Run, Jonny, Run

Dozens of agents swept into the Pollock residence before dawn on June 30 to try to capture two people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 protest in Washington, D.C.
Olivia Pollock, 30, was caught, but her brother Jonny wasn’t found and is one of the few Capitol breach defendants who has been charged but remains at large.
The FBI considers Jonathan Daniel Pollock, 21, to be armed and dangerous, but his family members in Lakeland, Florida, say it’s not true and they fear for his safety.
Below are excerpts from my interview with Olivia Pollock and another brother, Gabriel Pollock, a gun shop owner who was not at the Capitol in January, but supports Jonny and worries about his fate.

Question: What can you tell us about, about Jonny, about the kind of person is he?

Benjamin Pollock: He’s my brother. I’ll, I’ll gladly admit that, and, he is one of the nicest, young men that you’ll ever want to meet, you know. The FBI, even when they were questioning me as to his whereabouts, they’re like, yeah, we’ve been following your family for, for five to six months. We know what kind of people you are. We know y’all are good people. And so why are you doing this? What is going on? He is a hard worker. He loves the Lord. He is a Christian, devout Christian, and he’s a patriot. He loves his country. He would have done any, he would have joined the military, and he would have made a great soldier, but it, it just didn’t work out that way. He didn’t, he wasn’t, he wasn’t able to join, but he loves this country and he wants to see the best for it and he wants, and that’s why he was up there.

He wants to see, this country be the greatest again, and he loves people, you know, he loves police officers, law enforcement. That’s, that’s a huge part of what this country is. It’s a country of laws is country of justice. And he loves the rule of law. He doesn’t want to see anarchy, you know, for, for 12 months, last year we saw in Antifa and anarchy and they were trying to create disorder and lawlessness. And, and then you see an election unjustly taken from the people. The voice of the people were, were ignored, you know, and then the Supreme Court, our last line of defense in a, in a nation of law, when you, you know, when you have a redress, you bring it to the court and they are the, the ultimate authority in a situation like that. And they ignored the case.

They didn’t want to see it. They didn’t want to look at the evidence and, and that’s hugely discouraging for, you know, for a young man that loves us. Well, really, that was the whole reason everybody was up there, you know, but, but Jonny, you know, we, we talked for, you know, I, we grew up together. So we spent many times talking about this country and where we’re headed, the direction that this country is headed and, you know, it, it was saddening to him and saddening to me. And, he’s, he’s a good man and he’s being unjustly, pursued by a runaway government right now. And, it’s, it’s discouraging. I it’s, it’s more than just discouraging. It’s infuriating because if, if he, if he were to be arrested, I know he wouldn’t see justice, just like the rest of them there.

They’re not seeing justice right now. They’re not, their voices are not being heard and they’re not having their day in court. They’re being detained for who knows how long they’re not, they’re not given a speedy trial. And, even if they were, I, I, I don’t think, I don’t think they would see a just court, and, and that’s discouraging, that’s the country that we love a country that we’re proud of, you know, we’re proud to be Americans and then to see the country go in the direction that it is. It’s, it’s yeah. It’s and we don’t, I don’t even have words to describe the frustration and the agony, you know, that, that I feel.

They have an armed and dangerous tag on my brother, never committed a crime in his life. Never been arrested, uh, does not have a record. Young man. I mean, he literally, he wanted to be a youth pastor. He doesn’t have a record, but they have an armed and dangerous tag on him because he was letting his voice be heard on Jan. 6 because he was assaulted by police officers. And so they’ve slapped an armed and dangerous tag on him. So that, that means that if they find him, they’re going to assume that he’s going to fight back. And so they’re going to automatically take the most drastic measures to, to see him arrested or, or, or they may, you know, they may kill him in the process of arresting them. So yes, it is. It is a huge concern. And it it’s very worrying because there is no real accountability right now in, in that department.

My cousin who is a, uh, Ranger in the military, he has been pleading with them to have the, that label removed, that armed and dangerous tag taken off. They threatened to have him trespassed and that they were gonna arrest him if he called them back. So they’re not listening to any, any reason. It doesn’t make any sense for that label to be on him. And so, yeah, it is, it is very concerning.

