The scenes of the outbreak of violence from the US Capitol have burned themselves into American memory. In an investigative committee in the House of Representatives, several police officers are now reporting what they went through in those hours on January 6th.
“Fight man against man” and “medieval battle”: With shocking accounts and sometimes with tears, US police officers described the extent of the violence on January 6th at the first meeting of the House of Representatives’ committee of inquiry into the storming of the Capitol. At the start of the hearings on Tuesday, hair-raising videos of Donald Trump’s supporters’ attacks on members of the Capitol Police were also shown.
The storming of the Capitol had “something of a medieval battle,” said the policeman Aquilino Gonell. “We fought hand to hand, inch by inch, to prevent an invasion of the Capitol.” With tears he added that he had thought at the time: “This is how I will die defending this entrance”. Gonell was beaten and injured by armed raiders while storming the Capitol for several hours.
Police officer on storming the US Capitol: “I could have died, not once, but many times”
He and his colleagues were “beaten, kicked, pushed, sprayed with chemical irritants and blinded with an eye-damaging laser by a violent mob who apparently saw us as an obstacle to their attempted insurrection,” said Gonell, describing his personal experiences to the stunned committee members on January 6th. “I could have died that day, not once, but many times.”
One police officer said he had “gone through hell and back” in defense of Congressmen and the Capitol.
The black Capitol cop Harry Dunn described how he and other African American colleagues were racially insulted by the intruders. Many of the attackers allegedly belonged to ultra-right groups. The rioters used “weapons of all kinds” against the police, including “flagpoles, torn out bicycle stands and various types of projectiles”.
The police officer Michael Fanone reported that he had been insulted by the rioters as a “traitor”. They beat him and knocked him out with a taser and threatened to shoot him with his own service weapon. Fanone suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury that day.
The Democratic Committee chairman Bennie Thompson said in his opening speech that people “invaded this city with clear plans to bring our democracy to a standstill”. There is “evidence of a coordinated, planned attack”. At the same time he assured that the committee would “orientate itself exclusively on the facts”. “There is no room for political views or bias in this investigation,” Thompson said.
A black day in US history
The attack on parliament on January 6th is considered a black day in the history of US democracy. Encouraged by then President Trump, his radical supporters attacked the seat of Congress when the election victory of Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election on November 3 was to be ratified.
Five people were killed in the violence, including a police officer. Dozens of police officers were injured. Two police officers who were involved in the defense of the Capitol took their own lives shortly afterwards.
The ruling party then wanted to set up an independent and cross-party investigative commission to uncover the exact background of the attack. The project failed due to resistance from the Republicans in the Senate. Therefore, the Democrats set up a House of Representatives committee of inquiry, in which they have a clear majority.
Republican MP Liz Cheney, one of the few Trump critics in her party, warned other Republicans Tuesday against “whitewashing” or “covering up” the truth about the attack. If Congress does not act responsibly and raise awareness, “it will remain a cancer in our constitutional republic.” There is a threat of “more violence in the coming months and another January 6 every four years,” she warned. Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are the only Republican MPs on the committee of inquiry.
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