Some have sagely observed that with the pardons Joe Biden’s handlers issued, someone could get away with murder. That’s true. In one infamous case, it’s at least partially true, and in another, apparently not. Leonard Peletier has long been a celebrity murderer among Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs). In 1975 he murdered, execution-style, two FBI agents and got a life sentence. D/s/cs have been unsuccessfully trying to spring him since. On 01-20-25, Biden’s handlers commuted his sentence.

Thankfully, this murderer didn’t get any Biden grace:

Graphic: X Screenshot

Why is that a good thing? Go here for a complete explanation, but for the moment, Lt. Michael Byrd—now Captain—of the Capitol Police, during the J6 demonstration, shot and killed AF veteran Ashli Babbitt. Despite what D/s/c politicians and their media propaganda arm have said, no Capitol Police officer died on January 6, but Babbit and another female protestor, Rosanne Boyland, did.  

Graphic X Screenshot

No one may use deadly force, including the police, unless there is an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death to oneself or another.  Babbitt threatened no one. She was one of several protestors locked out of the Speaker’s Lobby by a panel of doors with large glass panes. Someone broke one of them out. Evidence suggests Babbit was trying to calm the protestors, and she somehow climbed up onto the door, balancing precariously on the narrow frame, both hands gripping the frame, when Byrd, who breached the locked and barricaded House chamber for unexplained reasons, shot her in the neck at close range. She fell back, landing hard on the floor at the feet of SWAT-armed and outfitted Capitol Police officers. She quickly died.

Graphic: Twitter Screenshot

In his softball NBC interview, Byrd admitted he couldn’t see her hands. Balancing as she was on the ledge, unarmed and helpless, with multiple officers on both sides of the doors, she was no threat to anyone. All they had to do, on either side, was help her down. Byrd had no cause to use any level of force.

But because he was almost certainly a DEI hire, and because the narrative of an insurrection that came within inches of overthrowing the government was paramount, Byrd was proclaimed a hero and promoted to Captain. A rigged investigation quickly cleared him of actions that would have seen virtually any other American cop charged with murder.

Byrd was a dangerous screw up, particularly where guns are concerned. He once left his issued Glock unattended in a Capitol bathroom, getting a 33-day suspension. Once, when off duty and in no danger, he shot at a moving vehicle, a clear firing offense. Desperate to get at Babbitt, he was photographed inside the House chamber with his finger on the trigger of his Glock, always a gross safety violation. In 2001, Byrd abandoned his post for a card game and lied about it. In 2015, he was suspended for seven days for behaving abominably at a high school football game. Unsurprisingly, at least two other disciplinary incidents have gone “missing” from Byrd’s personnel file. Byrd is apparently on the "Lewis List," a file of Capitol Police officers whose records are so compromised they can’t testify in court.

Shortly after J6, Byrd wanted a shotgun for protection, but because he failed qualification, wasn’t issued one. He was issued free government housing and given $36,000 in unrestricted retention funds. He demanded more but amazingly, was turned down. He did get more than $100,000 for his heroism from a Go Fund Me account. He also twice filed for bankruptcy, owing more than $1.27 million.

Any cop with a disciplinary record like Byrd’s, who demanded as much as $400,000 from government, who was so compromised he couldn’t be trusted to testify in court, who had been suspended for more than 33 days (?!) and whose record of financial impropriety was so glaringly awful should have been fired decades ago, but in the Capitol Police of Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, he was proclaimed a hero who selflessly protected the lives of congress critters who were never in actual danger and promoted to Captain.

Graphic: Law professor Jonathan Turley, X Screenshot

Byrd is one of the most horrific examples of what DEI and government incompetence and corruption can do. It was apparently DEI, and the imperative never to expose it for what it is, that not only kept him employed as a Capitol Police officer all these years, but that played a hand in promoting him to high rank after he blatantly murdered an unarmed, tiny—5’2”, 115 pound—woman presenting no threat to anyone. Her murder had to be covered up, and Byrd praised, to keep the insurrection narrative alive and to protect Pelosi.

Fortunately, there is no statute of limitations on murder, and should they choose, a Trump DOJ can reopen the investigation. Real standards for the use of deadly force applied to the case will surely see Byrd indicted, as he should have been years ago.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.