AFSCME applauds officers who defended Capitol on Jan. 6 for their testimony
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One of them was attacked with a flagpole and sprayed with a chemical.
Another heard someone say, “Kill him with his own gun,” before he was dragged into the crowd, beaten unconscious and repeatedly shocked with his own Taser.
A third was called racial slurs over and over before he was assaulted.
A fourth was crushed in a door, bashed in the head, and nearly lost an eye.
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell; Capitol Police Pfc. Harry Dunn; and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges testified last week about the brutality they suffered at the hands of a mob of rioters while protecting the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The rioters – widely denounced as “domestic terrorists” – had been trying to stop the certification of the presidential election.
The four police officers relived their harrowing experiences of that day while testifying before a select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that is investigating the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
AFSCME is forever grateful to the police officers who so bravely defended our democracy on that day, and we applaud the four officers who testified last week. By helping us sort truth from lies, these four brave officers may already be protecting us from a future threat.
The testimony of Gonell, Dunn, Fanone and Hodges is incredibly important to establish the complete truth of what happened that day and hold everyone involved in this act of terror to account.
Jan. 6 was, as AFSCME President Lee Saunders put it then, “one of the darkest days in American history.” The attack on the Capitol was “insurrection, sedition and terror enabled by the president of the United States.”
AFSCME members across the nation also honor the dedication and courage of those who work at the U.S. Capitol as employees of the Architect of the Capitol and are part of AFSCME Local 626 (District Council 20).
These workers lived through the violence and destruction of Jan. 6, and after order was restored, returned to their jobs of cleaning and repairing the U.S. Capitol. They were instrumental in getting the Capitol ready for the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.