David Nicholas Dempsey
August 26, 2021. The sun had not yet risen on Van Nuys, California. Southern California native David Nicholas Dempsey, 34, was fast asleep in bed with his wife and child when he awoke to a counterterrorism task force bursting into his bedroom, automatic rifles trained on them.
Months earlier, David Dempsey’s life had been changed forever by the election of November 2020. Like millions of other supporters of then-President Trump,David was deeply disturbed by the developments and irregularities of the election. His passion to defend his country’s election integrity moved himto fly across the country to Washington, D.C. to join the President’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6th at the Capitol Mall.
David was among the estimatedtwo hundred thousand-plus Americans who listened to the President’s speech at the Mall as he proclaimed, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
David marched proudly down Pennsylvania Avenue, spirits high. By the time he arrived at Capitol Hill, earlier crowds of hundreds of protestors had already removedseveral lines of barriers and were gathered beforea police line ofbarricades surrounding the Capitol building itself. David was shocked to witness police throwing tear gas and other “less-lethal” grenades into the crowd, beating them back with batons, and dangerously firing rubber bullets at citizens from a high vantage point.
Davidsoon joined the hundreds of protestors jammed into the Lower West Terrace, where an archway andshort, narrow tunnel leadinto the Capitol Building.
At 4:20 p.m., as protestors funneled into the tunnel, officers released irritant spray into it,choking those inside. A stampede of protesters retreated out of the tunnel, gasping for fresh air, some passing out. The police then began firing pepper balls into the panicked crush of citizens. All of this was egregiously in violation of crowd control protocol.
David was among the many in the terrace area whose horror turned to fury at what they witnessed next.
Rosanne Boyland, one of the dozens who became trapped under piles of bodies, was rescued by fellow protestors, pulled to safety outside the tunnel’s archway. People shouted in vain for the officers to help the injured Ms. Boyland. Instead, Metro PD Officer Lila Morris stepped out of the tunnel with a baton and violently struck the prostrate womanaround the head and chest three times, ignoring the shouts of citizens to stop.
(Rosanne Boyland would tragically die the next day after being taken to a hospital by first responders from inside the Capitol. She was one of four protestors whose deathshave been directly connected to the events of January 6th. Officer Morris was exonerated, received commendations from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and was flown to the Super Bowl as a guest of honor.)
Enraged by these acts of police brutality, dozens of protestors surged forward and violently engaged the police forces around the terrace.
Many protestors would later describe it as “a war zone.”
Video footage from the day shows an individual wearing a helmet, goggles and an American flag gaiterattacking law enforcement officers in the tunnel of the West Terrace entrance, including by spraying them with what appears to be pepper spray and using a pole and a crutch to strike officers.
After the unrest and clashes of the day had settled and protestors been dispersed, David returnedto his family in California. As he resumed his normal life in Van Nuys, David had no idea that the FBI and Department of Justice, relying heavily on the investigative work of activist group Sedition Hunters, had determined that he was the man wearing the American flag gaiter. Using provisions of the Patriot Act, the authorities labelledDavid Dempsey a “domestic terrorist” and trackeddown his location.
OnAugust 26, 2021, with no warning, the raid of the Dempsey home was executed. A battering ram broke down thefront door as the pre-dawn raid was carried out by “a counter terrorism task force armed to the teeth,” as David’s older brother writes.“He was ripped from his daughter’s and wife’s grasp ([the agents] bruising [his wife’s] ribs by stabbing her so hard with the barrel of the gun to scare her and move her away).He was just sleeping with his daughter and wife.”
Two days later, David was charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, use of a dangerous weapon against police, civil disorder, entering a restricted area with a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
He was denied bail after prosecutors brought to the judge’s attention the fact thatDavid had pleaded “no contest” in 2019 to charges of firing bear spray into a group of anti-Trump protestors in Santa Monica. It’s unclear whether he had finished his sentence for that crime before he travelled to Washington, D.C. If he was indeed the man dubbed “#FlagGaiterCopHater” by Sedition Hunters, David was also shown on a YouTube video to be standing before mock gallows stating, “Them worthless [expletives] like Jerry Nadler, [expletive] Pelosi…They don’t need a jail cell. They need to hang from these[…pointing to gallows].”
Writes David’s brother, “He has been denied bail unless we can acquire a ‘substantial amount of capital’ – [the] exact words from Fed court judge. [David] has been denied due process, violating his civil rights for what authorities believe to be […] him at the Capitol on January 6th.”
At the time of this writing, David Dempsey remains in the Correctional Treatment Facility in Washington, D.C. as he attempts to obtain private legal defense for a trial. This is the CTF that has earned the notorious moniker “the D.C. Gulag,” for the segregated unit of J6ers held there in its dark, squalid living conditions.
David’s brother writes, “They’ve not allowed any attorney visits, he has been exposed to multiple different diseases in high concentration. Due to the overpopulation and lack of cleaning supplies and hygiene products given to inmates incarcerated by the United States Government [, because of] political bias he has been given no treatment for [his] kidney stones, IBS, and Chrohn’s Disease.”
David spoke in a phone interview about awful meals like a breakfast of “cold, grey-green rotten eggs” served to the inmates one day. He’s proud that he and other J6ers incarcerated in the Gulag have been able to start letter-writing campaigns that have forced the facility to improve some conditions for all its inmates.
You can contribute financially to David’s legal, medical and meal expenses via his GiveSendGo webpage:
https://www.givesendgo.com/GKD996
As David writes, “Any form of support is highly appreciated, be it letters, prayers, or donations.Whatever form of support I receive is beyond appreciated regardless of your ability to donate financially.”
You’re welcomed to send messages of encouragement by clicking the “Pray” button on the GiveSendGo page.Alternately, letters or cardscan be mailed to:
David Nicholas Dempsey, 378838
Correctional Treatment Facility
1901 E Street SE
Washington, DC 20003