The testimony so far has been extremely chilling. One thing I read that really speaks to the violent nature of the attack is the realization by the staff psychologist that all of these cases of PTSD suddenly appearing probably were more than just PTSD — the symptoms are nearly identical to the symptoms of traumatic brain injury. They’ve started doing brain scans and finding that indeed, a lot of the officers suffered serious injuries that went undiagnosed for weeks to months. One officer who testified described it as being like back in Iraq — he reflexively looked for his rifle, his wartime instincts having kicked right back in before he remembered he wasn’t a soldier anymore. Another officer testified that he fully believed he was about to die. One guy didn’t even realize how badly he’d been injured until months later when someone reviewed his bodycam footage and found he’d been unconscious for four minutes. Hollywood treats unconsciousness as a plot device, but in the real world, a head injury that leaves you unconscious for more than a couple of seconds is extremely serious. A lot of these officers have been unable to return to work, and may be permanently disabled by the injuries they sustained. Rioters stealing the police officers’ equipment, and egging one another on to shoot the officers with their own guns…..it’s extremely fortunate that these rioters were so badly organized that they weren’t able to carry out all the things they were trying to. I knew it was bad, but it was worse than I thought.
The testimony so far has been extremely chilling. One thing I read that really speaks to the violent nature of the attack is the realization by the staff psychologist that all of these cases of PTSD suddenly appearing probably were more than just PTSD — the symptoms are nearly identical to the symptoms of traumatic brain injury. They’ve started doing brain scans and finding that indeed, a lot of the officers suffered serious injuries that went undiagnosed for weeks to months. One officer who testified described it as being like back in Iraq — he reflexively looked for his rifle, his wartime instincts having kicked right back in before he remembered he wasn’t a soldier anymore. Another officer testified that he fully believed he was about to die. One guy didn’t even realize how badly he’d been injured until months later when someone reviewed his bodycam footage and found he’d been unconscious for four minutes. Hollywood treats unconsciousness as a plot device, but in the real world, a head injury that leaves you unconscious for more than a couple of seconds is extremely serious. A lot of these officers have been unable to return to work, and may be permanently disabled by the injuries they sustained. Rioters stealing the police officers’ equipment, and egging one another on to shoot the officers with their own guns…..it’s extremely fortunate that these rioters were so badly organized that they weren’t able to carry out all the things they were trying to. I knew it was bad, but it was worse than I thought.