A memorial plaque honoring the police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 was quietly installed in the early hours of Saturday, almost three years after Congress first ordered its installation.
The large bronze plaque, to “honor the women and men who saved the lives of those inside the building” during the violent insurrection, was put up at around 4 a.m., according to The Washington Post, which was the first outlet to report the news.
It was bolted to a granite wall near an entrance on the west front of the Capitol staff with the Architect of the Capitol close to the site of where the demonstrators had swarmed the building while lawmakers cowered inside almost five years previously.
No media agencies were present and there was no official announcement about the installation.
“On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021,” the plaque says. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”
More than 140 police officers were injured on January 6, after a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in a bid to block his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. Five police officers involved died in the following weeks.
Congress passed a law in 2022 that set out instructions for the honorific plaque listing the names of officers “who responded to the violence that occurred” and gave a one-year deadline for installation, which went unmet.
The delay prompted Democrats to install replicas of it outside their offices and to call on GOP leadership to either erect it or explain why it was missing.
However, anger was expressed on both sides of the aisle, with GOP Senator Thom Tillis leading recent pushes to ensure the plaque was put up, raising the issue on January 6 this year to mark the fifth anniversary of the insurrection.
“We owe them eternal gratitude, and this nation is stronger because of them,” he said of the officers who were overwhelmed by thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters and eventually pushed them out of the building.
The lengthy delay prompted two police officers who were on duty on the day to file a civil lawsuit to “compel Congress to follow its own law and install the mandated memorial.”
Harry Dunn, a former officer of the United States Capitol Police, and Daniel Hodges, who serves in the Metropolitan Police Department, said the plaque was also meant to “ensure that the history of this attack on the Capitol—and on democracy—is not forgotten.”
In a statement shared with Reuters last summer, a lawyer for Dunn and Hodges said Congress’s refusal to install the plaque was “an attempt to rewrite history. So many politicians’ careers now depend on ignoring the fact that Donald Trump tried to overthrow democracy.”
The lawsuit also stated that in the aftermath of the attack, Trump has spread disinformation and conspiracy theories that have been adopted by his Republican allies in Congress.
Dunn told The Post Saturday that he was glad the plaque had finally been installed but that he was still unsure why the process had been so prolonged and difficult.
“I never thought honoring police officers would be this controversial,” he said.