Olivia Pollock: Uh, I know Jonny can take care of himself and I just, but, yeah, I worry for him because they have it out right afterwards that he’s armed and dangerous. And when you put armed and dangerous on somebody, it’s automatically the officer’s gonna think, oh, he’s got, he’s got a rifle. He’d probably shoot back. And that gives them more of a chance of just shooting him without even checking if he’s armed. And I know, he didn’t have any guns with him when he left for work. And so he’s not armed and dangerous and he’s definitely not dangerous. He was, he was taught to respect the officers. I mean, I know he does and, and to respect the people in authority and, but yet you look at the country and they’re just throwing people in jail till who knows when and not giving them a court date. So why go sit in jail? You know, so yeah, I don’t know.

Gabriel Pollock: The sheriff is actually the liaison that’s working, you know, they had, because our local sheriff is not standing up. He’s not wanting to take a stand either way. As much as I like Grady Judd, he’s being a coward right now. He’s not standing up. It’s his duty to protect his citizens. Jonny has been a citizen of Polk County his whole life. And he’s Grady Judd’s responsibility. Your sheriff is your ultimate responsibility. You know, they’re your last line of defense against a runaway federal government, your sheriff. And right now that’s what’s happening. We have a runaway federal government that has no accountability. They’re using the FBI as a, an SS, you know, to go around and quiet, uh, political dissenters once that disagree, which, which is crazy, you know, this is America, this is we’re the land of the free. That doesn’t even make any sense. You know, why would they be doing this except that there’s deeper political agendas, you know, at play here, I believe. There’s spiritual wickedness in high places and they’re using the FBI as their, as their tool right now, but our sheriff, he is, he’s not standing up and taking the stand that I feel like he should be taking to protect, to protect Jonny. And so it, right now, he’s in a very dangerous, dangerous place and uh, he needs prayers.

Olivia Pollock: He’s my best friend. And we travel all over the place together and he’s very, you know, fun, loving, just everybody loves him. And he’s never been in a fight in his life. And then to me, all those people who are up there, we’re not there to fight, but yet when you have, uh, uh, police force and, uh, a government that’s shutting you down and telling you, no, your voice doesn’t matter anymore. And no, yeah, you’re gonna, I mean, there’s, everybody has a breaking point pretty much. And and I don’t want to get anybody else in trouble, but you know, it wasn’t, nobody was hitting, hit anybody with intent, oh, I want to hurt this person. Kind of, I mean, you got full riot gear. You’re, they know if you hit somebody in an armor or a plate vest, it’s not gonna hurt somebody like you, it, it’s not with an intention to hurt them that bad.

I mean, you know what I mean? And so they have all these guys that they’re like, oh, well, they’re just trying to fight the police and push. I think personally, they were not trying, they were trying to do their best, not to hurt the police, but yet they were going to defend themselves. And when you’re pushed and pushed and pushed, you’re going to snap. And to me looking back on it, and we even said, when we got home, I know for sure we’ve had conversations afterwards and we’ve had good conversations back and forth about how, you know, we have no, it wasn’t like, oh my goodness, I did something wrong. It was more of, that was the least we could have done with stand up and just say that we don’t agree. You know, we don’t want this country taken from us and the values and the, our forefathers gave us and the constitution that has held this country together when it’s being taken away. I mean, the least we could do is stand at a protest.

So yeah, he has, he’s super hilarious and funny. And, but when it comes to serious stuff, he has a passion for this country and, and he knows even our grandparents and great uncles and fought for in the World War I, World War II and Vietnam. And, and he’s had that heritage of, of men who stood up when they saw something wrong. And I don’t think going to one protest is an act of terrorism.

Question: Can you describe Olivia’s relationship with Jonny?

