It takes balls of steel, to face a mob practically alone, and shove back it's leader. To have actually been clear headed enough to do it as a distraction tactic in that high adrenaline moment, is the stuff of legends. He definitely deserves whatever awards they can give him. True heroism is not shooting people.
I think there has been way too much armchair second guessing the beleaguered officers on the ground that day, when most of people facing a psychotic mob, would likely have pissed themselves and ran.
The Capital Police Chief is the one that totally f'd this up, but he already resigned...