Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman pays his respects to the late U.S. Capitol Police officer William “Billy” Evans as he lies in honor within the Rotunda on the U.S. Capitol on April 13, 2021, in Washington, D.C. | Supply: Drew Angerer / Getty
UPDATED: 9:00 a.m. ET, Jan. 6, 2025
4 years in the past on Jan. 6, 2021, a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in what was probably the most jaw-dropping moments in U.S. historical past.
America stood nonetheless that day.
MORE: The Racist Legacy Of January sixth
Of us had been glued to the tv display for hours as they watched supporters of Donald Trump — who nonetheless refuses to just accept his 2020 election loss — brutally assault Capitol cops, break home windows and doorways to breach the Capitol constructing, and even name for the hanging of political officers, together with Trump’s personal vice chairman, Mike Pence, for certifying Joe Biden’s election. It was actually a terrifying sight to witness.
The so-called “Cease the Steal” rally the place Trump known as on his supporters to “struggle” the election from being licensed was based mostly on “the massive lie” that nonexistent voter fraud performed a task in Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. The violent rebellion left 5 folks lifeless and a whole bunch injured.
However, even with the destruction and racist terror, a handful of Black folks emerged as heroes among the many courageous People who stood as much as the bigoted mob.
Capitol Police Pfc. Harry Dunn
Now-former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn was additionally on the entrance traces through the Capitol assault. He was amongst 4 cops who testified earlier than the Home Choose Committee investigating the assaults. Throughout his emotional testimony, he recalled his expertise responding to the Capitol rioters. He described it as being largely racist. He testified that “nobody had ever, ever known as me ni**er whereas sporting the uniform of a Capitol Police Officer” till Jan. 6.
Dunn testified that the expertise compelled him to drag apart one other Black officer with the U.S. Capitol Police in disbelief.
“I sat down on a bench within the rotunda with a buddy of mine who can also be a black Capitol police officer and instructed him in regards to the racial slurs I endured,” Dunn stated. “I grew to become very emotional and started yelling, ‘how the clean might one thing like this occur. Is that this America?’”
Dunn summed all of it up neatly: “It was simply so overwhelming and so disheartening and disappointing that we stay in a rustic with folks like that.”
Dunn’s testimony gave us a front-row seat into the minds of the protesters. With out him, we wouldn’t have a dependable first-hand account of the visceral racism that befell through the revolt.
After retiring from the Capitol Police pressure, Dunn – whom Biden awarded with the Presidential Residents Medal, the second-highest honor the federal government awards – launched a bid for Congress that fell brief this previous November. He wrote on social media that he was “operating for Congress to cease Trump’s MAGA extremists & guarantee it by no means occurs once more.”
On Monday, marking the fourth anniversary of the Capitol riots, Dunn hammered dwelling that time once more.
“January sixth was a daunting wake-up name that our democracy, the factor we maintain so treasured, may be taken from us if we don’t shield it. As a result of my fellow officers and I stood our floor on that darkish day, our democracy remains to be standing,” Dunn stated in an announcement despatched to NewsOne. “We now have extra work to do, and we should recommit as a rustic to defending the sanctity of our democracy within the coming years. The American folks should name on their elected representatives to publicly oppose pardons for those that attacked the Capitol in 2021. Historical past will replicate precisely on Trump’s actions main as much as the assault, the occasions on the day itself, and the aftermath of that darkish day. The large sacrifice made by legislation enforcement in protection of American democracy won’t ever be forgotten.”
Capitol Police Officer Lt. Michael Byrd
Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd was put in one of many hardest positions of anybody simply making an attempt to do their job on Jan 6. 2021. When the indignant mob of white Trump supporters tried to interrupt right into a sealed-off a part of the Capitol constructing, Byrd was the primary line of protection. His job was to guard elected officers and that’s precisely what he did, taking pictures a member of that mob named Ashli Babbitt because the 36-year-old Air Power veteran tried to get via a barricaded door.
In an interview with NBC Information, Byrd defined to Lester Holt that he and some different officers arrange furnishings to dam the door to the room the place 60 to 80 Home members had been being stored protected from the pack of untamed MAGA lovers who had been attacking the Capitol.
“As soon as we barricaded the doorways, we had been primarily trapped the place we had been,” Byrd stated. “There was no option to retreat. No different option to get out. In the event that they get via that door, they’re into the Home chamber and upon the members of Congress.”
Byrd stated he shouted at rioters a number of instances for them to again away from the glass door they had been smashing to get into the barricaded space, and that’s when Babbitt tried to climb via one of many doorways leading to Byrd taking pictures her.
