As a father and grandfather – who lost a young grandson in Afghanistan – my heart aches for any family that faces the death of a young beloved member.
The death of Capitol Hill police officer Brian Sicknick was a tragedy by all measures.
The fact that his death has been used as a political cudgel by the Democrat establishment is an obscenity atop a tragedy. The fact that the bereaving family has made themselves a public centerpiece of the Democrat scheme diminishes the unbridled sympathy they deserve.
The obscenity began with the redefining of the death of young Sicknick. He was on duty during the Capitol Hill riot. He sustained no injuries – despite erroneous early news reports that he had been hit with a fire extinguisher and when that proved untrue that he had been gassed with bear repellant – which also proved untrue.
Sicknick died the next day.
A thorough autopsy revealed that Sicknick died of “natural causes” – possibly related to an undetected heart condition. Such cases are not uncommon. We see young athletes succumb to that periodically. According to the coroner, the body showed no signs of blunt trauma, bruising or toxic substances.
Despite the medical and scientific findings, Democrats went on a full-scale propaganda campaign to declare that Sicknick was “killed” as a result of the riot. Their friends in the media picked up the fictional script. Many reports intimated that he was killed at the riot. Some even resurrected the debunked fire extinguisher story.
Almost immediately, Sicknick’s grieving mother was put on tour on the various left-wing media programs with a political message – Trump is responsible for the death of her son. Mrs. Sicknick campaigned against Republicans across the county. She said her son died because of “people like Kari Lake – the GOP gubernatorial candidate in Arizona.
For me, it mitigated some of the sympathies when I see the mother using her son’s death as a very specific partisan political narrative targeting Trump specifically and Republicans in general – especially when that narrative is based on false claims regarding the cause of death.
And the use of the grieving mother was not just a reaction to the moment, In the past two years, she and her family have appeared and reappeared as Democrats kept grinding their insurrection narrative.
At the recent congressional event honoring the good efforts of the overpowered Capitol Hill police, the entire Sicknick family refused to shake hands with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy – two GOP leaders who had nothing to do with the riot.
It was a premeditated plan to bring the Democrat’s mendacious narrative over the death of Officer Sicknick to the surface once again. It was successful. CNN and MSNBC gave extensive sympathetic coverage to the young officer’s mother and brother. Never once in the interviews was it noted that Sicknick did not die as a result of injuries he suffered at the riot. Quite the opposite.
I feel sorry for their loss. In my opinion, however, the family’s use of his death to so blatantly and opportunistically advance the Democrat’s – and their own – political agenda founded on false claims is reprehensible. To me, it dishonors the tragic death of their family member.
So, there ‘tis.