When I mirror on what occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, Sick admit that at occasions I’ve requested myself, What’s the level? Im out right here battling within the media, speaking with individuals at occasions across the nation about what the Capitol and DC Metropolitan Police and I skilled on January sixth, and I generally assume, Why am I doing this?
A whole bunch of the individuals who attacked us on January sixth are in jail. However for me and the opposite officers that had been on the scene, thats not sufficient. Like I mentioned once I testified earlier than the January sixth Committee, If a hitman is employed, and he kills any individual, the hitman goes to jail. However not solely does the hitman go to jail, the one that employed them does. There was an assault carried out on January sixth, and a hitman despatched them.
The hitman was Donald Trump, and he must reply for his crime.
However after greater than 800 days, after officers Michael Fanone, Aquilino Gonell, Daniel Hodges, and I testified, after scores of extra witnesses, together with dozens of Republicans and individuals who labored for Donald Trump testified earlier than the committee and hundreds of pages of paperwork had been launched to indicate that Donald Trump was accountable for what occurred that day, hes nonetheless on the market. Not solely is he on the market; he’s operating for president whilst he faces the opportunity of going to jail below a federal indictment for crimes in opposition to the USA. And that pisses me off.
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At his marketing campaign rallies, Trump has hundreds of Individuals standing, cheering, wearing Trump paraphernalia, waving Trump flags, and giving him, a person who claims to be a billionaire, cash. What makes it even worse is that, at some rallies, he has performed a recording of the January sixth insurgents singing our nationwide anthem. These are people who find themselves nonetheless behind bars for what they did, and they’re celebrated at these rallies.
It may be fairly rattling disheartening. However then I look within the mirror, and I say to myself, Harry. Cease it! Cease that hopelessness! That is nothing new. It has at all times been this fashion. You like this nation and what it has turn out to be, but it surely has been this fashion from the very starting.
When this nation was created with the phrases All males are created equal, the founding fathers weren’t referring to me. They had been speaking a couple of handful of white males who owned land. They weren’t referring to ladies, immigrants, the Indigenous inhabitants, Black individuals, the LGBTQ group, and even to most white males (who didnt personal land).
The Declaration of Independence and the Structure werent designed with us in thoughts. The social world that the majority of us inhabit in America as we speak, the rights that we train each day, have been created and fought for over a long time. We’ve these rights as a result of we pushed and fought and died and suffered to get them, step-by-step, tragedy by tragedy, defeat by defeat, and victory by victory.
The 40-hour workweek, the minimal wage, meals that doesnt kill us, medicine that dont kill us, restrictions on baby labor, authorities necessities to maintain us secure on our jobs, entry for individuals with disabilities, the assure of unpolluted water, well being take care of the aged, well being take care of the poor, guidelines for safer vehicles, guidelines for safer houses. At one level, none of this existed. In reality, not way back, we lived in a rustic through which women and men had been denied employment and entry into eating places, restrooms, public transportation, film theaters, motels, public colleges, the nations schools and universities, and academic establishments they supported with their tax cash due to the colour of their pores and skin or their faith.
The America we stay in as we speak shouldn’t be the America we inherited from our founders. Its the one we constructed by voting, by protesting, by agitating, by demanding, by being arrested, by stepping into some good hassle, obligatory hassle, as civil rights icon, former member of Congress, and my hero, John Lewis, would say.
We bought these rights by combating, not on some faraway battlefield however proper right here at dwelling.
In my anger and my grief over what occurred on January sixth, I’ve, at occasions, forgotten that essential lesson that Individuals train me day-after-day as I stand my put up on the Capitol. Guaranteeing and defending our rights is steady. Making this nation higher for all of us by no means ends. We struggle not for in the future. however for day-after-day.
Sadly, too many people forgot that essential lesson, and we took our eyes off the ball in 2016 and allowed Donald Trump to be electedDonald Trump and all the pieces that got here with him, together with a resurgence in overt racism and neo-Nazism, and the appointment of three far-right justices who eradicated federal safety for womens reproductive rights and affirmative motion, amongst different life-changing laws.
The lesson for me, and I believe for all Individuals who wish to shield their freedoms, is to be diligent, to be steadfast. We can’t falter. We can’t flinch. We should honor our heroes and sheroes who created the America we stay in by persevering with their work.
So once I take into consideration Trump and his insanity nowadays, I dont really feel despair. I’m fired up. I’m dedicated to placing him in jail and combating off all of the minions who carry his toxic, harmful message.
A part of my inspiration is the women and men I fought with on January sixth. They by no means backed down. I keep in mind how, whereas we had been combating in opposition to the insurrectionists, generally the pepper and bear spray can be an excessive amount of, so officers would come inside and clear their eyes with water. However as quickly as they bought a second breath, they rushed again to the entrance. They by no means stopped. They by no means stop.
I promise I’ll do the identical. I’ll at all times be standing my floor.
Tailored with permission from STANDING MY GROUND: A Capitol Police Officer’s Struggle for Accountability and Good Hassle After January sixth. Copyright 2023. Out there from Hachette Books, an imprint of Hachette E-book Group, Inc.