“I attempted to attend so long as I might,” he instructed Holt. “I hoped and prayed nobody tried to enter via these doorways. However their failure to conform required me to take the suitable motion to save lots of the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.”
Video footage posted on social media exhibits Babbitt’s closing moments alive as she is seen sporting a Trump flag round her neck like a cape and yelling “Go! Go!” as two males carry her up and thru the door’s damaged glass.
Trump would later consult with Byrd as a “thug” and Babbitt’s mom known as him “reckless” and claimed he “murdered” her daughter.
Ruby Freeman & Shaye Moss
The mother-daughter duo of Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss testified earlier than the Jan. 6 committee, detailing the harassment and concentrating on that started between the 2020 basic election and the 2021 Georgia Senate runoff election.
Throughout her video testimony, Freeman shared the horror of getting the president use his platform and energy to assault her by title. Each mom and daughter described fearing for his or her security. Earlier experiences documented numerous threats of violence, with no legislation enforcement company intervening to guard them within the months after the election.
Moss shared that when she found hateful messages on social media, her mom stated she was fortunate it was 2020 as an alternative of 1920.
Three years later, Trump and his RICO co-defendant cronies are nonetheless harassing Freeman and Moss, who had been lately on the receiving finish of a whopping $148 million judgment in opposition to former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for defaming the mom and daughter.
Individually, prosecutors in Trump’s fraud trial, which is ready to start in New York Metropolis in March, submitted a submitting final month accusing the ex-president of subjecting Freeman and Moss to “vile and racist” threats from his supporters by calling the 2 Black ladies “monsters” who stole the election from him by utilizing suitcases of ballots so as to add votes for President Joe Biden, which they didn’t do. The submitting additionally accused Trump of doubling down on his nonsense after Freeman and Moss’ Jan. 6 committee testimony.
Trevian Kutti—the lengthy Black lady accused in Trump’s RICO indictment of harassing Freeman and Moss—has gave the impression to be making veiled threats directed on the former election employees.
It has beforehand been reported that Trump used his social media platform to randomly resume his one-sided beef.
Freeman and Moss’ testimony gave an inside have a look at the harassment tradition that Trump continuously used to get his method.
Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman
When the indignant mob entered the capitol, there didn’t appear to be a lot resistance within the type of safety or police. However amid the craziness was Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman. This one-man military was in a position to single-handedly struggle again and lure the home terrorists storming the Capitol towards backup with out resorting to deadly pressure. The feat was completely wonderful!
Goodman, who was solely wielding a baton regardless of being armed with a service weapon, at instances pushed the indignant mob again earlier than retreating up some stairs. At the very least one one who gave the impression to be main the mob was sporting a shirt emblazoned by QAnon, a gaggle of conspiracy theorists who’ve repeated Trump‘s baseless claims of election fraud.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, was chairman of the Choose Committee to Examine the January sixth Assault on the U.S. Capitol, led the bipartisan panel with distinction in an effort to dole out some semblance of accountability for the unprecedented political violence 4 years in the past.
He and the remainder of the Jan. 6 Committee delivered a stern rebuke of Trump in a report saying the group’s findings.
“If we’re to outlive as a nation of legal guidelines and democracy, this could by no means occur once more,” Thompson stated in December 2022. “Past our findings, we may also present that proof we’ve gathered factors to additional motion past the ability of this committee or the Congress to assist guarantee accountability on the legislation. Accountability that may solely be discovered within the prison justice system.”
From their evaluation of all of the obtainable proof and testimony, Thompson and the committee advisable 4 costs in opposition to Trump:
- Obstruction of an Official Continuing
- Conspiracy to Defraud the US
- Conspiracy to Make a False Assertion
- and “Incite,” “Help” or “Support and Consolation” an Rebellion.
Months later, a grand jury indicted Trump on allegations he mishandled labeled paperwork and tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election — an indictment that may be credited partly to the work achieved by Thompson and the Jan. 6 Committee.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Home Choose Committee to Examine the January sixth Assault on the U.S. Capitol, delivers opening remarks through video within the Cannon Home Workplace Constructing on July 21, 2022, in Washington, D.C. | Supply: Tasos Katopodis / Getty
With out the bravery of those positive women and men, we wouldn’t have the perception to know how tragic the Jan. 6 revolt actually was. Let’s come collectively and provides these nice heroes and heroines an enormous thanks for standing up within the face of violence, racism and bigotry.
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