’ vaccinations.

  43. 43.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 15, 2021 at 1:46 pm

    @raven:

    Its got the classics for Greek guys in the hinterland – gyros and falafel.

    Didn’t check for dessert – baklava is kind of a sonofabitch to make.

  44. 44.

    Spanky

    March 15, 2021 at 1:47 pm

    Juicer Jennifer Rubin channels us all again:

    Opinion: Want a formal presidential news conference? Reporters need better questions.

  45. 45.

    Another Scott

    March 15, 2021 at 1:49 pm

    @Tom Levenson: Made me look. CriminalDefenseLawyer.com:

    Not Your Average Murder

    Unlike most murder charges, felony murder doesn’t require the intent to kill, only:

    * the intent to commit the underlying felony (the “predicate felony”), and
    * that someone died as a result of the felony.

    If more than one person participates in the felony, all involved are equally responsible, even those who didn’t cause the death. In some cases, even those who weren’t present when the death occurred are responsible.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  46. 46.

    Mike in NC

    March 15, 2021 at 1:49 pm

    Patiently awaiting the arrest of the GQP folks who encouraged/assisted the mob in trashing the Capitol. Cruz, Hawley, Boebert, Greene, Gosar, etc.

  47. 47.

    scav

    March 15, 2021 at 1:50 pm

    The shock some people are going to get when they discover they don’t get to grade their own patriotism (or racism, or adherence to law).  Nor do they get to inform God that he has forgiven them.

    Well, I guess a mere mortal can dream, can’t they?

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    March 15, 2021 at 1:55 pm

    ObOpenThread – KrebsOnSecurity:

    15 MAR 21

    WeLeakInfo Leaked Customer Payment Info

    A little over a year ago, the FBI and law enforcement partners overseas seized WeLeakInfo[.]com, a wildly popular service that sold access to more than 12 billion usernames and passwords stolen from thousands of hacked websites. In an ironic turn of events, a lapsed domain registration tied to WeLeakInfo let someone plunder and publish account data on 24,000 customers who paid to access the service with a credit card.

    For several years, WeLeakInfo was the largest of several services selling access to hacked passwords. Prosecutors said it had indexed, searchable information from more than 10,000 data breaches containing over 12 billion indexed records — including names, email addresses, usernames, phone numbers, and passwords for online accounts.

    […]

    Now, nearly 24,000 WeLeakInfo’s customers are finding that the personal and payment data they shared with WeLeakInfo over its five-year-run has been leaked online.

    […]

    [womp, womp]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    March 15, 2021 at 1:58 pm

    Assault?

    HE WAS MURDERED

  50. 50.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 15, 2021 at 2:01 pm

    @FridayNext: “Venerable tradition” it may be, but first-cousinhood unremoved (though it might be legal) is just a tad too genetically close for most folks’ tastes.

  51. 51.

    Roger Moore

    March 15, 2021 at 2:07 pm

    @Cermet:

    I believe that 26 States allow first cousins to marry so, WVA isn’t exactly and outlier in this regards.

    The question is not whether it is legal but how common it is. And it’s not just people from backwoods Appalachia who tend to marry their first cousins.  It’s common in all kinds of tight-knit communities that are either suspicious of outsiders or forbidden from marrying outside their group, like religious minorities or European royalty.

  52. 52.

    Ken

    March 15, 2021 at 2:11 pm

    @Another Scott: data they shared with WeLeakInfo has been leaked online.

    Definitely an early contender for this year’s “Absolute truth in advertising” prize.

  53. 53.

    dnfree

    March 15, 2021 at 2:12 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: a number of the city Greeks I know are pretty wingnutty.  One of them shared that meme about the stutterer (Biden) beating the bully (Trump) because they thought it was a dig at Biden.

  54. 54.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 15, 2021 at 2:16 pm

    @Baud: shouldn’t be an issue for you—when is the last time you were right about anything?

  55. 55.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 15, 2021 at 2:31 pm

    @raven: Fuck this traitorous Nazi shitstain, but give me the entire menu for free.

  56. 56.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 15, 2021 at 2:33 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

     

    baklava is kind of a sonofabitch to make.

    And tastes awful, unless you’re a fan of sickly sweet

  57. 57.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 15, 2021 at 2:34 pm

    @Spanky: do we get royalties from the professional press and whatnot who rip off our ideas?

  58. 58.

    Albatrossity

    March 15, 2021 at 2:56 pm

    I’m still waiting for one of these indictments to include DNA evidence from somebody’s poop smear in the US Capitol.

  59. 59.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 15, 2021 at 3:13 pm

    @Albatrossity: Ah yes.  “Your dumb ass got caught because you smeared your shit on the wall.”

  60. 60.

    geg6

    March 15, 2021 at 3:17 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: ​
     
    OMG! You have obviously only had terrible baklava. It should be sweet, yes. But not sickly sweet.

  61. 61.

    Starboard Tack

    March 15, 2021 at 3:57 pm

    @Spanky:

    My favorite:

    During spring training, someone asked Yogi what his hat size was.

    “I don’t know. I’m not in shape yet.”

  62. 62.

    FridayNext

    March 15, 2021 at 4:11 pm

    @patrick II:

    You got me there. What shape jello-salad are you bringing to the reunion this summer?

  63. 63.

    FridayNext

    March 15, 2021 at 4:13 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Absolutely. But we only make fun of poor people who do it, not rich people or celebrities.

  64. 64.

    Geeno

    March 15, 2021 at 4:43 pm

    @geg6: It could also be a matter of taste – I would’ve loved baklava as a kid, but when I hit 30 my sweet tooth rotted out of my mouth apparently. Now even some mere fruit juices are too sweet to me.

  65. 65.

    debbie

    March 15, 2021 at 5:15 pm

    This is very good news. Screw them to the walls!

  66. 66.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    March 15, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    You laugh (at least I hope you laugh) but swaretaDog, one of my very best friends married a WV girl many years back – & after their divorce, when she remarried it was to her first cousin. 

    My wife’s parents married as first cousins – in Virginia because it’s illegal in WV.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - beckya57 - Copper Canyon, Mexico, April 2025
Image by beckya57 (7/31/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom on War for Ukraine Day 1,231: Wednesday is a Repeat of Tuesday and Thursday Will Likely Be a Repeat of Wednesday (Jul 10, 2025 @ 3:25am)
  • Harrison Wesley on Wednesday Night Open Thread (Jul 10, 2025 @ 3:00am)
  • bjacques on War for Ukraine Day 1,231: Wednesday is a Repeat of Tuesday and Thursday Will Likely Be a Repeat of Wednesday (Jul 10, 2025 @ 2:01am)
  • Msb on The Texas Flood Tragedies Continue (Jul 10, 2025 @ 2:00am)
  • Ruckus on Wednesday Night Open Thread (Jul 10, 2025 @ 1:51am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!