A Jan. 6 prisoner who has gone on a hunger strike has already dropped 30 pounds.
In an emotional video, Larry Brock, Jr. begins his story with a heavy sigh.
“I have always believed in the American people, and I still do. So you need to understand that I cannot accept the decision of this court. It is the action of a hostile and illegitimate regime against an American Patriot. So what can I do? I refuse to take up weapons against you. I love you too much. I’ve offered my life for you, and that’s what I’m doing again. I will not eat a single meal as a political prisoner of this corrupt and illegitimate regime.”
Brock, a retired lieutenant colonel with the United States Air Force, was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Jan. 8, 2021, he was indicted on six charges (pdf), including Obstruction of an Official Proceeding, one that carries a 20-year prison sentence. According to court documents (pdf), it was his ex-wife who called the FBI, saying she wasn’t surprised to see him in photos of the protests.
Brock was subsequently fired from his job. He was arrested in Texas on Jan. 10, 2021. Conditions for his release (pdf) were set for Jan. 14, 2021. According to reports, Brock was sentenced to two years in prison on March 18.
Why at the Capitol?
In a video, he explains in his own words his reason for being there at the Capitol, saying, “Our president asked us to be there.” He said the reason why he purchase personal protection equipment to wear was because he knew of instances where members of BLM and ANTIFA “had attacked Trump supporters,” and he wanted to “be personally safe.” By the time he arrived at the Capitol, all of the bike racks and barriers had been removed, and there were “about half a million people there.”
After his trial, he learned that there were undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers there “yelling, ‘go, go, go.’”
He then describes what he was and did after he entered the Capitol Building, admitting he tried to use a set of keys he found on a desk to open a locked door.
“I wish I hadn’t done that,” he said. “When the keys didn’t work,” he put them back on the desk where he found them.
He said there is a video that shows him “acting to protect police.” He didn’t destroy anything or go through any barricades. He isn’t part of any militias. He brought no weapons. He went to D.C. alone and had “no association with anybody” who was there.
“The greatest measure of a man’s intent are his actions,” Brock suggests, “and my actions that day were to protect police, were to peacefully and patriotically protest.”
He then talks about how “we now know there are 41,000 hours” of surveillance footage, “of which we’ve been told only 14 has been released.”
“Mom, Dad, Lowry, Ann, I love you guys. You raised me well. I choose to be a man of character. I choose my method of death. I know that what I am going to do is probably going to hurt you, and I’m sorry. But some things are worth dying for.”
Video Tapes of Jan. 6
For Brock, that “thing” is “to get the tapes released to the American people.”
“This is a call to action. I welcome all my fellow J6 Political Prisoners to join me in this hunger strike,” he wrote on his website, “From Patriot to Political Prisoner,” before surrendering himself to authorities. “We are singularly focused. We DEMAND the release of all (high-resolution/high-quality) videos related to the events of January 6th, to the American People directly.”
A week into his hunger strike, Brock said he was “down 18 pounds.”
He is now down 30 pounds.
Charles Burnham, Brock’s attorney, says, “Nobody should doubt that he is doing what he believes to be the right thing.”
“In the course of representing Larry I got to know not only my client but also many of the people close to him from the military and other parts of his life,” Burnham told The Epoch Times. “Not everyone agreed with his politics, but nobody questioned his courage, his patriotism, or his ethics.”
Jason Segers is Brock’s stepbrother.
“I’ve always looked up to my brother and he’s always been important to me,” Segers told The Epoch Times, saying he had a “special bond” with Brock and “always tried to do things to make him laugh.”
“I always had a lot of respect for him and his pursuit of his military career,” he said, noting how his big brother had “fought in every war in the Middle East.” Segers said he’s “very proud of him.” Not just for his career as a fighter pilot but for his participation in the protests on Jan. 6.
Segers has always suspected that the “violence” that transpired on Jan. 6, 2021, was “orchestrated” and the government’s treatment of those who participated in the protests, “was all to ensure that the stolen election would not be reviewed further.”
“To treat a true American patriot hero like this is shameful,” he said. “I pray for him and I pray that he will get justice and the truth will come out.”
Troy Porter is also a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. He is currently an airline pilot. Porter met Brock at the Air Force Academy in the fall of 1986.
“He’s a fantastic human being. A man of unparalleled character and a man of principle, which is very rare. My dad told me when I was a kid that when you find a friend who’s willing to take a bullet for you, hang on to them with both hands because it’s a rare thing, and there is no doubt in my mind that Larry Brock would take a bullet for me,” Porter said.
“His hunger strike is about releasing the videos. We all know that if all the videos were released that there would be no case against most of the prisoners. In some videos of the protesters, it’s debatable if they were actual protesters or plants. But there were people being violent against the police, and Larry stopped them. He was simply there to protest because he knew there was election fraud, and he walked into what many of us believe was a trap. His hunger strike is to get McCarthy to release the videos, which would certainly vindicate him and many of the January 6 protesters.”
Porter said he spoke to his friend shortly before he turned himself in.
“He was depressed. He never thought the country that he loves and served for so many years would turn on him, and I feel the same way. I’m totally dumbfounded that the country would turn on him in such a manner when all he simply wants is to preserve liberty,” he said.
“What little liberty and democracy we have left in this country is what separates us from all the other countries in this world, and that’s what he wanted to preserve. Now he’s in prison for protesting for that. He’s hopeful that this hunger strike will bring light, not just to his situation but for all the imprisoned January 6 protesters.”