As numerous prominent Republicans continue their attempts to block investigative efforts looking into the January Capitol riot, Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn — who helped defend the Capitol amid the violence in January — has once again spoken out. Dunn was one of four officers who spoke at the first public hearing of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, where the witnesses who were present shared their firsthand experiences of the deadly violence. Now, Dunn said on Twitter in recent days that he wanted to thank those working to lay out the facts of the January riot.
As Dunn put it:
‘Sending a big thank you and shoutout to everyone determined to reveal the TRUTH about what really happened on January 6th. And an even bigger ______ YOU!!!! to everyone determined to keep it covered up…. #NeverForgetJanuary6th’
Sending a big thank you and shoutout to everyone determined to reveal the TRUTH about what really happened on January 6th. And an even bigger ______ YOU!!!! to everyone determined to keep it covered up….#NeverForgetJanuary6th
— Harry A Dunn (@libradunn) September 1, 2021
At that previous hearing of the riot investigation committee, Dunn shared how members of the mob at the Capitol in January had hurled violent, racist abuse at non-white officers. Dunn commented in part as follows:
‘In the days following the attempted insurrection, other Black officers shared with me their own stories of racial abuse on January 6. One officer told me had never, in his entire 40 years of life, been called a “n*gger” to his face, and that streak ended on January 6. Yet another Black officer later told me, he had been confronted by insurrectionists in the Capitol who told him, “Put your gun down, and we’ll show you what kind of n*gger you really are.”‘
After the hearing, Fox News host Laura Ingraham handed out mock awards on her show for what she called a “performance” by those participating in the hearing where Dunn made these troubling revelations. In other words, prominent conservatives — no matter their longtime insistence on backing “the blue”! — are continuing to gloss over the basic reality of what occurred on January 6. At the Capitol that day, a mob of the then-president’s supporters stormed the premises, seeking at least in part to injure and even kill top government leaders, while in the process violently assaulting scores of police officers who were present. This is the grim reality.