Benjamin Pollock: Yeah. They, they’ve worked together for years. They seem to be closer than, than any of us, you know, as far as the brothers and sisters, there was a lot of us, there was eight. And so, but they had a very cool relationship. They worked very well together. They’re both, both very creative. They were, they, they had the creation gene that I don’t have, because, I, I’m not, I don’t, I’m not an artist in any stretch of the imagination, but they both are that. Jonny, he he’s able to build, build things out of metal and wood, and he has an eye for it. He has an imagination that he can see things, Olivia she can build, she can paint, you know, what she sees around her. She can, and then she can create as well. She’s, she’s a very, very talented young lady and their, their relationship is very special.

Olivia Pollock: We’re a lot alike, we think a lot alike. And, we’re not, we’re not real talkative as far as that, but we enjoy the same experiences. So we love both love traveling and the outdoors. And so we’ve been on all kinds of hiking trips and we biked across Florida and we’ve hiked quite a few mountains together and had backpacking overnight backpacking trips together. And, and we just have, uh, a closeness in that. We don’t have to talk about it all the time, you know, our feelings and all that. But we, we get along, we kind of think the same and we work well together. We’ve done quite a few jobs together and working on projects around the house. And I don’t know, we just, he’s kinda like my best friend. And that’s one thing that it hurts me because they’re trying to make it look so bad.

And I know that isn’t true. Just with my relationship with him and the closeness that we have. I know all these people who have family members that are in prison who have that same closeness that they’re not with either. And I know it hurts them just as bad. That is one thing that I feel like our story does need to get out there just because people need to see these aren’t, we weren’t trying to take over the government. That is one thing that I feel like our story does need to get out there just because people need to see these aren’t. We weren’t trying to take over the government. We weren’t trying to, this wasn’t a planned thing. Like we didn’t even know people got inside the Capitol until after it was over. And no, none of this was planned and it was just a bunch of passionate Americans who went up there that day and, and stood up and from all walks of life and, and now their families are being torn apart and, and their reputation is being smothered and, or, or marred and, and that’s wrong, wasn’t it, wasn’t a fact that we were planning on having anything to do with going against the police officers or anything.

Like I said earlier, we respect them and yeah, they have a job to do, but when it’s going against your First Amendment and beating people for standing somewhere, that’s, that’s wrong.

Question: What can you say about Olivia? Can you say something about her?

Gabriel Pollock: Somebody asked me that the other day and, she’s the second born. I’m the oldest. And so we were very close growing up. We butted heads a lot. She was stubborn. I was stubborn, but we love each other to death, and the Lord has blessed her with amazing talents. She is an amazing lady. She, she’s an amazing, amazing artist, musician, but she loves the Lord, just a servant. She has a servant’s heart. You know, you have a problem. She’s there, she’s going to work. When me and my wife were in the hospital with her, with our first born, she came, she painted the, we had just bought a house and we were still fixing it up to, to actually be able to move in. She came and she, she worked and she painted the whole house for us and helped us move in. The rest of the family did, too.

But, she’s, she pours her heart out to, to help people. And she has a heart for children for, missions. She, she goes overseas, quite often and, and works in orphanages and works in different churches and youth programs, because she has a heart for youth and for, for young people and children. And, and so to see her, dragged through the mud in the media and the, and just to see her on TV, like this is it’s, it’s sad. Because people don’t know who she is. They don’t, they don’t hear the other side of the story. They don’t hear the good things that she’s done. You know, they, they see her as, you know, an insurrectionist or as a, you know, as, you know, a domestic terrorist. And that’s not what she is. She’s a, she’s a patriot, she loves this country. But she’s willing to stand up, you know, for, for justice, for, for her way of life. And that’s, that’s really, what’s being attacked is, as conservatives, you know, we’re being forced fed, a way of life that, doesn’t agree with Christian values, with the way this country was founded, and it’s, it’s saddening his, because you know, she, her, her side of the story needs to be heard, her, her message needs to be heard. And, I feel like that’s very important.

Olivia Pollock: And they’re like, okay, y’all, aren’t a part of a militia or y’all aren’t first, if we are, that’s not a bad thing, which we’re not we’re none of us are in a militia or anything, but they make, they come spin their narrative so much that anybody who’s in a malicious bad, which that’s our Second Amendment right. Is in the Constitution. It says for a well-regulated militia, the right to bear arms. And it boggles my mind how they can turn stuff so fast in that where one thing is good in the Constitution and our country is founded on the concept.

