"The police sergeant, who emigrated to the New York suburbs when he was 12 years old and could not yet speak English, left behind the life he had been fighting to achieve. In one of the darkest episodes of U.S. history, Gonell was beaten with flag poles and crutches, kicked and thrown around, resulting in injuries from which he has yet to recover, years later."
"That the nation's president denies what happened and tries to rewrite history is something that torments me, and aggravates my moral wound, says Gonell during a long telephone conversation with EL PAIS. If it hadn't been for the actions taken by officers like me and my colleagues, the United States would now be a dictatorship instead of a democracy, which I hope it will continue to be after this black cloud who is currently running the country."
Aquilino Gonell was born in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to the New York suburbs at age 12 without English. On January 6, 2021, he placed himself in harm’s way defending Democratic and Republican lawmakers as a mob attempted to attack the U.S. Capitol during certification of the election. He was beaten with flag poles and crutches, kicked, and thrown around by more than 40 people, sustaining injuries that persist years later and leaving his face covered in blood. Presidential denial of the events torments him, and he later left the country briefly to escape traumatic memories.
Read at english.elpais.com
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