I mean, that’s our law system, but yet now it’s bad. And, and if you see, and that’s why I feel so bad for like anybody who’s an oath keeper or anybody who’s just a three-percenters or, or the Proud Boys. I mean, you’re, if somebody would take the time to read their statements, it’s literally to stand up for the people to protect them and to stand for the Constitution. And you see what they’ve done before. I mean, they’re at pro at rallies and things, handing water to police officers and helping people in their neighborhood. And that’s just what they’re all about. They’re just good people, good American citizens. And we should all be doing that. I think, um, that should not be something that’s frowned upon. And when it comes to the day, when that’s a bad thing, then it just boggles my mind. Like how can we get this far? And, and, so that was one thing. They try to flip it on all these people. And that’s what, it’s not just us. We’re just one of, I mean, I think they had arrested 500 people before they arrested us and that’s, they should be asking, okay, well, why are all these vets? Why are all these ex military firefighters, police officers? Why were they all there that day?

They’re there, there’s a reason that many people from that many walks of life and people who should be respecting, you know, our, our, like our, our authority. Why did they think it was a good idea to be there that day? And it was because we were watching our country being taken away from us and at something we think is worth standing for. And, and like the next day, everybody, I mean, they took the president of the United States and blocked him off social media and blocked it.

I mean, he doesn’t have a voice anymore, but yet he’s the president of our country. That’s just, it showed you how far it’s gone and that’s just wrong. And, and, um, I think God gave us this country and it was founded on principles from the Bible. And, um, as a Christian, I think that, that those principles were given to us, but we’re not going to keep them if we don’t do something to keep them, if you know what I mean, like George Washington, didn’t say, oh, here’s these, here’s this. Um, they just had one, the revolutionary war and they had laid out their law system and they, and I’m sure I couldn’t imagine, but yet we’re going to say, oh, that’s not worth standing up for not even fighting for standing up and protesting against it at least. I mean, I feel like that’s the least we could have done and we’re going to get to heaven and George Washington’s like, well, what’d you do with our country? Like, and all the founding fathers, you have to face them and say, oh, well, it wasn’t worth speaking out. I don’t want to get into politics. I don’t want to stand up for, and that, that boggles my mind, which I can’t say, I can say I’m guilty of that because there was years where I was like, well, they’re going to do what they’re going to do. My voice doesn’t even matter. And I think that’s one way that we got to where we are is because, um, Christians and people with, um, conservative views that want to keep this country moral, have taken a step back and say, well, it’s not really our place. And it’s not really that important. Let’s go do this or let’s go help in this area. No, I mean, God gave us this country, but he’s not just gonna, I have a lot of people say, well, I guess it was God’s will that Joe Biden became president?

No, I think it it’s our punishment for not correcting a problem in our country. And God gives us a, a backbone to stand up and he’s not just going to fix all our problems for us. And a lot of people use that to me, use that as a, as a clutch, like a, a crutch, oh, well, I guess it’s, God’s well know it, God will give you consequences for your actions. And when we sit back and we don’t do anything, and we don’t take that step into running for office and we don’t go to meetings locally and speak out. Yeah, of course, of course our country is going to go downhill. And, and I think it’s almost a punishment on us for not for not doing what we should have been doing years ago.

And we just wait, sit back and wait for somebody else to fix our country for us. And, um, so I think that was that’s where we are now is we need people to stand up and to actually get out of their comfort zone. This is not my comfort zone. I can’t, you know, I don’t even like talking. And, uh, we used to have a bluegrass band and we’d go on stage. And I was like, I’ll play and sing, but I’m not talking. And so my brother would do all the talking and, and stuff and we would just play and sing. And so just, this is huge for me, but, but I think we’re at a point that we have to, we have to get out of our comfort zone. We have to, um, take that step to start letting her voice be heard and start standing up for what we know is right.